Andrew Owens

Winner of the Zarzuela Prize at the 2015 Francisco Viñas International Singing Competition, American tenor Andrew Owens has quickly built a reputation as one of the most promising singers of his generation, exhibiting a beautiful Italianate timbre, soaring top notes, and effortless agility.

In the 2014-2015 season, Andrew Owens returns to the Theater an der Wien main stage as Chevalier Léon in Milhaud’s La Mère coupable. He will also debut at Theater Magdeburg as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Camille de Rosillion in Die lustige Witwe. The operatic season concludes with his professional lead debut in the US as Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola with Opera Saratoga and Greensboro Opera. On the concert stage, highlights include the tenor soloist in The Genius of Mozart at the National Concert Hall, Dublin with the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra.

The 2013-2014 season was Andrew Owens’ final season as a member of the Junges Ensemble at the Theater an der Wien, where he performed Don Ramiro, Tito in La clemenza di Tito (Kammeroper), Scitalce in Vinci’s Semiramide, Gastone in La Traviata, and Barbarigo in I due Foscari opposite Plácido Domingo. In concert at the Theater an der Wien, he appeared as Giove in Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo, a rarely performed cantata by Rossini, opposite Lawrence Brownlee, as well as performed the tenor solos in Bach’s Mass in B minor at the Hofburgkapelle.

Operatic highlights of previous seasons at the Theater an der Wien include Rodolfo in La bohème, Edoardo Milfort in La cambiale di matrimonio, Venditore di canzonette in Il Trittico, Der Pfeifer des Grafen in Mathis der Maler, Gérard in Le comte Ory, Erster Gefangener in Fidelio, and Uldino in Attila. At the Bayerische Staatsoper as part of the Opernstudio, the artist appeared as Wilhelm in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Sigurd in Sigurd der Drachentöter, and Mücke/Hahn/Specht in Das schlaue Füchslein. He has also performed as Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Leon in Pasatieri’s Signor Deluso and Pluto in Orpheus in the Underworld at Central City Opera, as well as Borsa in Rigoletto at Virginia Opera. Role studies include Tebaldo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Elvino in La sonnambula, Tonio in La fille du Régiment, Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Pêcheur in Guillaume Tell, Lindoro in L’italiana in Algeri, Ein Sänger in Der Rosenkavalier, Fenton in Falstaff, and Cassio in Otello.

Concert and symphonic engagements of past seasons include the tenor soloist in Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with the Cleveland Orchestra, Lukas in Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten, and First Japanese Envoy in Le Rossignol at the Salzburg Festival, as well as appearances in a Rossini gala concert at the Munich Opera Festival. He has also performed Don Ottavio in a concert version of Don Giovanni with the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria with The Annapolis Chorale, as well as appearances with the Greensboro Symphony and Greensboro Oratorio Society. He made his New York City recital debut with the New York Festival of Song in a program entitled Spanish Gold: Songs of the Iberian Peninsula at Merkin Hall.

Andrew Owens has had the opportunity to collaborate with some of the world’s most prestigious conductors and directors including James Conlon, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bertrand de Billy, Franz Welser-Möst, Ari Pelto, Martin André, Alan Curtis, Christopher Larkin, George Manahan, Sian Edwards, Riccardo Frizza, Herbert Föttinger, Moshé Leiser, Patrice Caurier, Peter Konwitschny, Richard Jones, Lotte de Beer, Damiano Michieletto, Keith Warner, David Bösch, and Alberto Triola.

Andrew Owens is an award recipient from the Marilyn Horne Foundation and the George London Foundation, won 3rd place from the Gerda Lissner Foundation, 1st place and honors at the Mario Lanza Competition for Tenors in New York City and Philadelphia, respectively, and is the recipient of the Iris Henwood Richards Apprentice Artist Award at Central City Opera. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he appeared as Laurie in Little Women and the Maryland Opera Studio, where he sang Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore and as A Man with Old Luggage in Postcard from Morocco. Other programs include the Salzburg Festival Young Singers Project and Music Academy of the West Voice Program. A citizen of both the United States and Ireland, Andrew was born in Philadelphia and currently resides in Vienna.

In his free time, Andrew is an avid yoga enthusiast and also enjoys cooking, songwriting, and supporting his Philadelphia sports teams.