Hans Tashjian, a bass-baritone whose voice has been described as “rumbling and sumptuously lush,” and “hauntingly striking,” continues to expand his repertoire with opera companies throughout the country. In the 2023-2024 season Mr. Tashjian joins Opera Essentia as the title role in Handel’s Imeneo, Teatro Nuovo as Callistene in Donizetti’s Poliuto, Salt Marsh Opera as le Fauteuil and L’Arbre in L’enfant et les sortilèges, Harlem Stage as a featured trio member in the new opera The Swann, and Opera Essentia as Hercules in Handel’s Admeto. On the concert stage, he premiers John Sichel’s formidable song cycle Paradoxides, joins Queens Symphony Orchestra as soloist in a concert of opera arias and duets, Connecticut Choral Society as bass soloist in the Monteverdi Vespers, the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival where he was praised for his “luminous” and “otherworldly” performance of excerpts from Silvestrov’s Stille Lieder, and American Opera Projects for the First Glimpse concert, the culmination of the first year of the Composers & the Voice program of which Hans is a singer-in-residence.
During the 2022-2023 season, Mr. Tashjian was slated to rejoin Teatro Nuovo in the title role of Rossini’s Maometto II(COVID19) and returned to the Metropolitan Opera, covering Flemish Deputy 2 in Don Carlo and making his house debut as Count Ceprano in Rigoletto. He also joined Opera Baltimore as Méphistophélès in Faust. During the 2021-2022 season, he joined Teatro Nuovo as the title role in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Bartolo in The Barber of Seville and Paul in their original holiday show Once Upon a Winter, Houston Grand Opera as Billy in the world premiere of The Snowy Day, the Metropolitan Opera as the cover of Député Flamand 2 in Don Carlos and cover of Pit Singer bass 1 and 2 in Brett Dean’s Hamlet, and Opera Praktikos as Zoroastro in Handel’s Orlando.
During the 2019-2020 season, Mr. Tashjian sang the title role in Aleko and el Capitán in Florencia en el Amazonas with Yale Opera, debuted at the Charleston Symphony as the bass soloist in the Messiah, and debuted the role of Enrico in Anna Bolena with Baltimore Concert Opera. In the summer of 2020, Mr. Tashjian was slated to return to Teatro Nuovo in the title role of Rossini’s Maometto II (COVID19 – postponed to summer 2022) and in the fall of 2020 he was set to make his Houston Grand Opera debut as Billy in the world premiere of The Snowy Day (COVID19 – postponed to fall 2021). In the spring of 2021, Mr. Tashjian returned to Sarasota Opera to perform the roles of Batone in L’inganno felice, Uberto in La serva padrona, and Gaudenzio in Il signor Bruschino.
In his 2018–2019 season, Mr. Tashjian sang the role of Gremin in Eugene Onegin, Mr. Holland / Mr. Cave in Eucalyptus (Sir Jonathan Mills), and the Emperor in Le Rossignol at the Yale School of Music, joined the American Lyric Theater for a workshop of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant (Meier / Lewis), and in the summer of 2019, Mr. Tashjian joined American Opera Projects for The Stonewall Operas as Mark/Igor and Teatro Nuovo to sing the role of Podestà in Rossini’s La gazza ladra.
Mr. Tashjian’s 2017–2018 season included two joint roles as Melchtal in Guillaume Tell, with both Baltimore Concert Opera and Opera Southwest, and Betto di Signa in a double bill of Gianni Schicchi and Buoso’s Ghost with Baltimore Concert Opera and OperaDelaware. In the summer of 2018, he performed Second Armored Man and covered Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte with Central City Opera. During the 2016–2017 season, Mr. Tashjian joined St. Petersburg Opera (Florida) to cover Ferrando in Il trovatore and to perform Luther and Crespel in Les contes d’Hoffmann, and returned to Sarasota Opera to perform the Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly and both the 2nd Commissioner and 1st Officer in Dialogues des Carmélites, as well as cover the principal role of Mustafà in the company premiere of L’italiana in Algeri. He also developed and performed the role of Donald in the New York workshop of Julian Grant and Mark Campbell’s The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare, a new opera which served as a collaborative effort between Boston Lyric Opera and Music Theatre Group.
Mr. Tashjian has also appeared as Dr. Grenvil in La traviata and the title role of The Mikado with Chautauqua Opera, Second Prisoner in Fidelio and Second Boyar in The Golden Cockerel with Sarasota Opera, as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at Carnegie Hall with Manhattan Opera Studio, and as Biterolf in Tannhäuser with Apotheosis Opera. As a Young Artist with the Caramoor Music Festival, Mr. Tashjian performed Gazella in Lucrezia Borgia and the Usciere in Rigoletto. Further operatic credits include the Verdian roles of Banco in Macbeth and Wurm in Luisa Miller, the Strauss roles of Baron Ochs in Chautauqua Music Festival’s production of Der Rosenkavalier and Truffaldin in dell’Arte Opera Ensemble’s Ariadne auf Naxos, Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Méphistophélès in Faust, Daland in Der fliegende Holländer, and King René in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta.
A frequent concert soloist, Mr. Tashjian has appeared as featured soloist with the Queens Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Nexus/Connecticut Choral Society, The Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival, Charleston Symphony, Jackson Symphony, Chelsea Symphony, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Bach Chorus of Pittsburgh, the Bach Music Festival of Canada, the Canadian Chamber Orchestra of NYC, in concert at New York University’s La Maison Française, and as basso profondo and soloist with the New Jersey Conservatory’s performance of the Rachmaninoff Vespers. In the spring of 2017 he performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Canadian Chamber Orchestra of New York City at the Recital Hall of SUNY Purchase, and in the Spring of 2019, he reprised the role with the Jackson Symphony.
Mr. Tashjian is an alumnus of the Yale School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and Carnegie Mellon University.
June 2024
