CARMINA BURANA

Lauded by The New York Times as a “terrific singer” with a “deep, rich timbre,” Sidney Outlaw is an “opera powerhouse” who has delighted audiences in the U.S. and abroad with his “weighty and forthright” sound (San Francisco Chronicle) since 2010 when he exploded onto the international scene after winning Grand Prize at the Concurso Internacional de Canto Montserrat Caballe.

This season, Mr. Outlaw will sing Marcello in La bohème with Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with Toledo Opera, and the title role in Don Giovanni with Boston Baroque, and he will appear in concert with Opera Memphis, American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Jacksonville Symphony, the Oratorio Society of New York, and Nashville Symphony. In recent seasons, Mr. Outlaw sang Schaunard in La bohème with Greensboro Opera, Dizzy Gillespie in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird with New Orleans Opera, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Omaha, Salieri in Mozart and Salieri with Opera San Jose, Jake in Porgy and Bess with Greensboro Opera, and Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Pensacola Opera and Opera Saratoga. He made his San Francisco Opera début as the First Mate in Billy Budd, he sang Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony, and Tommy McIntyre in Fellow Travelers with Madison Opera. On the concert platform, he made his début with Boston Baroque as soloist in Handel’s Messiah, returned to Oratorio Society New York as soloist in Bach’s B Minor Mass, and joined Youngstown Symphony Orchestra for Mahler’s Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen.

In previous seasons, Mr. Outlaw sang Dizzy Gillespie in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird with both Atlanta Opera and Arizona Opera, returned to the Baltimore Symphony as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah and Minnesota Opera for the world premiere of The Fix, sang Fauré’s Requiem at Augustana College, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem at Cornell University, and made his début with Mill City Summer Opera as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte.

Mr. Outlaw has been a featured recitalist with Warren Jones at Carnegie Hall and performed Elijah with the New York Choral Society. He traveled to Guinea as an Arts Envoy with the U.S. State Department, where he performed a program of American music in honor of Black History Month and in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King. Mr. Outlaw made his English National Opera début in the 2011-12 season as Rambo in The Death of Klinghoffer, the show with which he joined the Metropolitan Opera roster in 2014-15. Recent engagements include Tommy in Fellow Travelers with Minnesota Opera, Frank Lloyd Wright in Shining Brow with UrbanArias, Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with Madison Opera, Dandini in La Cenerentola with Greensboro Opera, Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Oratorio Society of New York, his Spoleto Festival début as Jake in Porgy and Bess, Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero with the New York Philharmonic, Schaunard in La bohème with the Ash Lawn Festival, and Guglielmo in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte with North Carolina Opera. Other roles include Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Atlanta Opera, the title role in Moses with the American Symphony Orchestra, the title role in X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X at New York City Opera, Prince Yamadori in Madame Butterfly at Opera on the James, Ariodante in Handel’s Xerxes and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the International Vocal Arts Institute, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and his international début as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, in both Germany and Israel.

A sought-after concert singer and recitalist, Mr. Outlaw made his Schwabacher Recital début at the San Francisco Opera center with pianist John Churchwell and collaborates regularly with renowned pianists Warren Jones, Carol Wong, Steven Blier, and Michael Barrett. His concert and recital appearances include débuts of renowned works at major concert halls: Haydn’s The Creation and Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Avery Fisher Hall, Mahler’s Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen with Music Academy of the West and “Wednesday At One” at Alice Tully Hall, John Stevens in the world premiere concert of H. Leslie Adam’s opera Blake at the prestigious Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, and the world premiere of Wayne Oquin’s A Time to Break Silence: Songs inspired by the Words and Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr., commissioned by The Juilliard School.

Originally from Brevard, North Carolina, Mr. Outlaw is a graduate of the Merola Opera Program and the Gerdine Young Artist Program at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Mr. Outlaw won 2nd Prize in the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation’s International Competition, 2nd Prize in the 2011 Gerda Lissner Foundation Awards, National Semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, semifinalist in the Francisco Viñas International Singing Competition, finalist in both Concours International Musical de Montreal and George London Foundation, and grand prize in the Florida Grand Opera/YPO Vocal Competition. He has a GRAMMY nomination for the Naxos Records recording of Darius Milhaud’s 1922 opera trilogy, L’Orestie d’Eschyle, in which he sang the role of Apollo. Lament, his début solo album recorded live with Warren Jones, was released by Emitha LLC in 2021.