American baritone Thomas Meglioranza was a winner of the Walter W. Naumburg, Concert Artists Guild, Franz Schubert/Music of Modernity, and Joy In Singing competitions.
Highlights from recent seasons include an all-Hugo Wolf recital at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, as well as role of Lord Henry in Lowell Liebermann’s The Picture of Dorian Gray with Odyssey Opera, and Saint John in Louis Karchin’s Jane Eyre with the Center for Contemporary Opera. He also sang Handel’s Messiah at Saint Thomas Church in New York City, and debuted with Ars Lyrica Houston singing J.C.F. Bach’s solo cantata, Pygmalion. Last season, he sang the role of Wreck in Bernstein’s Wonderful Town with the Seattle Symphony, Bach’s solo bass cantatas with Lyra Baroque in Minneapolis and performances of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with Reiko Uchida and Winterreise with fortepianist David Breitman.
Described in The New Yorker as an “immaculate and inventive recitalist”, his Songs from the WWI Era program was named one of the “Top Ten Best Classical Performances of the Year” in the Philadelphia Inquirer. His discography includes the Schubert cycles and assorted lieder, and French mélodies with pianist Reiko Uchida, songs of Virgil Thomson with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Bach cantatas with the Taverner Consort.
He has been an oratorio and pops soloist with many of America’s leading orchestras and has also sung Copland’s Old American Songs with the National Symphony, Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, John Harbison’s Fifth Symphony with the Boston Symphony, Milton Babbitt’s Two Sonnets with the MET Chamber Ensemble, Roberto Sierra’s Missa Latina with the Houston Symphony, and Bach cantatas with Les Violons du Roy and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He has also appeared with many period instrument ensembles, including the American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque, Portland Baroque, the New York Collegium, the Waverly Consort, and Apollo’s Fire.
His operatic roles include Fritz in Die tote Stadt, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Count Almaviva, as well as Chou Enlai in Nixon in China, Prior Walter in Eötvös Peter’s Angels in America, and Oedipus in Ruth Schönthal’s Jocasta. He also regularly performs with the Mark Morris Dance Group, including the role of Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas.
A native New Yorker of Thai, Italian, and Polish heritage, Meglioranza graduated from Grinnell College and the Eastman School of Music. His non-musical interests include cooking and fungi.