Nathan Gunn

Nathan Gunn, the popular baritone, has taken on an extensive range of operatic parts across multiple languages, encompassing Figaro from The Barber of Seville, Marcello from La bohème, Paul in Daron Hagen’s Amelia during its May 2010 world premiere, and Riolobo in Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas. He has furthermore performed Lancelot in Lerner and Loewe’s Broadway staple Camelot while featuring on the successful 2007 Sony Classical crossover album Just Before Sunrise. Observers frequently remark that Gunn’s widespread appeal stems not solely from his rich and powerful baritone and wide-ranging repertory, since crowds of devoted fans also praise his striking appearance and magnetic stage charisma. He has performed more than 100 times at the Met and at nearly every other leading American opera company, while taking the stage abroad at Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, and the Bavarian State Opera; concert and recital engagements have likewise formed a steady part of his schedule. A 2020 recording of Ricky Ian Gordon’s chamber opera Ellen West captured one such appearance.

Born in South Bend, Indiana, in 1970, Gunn pursued music studies at the University of Illinois with William Miller and John Wustman. During the 1990s he collected numerous prizes, among them the Collegiate MacAllister Award in 1993, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition in 1994, and the Marian Anderson Award in 1996. By the close of the decade he had established himself as a significant figure on the vocal landscape, appearing twice at Carnegie Hall under Robert Shaw—in Brahms’ German Requiem and again in Haydn’s The Creation—while also contributing to the conductor’s Grammy-winning 1998 Telarc recording of Bartók’s Cantata profana paired with Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem.

Gunn portrayed Andrei in Prokofiev’s War and Peace at the Paris Opera in 2000, a performance preserved on an Arthaus Musik DVD that earned widespread praise. His Covent Garden debut followed in 2002 when he sang Harlekin in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos. Since 2007 he has held a professorship in voice at the University of Illinois, and since 2013 he has co-directed Lyric Theatre @ Illinois alongside his wife, pianist Julie Gunn; the couple also founded the Shot in the Dark production company. At the 2008 Glyndebourne Festival he took the role of Father Delura in Peter Eötvös’ Love and Other Demons, later released on the Glyndebourne label in 2013. That same year he received a Grammy for the title role in Britten’s Billy Budd. Also in 2009 he released the EMI collection American Anthem, featuring songs by Barber, Bolcom, Copland, and additional composers. He created the central character in the 2015 world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain at Santa Fe Opera, a production issued by PentaTone Classics in 2016. In 2018 Gunn gave the first performance of Hershey Felder’s one-man show Flying Solo, drawn from his own life and family background. In 2020 he was heard on a recording of Ricky Ian Gordon’s 2019 chamber opera Ellen West on the Bright Shiny Things label.