Biography
American tenor Karim Sulayman has developed an international profile in opera and orchestral settings, with a particular focus on Baroque repertoire, after launching his performing life during childhood. In addition to his vocal work, Sulayman has drawn notice for public positions on social issues outside the musical sphere. Born in Chicago on September 10, 1976, to parents of Lebanese-American heritage, he started violin lessons at age three and performed for several years as a boy alto in the Chicago Children's Choir. Conductors Georg Solti and Leonard Slatkin each selected him for solo appearances with their orchestras—the Chicago Symphony and the St. Louis Symphony, respectively.
At the Eastman School of Music in Rochester he first encountered early music through classes with lutenist and conductor Paul O'Dette. He later completed a master's degree at Rice University and continued his training in Paris under tenor and countertenor Howard Crook. His studies also encompassed improvisation techniques at the center run by Chicago's Second City comedy ensemble.
Sulayman has appeared with the National Symphony in Handel's Messiah at the Kennedy Center in Washington and has traveled across the United States with the period-instrument group Apollo's Fire. In Australia he took the role of Testo in Monteverdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. At the Drottningholm Slottsteater he portrayed Claudio Monteverdi himself in the world premiere of Syskonen i Mantua (Sisters in Mantua), a contemporary opera set in seventeenth-century Italy that incorporates music by Monteverdi and Salomone Rossi.
He has also taken part in new-music projects, originating the character of Albert in Laura Kaminsky's Some Light Emerges at Houston Grand Opera in 2017. Additional world premieres have placed him at Carnegie Hall and the Aspen Music Festival. Ensemble contributions include Naxos recordings of works by André Grétry and François-André Danican Philidor as well as Apollo's Fire's Sephardic Journey. In 2018 he issued his first solo album, Songs of Orpheus, a set of Monteverdi arias recorded with Apollo's Fire.
Ten days after Donald Trump's election as U.S. president, Sulayman positioned himself outside the Trump International Hotel in New York City holding a handwritten sign whose text read:
"Hello, my name is Karim and I am Arab-American. Like many people who are Black, brown, women, LGBTQIA, Latinix, Muslim, Jewish, immigrants and Other, I am very scared. We are anxious and uneasy in our own country and it's difficult to see what lies ahead for us. But, I have hope that I am safe with you. Together, we can build a community of caring, rather than one of fear. You can trust me to care for you no matter who you are, what you look like, or where you are from. Will you embrace me as willingly as I embrace you? Will you shake my hand and/or hug me and/or take a photo with me and post it as a sign that I am safe here with you? I trust you."
At the Eastman School of Music in Rochester he first encountered early music through classes with lutenist and conductor Paul O'Dette. He later completed a master's degree at Rice University and continued his training in Paris under tenor and countertenor Howard Crook. His studies also encompassed improvisation techniques at the center run by Chicago's Second City comedy ensemble.
Sulayman has appeared with the National Symphony in Handel's Messiah at the Kennedy Center in Washington and has traveled across the United States with the period-instrument group Apollo's Fire. In Australia he took the role of Testo in Monteverdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. At the Drottningholm Slottsteater he portrayed Claudio Monteverdi himself in the world premiere of Syskonen i Mantua (Sisters in Mantua), a contemporary opera set in seventeenth-century Italy that incorporates music by Monteverdi and Salomone Rossi.
He has also taken part in new-music projects, originating the character of Albert in Laura Kaminsky's Some Light Emerges at Houston Grand Opera in 2017. Additional world premieres have placed him at Carnegie Hall and the Aspen Music Festival. Ensemble contributions include Naxos recordings of works by André Grétry and François-André Danican Philidor as well as Apollo's Fire's Sephardic Journey. In 2018 he issued his first solo album, Songs of Orpheus, a set of Monteverdi arias recorded with Apollo's Fire.
Ten days after Donald Trump's election as U.S. president, Sulayman positioned himself outside the Trump International Hotel in New York City holding a handwritten sign whose text read:
"Hello, my name is Karim and I am Arab-American. Like many people who are Black, brown, women, LGBTQIA, Latinix, Muslim, Jewish, immigrants and Other, I am very scared. We are anxious and uneasy in our own country and it's difficult to see what lies ahead for us. But, I have hope that I am safe with you. Together, we can build a community of caring, rather than one of fear. You can trust me to care for you no matter who you are, what you look like, or where you are from. Will you embrace me as willingly as I embrace you? Will you shake my hand and/or hug me and/or take a photo with me and post it as a sign that I am safe here with you? I trust you."
Albums
Hahn: Piano Quintet, Songs, Piano Quartet
2025
Hahn: La Barcheta (arranged for Tenor & Piano Quinet by Tom Poster)
2025
Hahn: À Chloris (arranged for Tenor & String Quartet by Tom Poster)
2025
Where Only Stars Can Hear Us: Schubert Songs
2020
Songs of Orpheus
2018
Singles
