New Orleans native Bryan Hymel is the First-Prize Winner of the 2008 Licia Albanese/Puccini Foundation Competition, the 2008 Loren L. Zachary Vocal Competition and the 2008 Giulio Gari Foundation Competition. He is a fourth-year resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia where he has sung Boris in Kat’a Kabanova, Araquil in Massenet’s La Navarraise, Max in Der Freischütz and Alfredo in La traviata. In the 2007-2008 season, he sang Luigi in Il tabarro and Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi with New Orleans Opera, and a New York recital with Michelle DeYoung under the auspices of the George London Foundation (Mr. Hymel won the George London Award in 2007). In March of 2008, Mr. Hymel made his Carnegie Hall debut with Opera Orchestra of New York in a gala concert that also featured Renée Fleming, Marcello Giordani, and Dolora Zajick.
Future engagements include opening the new Opera House at the Wexford Festival as the Tsar in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden, as well as Cavardossi in Tosca with the Opéra National de Bordeaux, Guido in A Florentine Tragedy and Arturo in I Puritani with Greek National Opera, and the Prince in Rusalka with Boston Lyric Opera.
Recently, Mr. Hymel joined Madison Opera for “Opera in the Park”, made his debut with Palm Beach Opera as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and sang Guido in Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy at the Bard Festival under the direction of Leon Botstein, which was followed shortly by his European debut as the Foreign Prince in Dvorak’s Rusalka at the Wexford Festival Opera.
Mr. Hymel first came to attention at age 19 when he was a winner in the 1998 Verdi Aria Competition at the Aspen Musical Festival. At 20, he was a grand finalist in the 2000 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and received an Encouragement Grant from the George London Foundation for Singers the next year. In 2002 at the age of 23, he was a winner of the Opera Lirica d’Orvieto Aria Competition in Perugia, Italy and the Palm Beach Opera Competition. He also participated in San Francisco Opera Center's Merola Program.
He has appeared as Pollione in Norma with Union Avenue Opera; the Duke in Rigoletto with Opera Grand Rapids, Opera Birmingham and the Aspen Opera Theater Center (under the baton of Maestro Julius Rudel); and as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with Opera Grand Rapids. For the New Orleans Opera Association Bryan has sung Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Froh in Das Rhinegold, and Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor. He recently covered the title role in Donizetti’s Dom Sébastien with Opera Orchestra of New York. At the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Mr. Hymel was the tenor soloist for A Colonial Holiday last December and sang Handel’s Messiah with Singing City in 2006.
Mr. Hymel is a graduate of Loyola University where he performed the roles of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Nemorino in The Elixir of Love, Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. He has sung with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in Handel's Messiah, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Mozart’s Requiem, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
