American countertenor Jake Ingbar has established himself on the international stage as a dynamic presence across the operatic and concert repertoire of Europe and North America. Praised for his distinctive “warm masculine tone” (Opera Today) and a stage personality of “piercing poignancy” (The New Yorker), he has won particular acclaim as an interpreter of both baroque and contemporary music.
Ingbar made his English National Opera debut as Armindo in the Olivier Award–winning production of Partenope, a performance hailed as “ingenious, vocally and gymnastically” (The Guardian). His baroque work has taken him to the Salzburg Festival as Nireno in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s staging of Giulio Cesare under Emmanuelle Haïm; to the Semperoper Dresden as the Witch of Endor in Claus Guth’s Saul; and to the Nederlandse Reisopera as Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea with Cappella Mediterranea, directed by Ted Huffman. On the concert platform he has sung the alto solos in Bach’s St John Passion.
A committed proponent of new work, Ingbar made his principal debut at San Francisco Opera as Leonardo in Gabriela Lena Frank’s El último sueño de Frida y Diego, drawing praise for his “humor, tenderness, and a chilling set of vocals that pushes the story into the stratosphere” (KQED). He has collaborated with three Pulitzer Prize–winning writers — Nilo Cruz, Tony Kushner, and Marsha Norman — on works for the stage.
Ingbar has appeared with leading houses and festivals including San Francisco Opera, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Los Angeles Opera, the Aldeburgh Festival, Minnesota Opera, the Aspen Music Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and the Polish National Opera, working with conductors and directors such as Christopher Alden, James Conlon, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Emmanuelle Haïm, Ottavio Dantone, and Francesca Zambello. A graduate of The Juilliard School and Rice University, he was the first countertenor to join the LA Opera Domingo Colburn Stein Young Artist Program founded by Plácido Domingo.
