Bio
During the course of his rich international operatic career, baritone Stephen Lusmann has sung more than 40 leading roles with major opera houses including the Oper der Stadt Bonn, Opera de Monte Carlo, Stadttheater Luzern, Washington National Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Boston Lyric Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Florentine Opera, Opera Carolina, Opera Columbus, Anchorage Opera, Utah Opera, Opera Birmingham, Connecticut Grand Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Dayton Opera, Artpark, and tours with the New York City Opera. He has sung with important conductors and directors including Leonard Slatkin, Christopher Keene, Bertrand de Billy, Franco Zeffirelli, Gian Carlo Menotti, and Gian Carlo del Monaco.
As an active concert soloist, Lusmann has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, and Hill Auditorium; festivals including the Anchorage Festival of Music, Chautauqua Institute, the Music Festival of Pettoranello (Italy), the Romanian/American Music Festival in Timisoara (Romania), and the Amalfi Coast Music Festival; and with numerous symphony orchestras including the Buffalo Philharmonic, Sinfonieorchester Luzern, West Virginia Symphony, Little Orchestra Society of New York, Canton Symphony, and Shreveport Symphony.
On recordings Lusmann may be heard in Richard Strauss’ opera Der Friedenstag recorded at Carnegie Hall on the Koch International label; Operngala recorded at the Konzerthaus Luzern, Switzerland on Tonstudio AMOS; and on E.E. Cummings: An American Circus, songs by Logan Skelton, recorded on the Centaur Records label. He recorded two more CDs of songs by Logan Skelton on the Blue Griffin label: Ohr Songs: The Mad Potter; Clyburn Songs: A Kind of Weather; and Anderson Songs: Through the Eyes of an Islander and can also be heard on the recently released CD Songs of William Horne.
Lusmann is a professor of voice at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the recipient of the 2020 Harold Haugh Award for Excellence in Studio Teaching. He was the principal voice teacher for the Fort Worth Opera Studio from 2010-17 and has been a member of the voice faculty at the Seagle Music Colony, the oldest summer vocal training program in the United States, since 2001. In addition, he has taught at Music in the Marché in Mondavio, Italy and has given master classes at the Conservatory of Timisoara (Romania), Anchorage Conservatory, Florentine Opera, Northwestern University, Carnegie Mellon University, and many other institutions.
Having completed his graduate degrees at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Lusmann is carrying on the lineage of the master teachers Andrew White, Sidney Dietsch, and Giuseppe DeLuca. His students have had great success performing professionally in opera, concert, musical theatre, and young artist programs. They have also won prestigious international vocal competitions and are teaching in elementary, secondary, and higher education.
