Lester Lynch is an American operatic

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

Early life and career

Lynch learned to sing in a

church choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

, and attended

Baldwin-Wallace College Baldwin Wallace University (BW) is a private university in Berea, Ohio. It was founded in 1845 as Baldwin Institute by Methodist businessman John Baldwin. The school merged with nearby German Wallace College in 1913 to become Baldwin-Wallace Co ...

, the

New England Conservatory of Music The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music Music school, conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The ...

, and

Juilliard The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

Notable performances

Lynch has performed as a baritone, Crown, in '' The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess'' as well as a bass, Garage mechanic, in ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts First-person narrative, first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious mil ...

s first European performance on December 6, 2015. He reprised the role in 2020. Lynch participated in the 1996

Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions The Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition (formerly the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions) is an annual singing competition sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera. Established in 1954, its purpose is to discover, assist ...

. He has performed with

Luna Pearl Woolf Luna Pearl Woolf is an American composer. Her works include opera, chamber music, orchestra, and choral compositions. Many of her pieces incorporate spoken-word recitals and choreography as well as musical performances. As a composer of many diff ...

. He has sung at the

Festival Napa Valley Festival Napa Valley is a music, food, wine and lifestyle festival held in Napa Valley, California. It is presented by Napa Valley Festival Association, a nonprofit corporation governed by a board of vintners and local leaders. More than 200 mus ...

, and in Bergen, Norway. The

Welsh National Opera Welsh National Opera (WNO) ( cy, Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru) is an opera company based in Cardiff, Wales; it gave its first performances in 1946. It began as a mainly amateur body and transformed into an all-professional ensemble by 1973. In its ...

gave ''

The Merchant of Venice ''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Although classified as ...

'' its British premiere in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

on 16 September 2016, using the Bregenz production. The conductor was Lionel Friend, and the role of Shylock was sung by Lynch.WNO website
"''The Merchant of Venice''"
accessed 20 August 2016. Lynch is an African American and this in the opinion of the critic of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the opera "a further racist edge... nda deliberately shocking contemporary resonance."Rian Evans
"''The Merchant of Venice'' review – [André] Tchaikowsky's opera reminds us that prejudice is ever present"
19 September 2016, ''

'', accessed 20 September 2016.

Recordings

Gulbenkian Orchestra The Gulbenkian Orchestra ( pt, Orquestra Gulbenkian) is a Portuguese symphony orchestra based in Lisbon. The orchestra primarily gives concerts at the ''Grande Auditório'' (Grand Auditorium) of the Gulbenkian Foundation. The orchestra, which was f ...

–

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

– ''

Otello ''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play ''Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887. Th ...

''. Pentatone PTC 5186562 (2017) *

Asher Fisch Asher Fisch (Hebrew: אשר פיש) (born May 19, 1958, Jerusalem, Israel) is an Israeli conductor and pianist. Fisch began his career as an assistant of Daniel Barenboim and an associate conductor of the Berlin State Opera. He made his United ...

–

Gordon Getty Gordon Peter Getty (born December 20, 1933) is an American businessman and classical music composer, the fourth child of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. His mother, Ann Rork, was his father's fourth wife. When his father died in 1976, Gordon assumed ...

– ''The Little Match Girl''.

Nikolai Schukoff Nikolai Andrej Schukoff (born 1969) is an Austrian operatic tenor. Life Born in Graz, Schukoff completed his vocal studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with a diploma in "music-dramatic performance", for which he was awarded the Lilli Lehmann ...

, Lester Lynch, Melody Moore, Asher Fisch, Ulf Schirmer,

Münchner Rundfunkorchester The Munich Radio Orchestra (German: ''Münchner Rundfunkorchester'') is a German symphony broadcast orchestra based in Munich. It is one of the two orchestras affiliated with the Bavarian Radio (Bayerischer Rundfunk), the other being the Bavarian ...

, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Pentatone PTC 5186480 (2015) * David Garner (composer) – 2015 – ''December Celebration: New Carols by Seven American Composers''. Includes ''Three Carols''. Works by Mark Adamo, William Bolcom, John Corigliano, David Garner, Gordon Getty, Jake Heggie,

. Performed by Lisa Delan, Lester Lynch, Steven Bailey, Dawn Harms, Musicians of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Volti Chorus. Pentatone PTC 5186537. *

John Harbison John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works. Life John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harb ...

, ''The Great Gatsby'' (Publisher: AMP1999)
Opera publisher G. Schirmer, Inc.
* ''

Goodbye, Mr. Chips ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' is a novella about the life of a school teacher, Mr. Chipping, written by English writer James Hilton and first published by Hodder & Stoughton in October 1934. It has been adapted into two feature films and two televi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynch, Lester Year of birth missing (living people) American operatic baritones African-American male opera singers Living people