American tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven, a Metropolitan Opera National Council Grand Finals winner, is a Wagnerian star on the rise. The New York Times praises him for possessing a “gleaming, potent” instrument with a “steady, burnished sound.” Of a concert performance with the San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Chronicle raved: “the title character’s prayer from the final act of Wagner’s Rienzi elicited a gleaming, potent performance from tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven, marked by suave phrasing and tonal freshness.”

Last season, Mr. van Schoonhoven made his European début with Opera de Rouen as Laca in Jenůfa, performed the role of Don José in The Tragedy of Carmen with Hawaii Opera Theatre, joined the Bard Music Festival for Chausson’s rarity Le roi Arthus, and joined The Metropolitan Opera for Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice, covering Loud Stone, and the Carnegie Hall concert performance of Die Walküre, covering Siegmund.

This season, Mr. van Schoonhoven returns to The Metropolitan Opera as the Messenger in Aida after covering Zinovy Ismailov in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Kyle will also sing performances of Tamino in The Magic Flute for the Buffalo Philharmonic and Britten’s War Requiem with the Prague Philharmonic Choir, in support of the crisis in Ukraine.

Photo by Paul Sirochman