Corey McKern, baritone
Santa Fe Opera Apprentice in 2001 & 2004
A Santa Fe Opera favorite, Corey McKern is reprising the role of Marcello in this season's La Bohème. Of his performance in the production’s 2007 premiere, Craig Smith of the Santa Fe New Mexican wrote: “Corey McKern’s resolute, robust-voiced and rambunctious Marcello . . . was one of the best I’ve ever heard.” In addition to his Marcello in 2007, the young baritone portrayed Adrast in Daphne that same year, appeared as Pallante in Agrippina in 2004, and, most recently, was Masetto in the 2009 production of Don Giovanni.
During the 2010–2011 season, Mr. McKern’s engagements include Marcello in his debuts with Opera Hong Kong and Michigan Opera Theater, Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro with Nashville Opera and Opera Columbus, Figaro in The Barber of Seville with Tulsa Opera, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor in a return to Opera Birmingham, and Zurga in The Pearl Fishers with Syracuse Opera. In the summer of 2010 he performed The Count/Rudolf in in Schreker‘s Der Ferne Klang in his debut with Bard Summerscape and John Rutter’s Mass of the Children and Mozart’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall.
In addition to his opera repertory, Corey McKern is an active concert performer. He made his Carnegie Hall debut as the baritone soloist in the Fauré Requiem and he also appeared with the New Choral Society in Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’ Requiem, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. His oratorio credits include Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and a concert of operetta highlights with the Indianapolis Symphony.