Biography

Eric Owens’s recent operatic highlights include Emile Griffith in Terence Blanchard’s Champion at the Metropolitan Opera, a debut at the Vienna State Opera in the Ring cycle, first as Wotan in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, and as the Wanderer in Siegfried; Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor at Los Angeles Opera; Philippe II in Don Carlos and Porgy in Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera; and King Marke in Tristan und Isolde at Santa Fe Opera.

Other highlights include Alberich and Hagen in the Metropolitan Opera’s Ring; Wotan and the Wanderer in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ring; Orest in Elektra at the Met, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen; the title role of Der Fliegende Höllander and Stephen Kumalo in Weill’s Lost in the Stars at Washington National Opera; his San Francisco Opera debut in Otello; his Royal Opera, Covent Garden, debut in Norma; Vodnik and Porgy at Lyric Opera of Chicago; the title role in Handel’s Hercules with the Canadian Opera Company; Ramfis in Aïda at Houston Grand Opera; Die Zauberflöte for his Paris Opera debut; and the title role of Macbeth at the Glimmerglass Festival. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in May 1999.

Owens has been recognized with multiple honors, including Musical America’s 2017 Vocalist of the Year award, the 2003 Marian Anderson Award, a 1999 ARIA award, second prize in the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition. He serves on the board of trustees of both the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and Astral Artistic Services.