Pacific Collegium Artist Profiles

Joseph Wright Baritone

Praised for his wonderfully rich and large baritone voice and acting that has real energy and spark, Joseph Wright is quickly establishing himself as an opera star to watch for the future. Since making his professional operatic debut in 1998, the young baritone has captivated audiences on both the operatic and concert stage. For the past several seasons, Mr. Wright has been Principal Baritone in the Artist-in-residence program with Opera San Jose. He has performed over two dozen leading roles with that company, including Escamillo in Carmen, the title role in The Flying Dutchman, Renato in The Masked Ball, John Proctor in The Crucible, Marcello in La Bohème and the title role of Don Giovanni.

Honors include performing the title role in The Marriage of Figaro on Opening Night of the newly restored California Theatre as well as being awarded top prizes in vocal performance competitions sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council, San Jose Opera Guild, Holt Scholarship and Mu Phi Epsilon Fraternity. Articles in the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News featuring Mr. Wright have noted his exceptional vocal and dramatic interpretations of Scarpia in Tosca and the Anthony Davis opera based on the Life and Times of Malcolm X. Mr. Wright has participated in concert projects with many symphonic orchestras and music festivals in the San Francisco Bay Area including Vallejo, Mendocino, Sacramento, Midsummer Mozart and Silicon Valley.

In addition to maintaining a rigorous performance schedule, Mr. Wright’s strong commitment to this unique art form extends beyond the theater. Passionate about vocal music’s ability to express the many facets of the human condition, Mr. Wright has made it his personal goal to make opera and oratorio accessible to a broad spectrum of people in his community by regularly visiting local schools, clubs, and organizations in order to promote classical vocal music to new audiences. His oratorio repertoire includes Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat, Schubert’s Mass in G, Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor and Requiem Masses by Fauré, Brahms, and Duruflé. In October 2006, Mr. Wright will make his Opera Memphis debut as Crown in Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess and will reprise that role with Maestro Morgan of the Oakland East Bay Symphony in May 2007. Sacramento Opera will present Carmen in February 2007, in which Mr. Wright will perform Escamillo, a debut with that company.