During the 2020-21 season, British-American tenor Joshua Blue will sing Rinuccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. He was scheduled to make a return to Washington National Opera to sing the role of Jaquino in Beethoven’s Fidelio conducted by Robert Spano and directed by Francesca Zambello; perform Beethoven’s Symphony #9 at the Lensic Performing Arts Center and Oberlin Conservatory of Music; and sing Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Jacksonville Symphony and Eugene Symphony led by Francesco Lecce-Chong.

Last season Mr. Blue performed Beethoven’s Symphony #9 accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Thomas Wilkins, for the Opening Festival of The REACH at the Kennedy Center. Opera engagements featured role debuts as Tamino in the Maurice Sendak production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Washington National Opera in addition to scheduled roles of Alfred in Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Berkshire Opera Festival. Additional performances at Washington National Opera included singing the role of  Philistine Messenger in Saint-Saëns’s Samson and Delilah conducted by John Fiore and a contract to perform Man 1 in the D.C premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s Blue directed by the work’s librettist Tazewell Thompson. Concerts last season marked a return to Carnegie Hall to join Musica Sacra for Handel’s Messiah; his first performances in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Florida Orchestra; and the premiere of a fascinating new program called Tain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do: Songs from Gay Harlem with the New York Festival of Song with pianist Steven Blier.

​Highlights of the 2018-19 season for Mr. Blue included debuts at the Kennedy Center as Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata with Washington National Opera led by Renato Palumbo and Act I of Puccini’s La bohème in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda. He joined Wolf Trap Opera to sing the role of Harlekin in Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis conducted by Geoffrey McDonald and traveled to Japan to cover the role of Monsieur Triquet in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin conducted by Fabio Luisi and directed by Peter McClintock at the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival. Mr. Blue was tenor soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall and the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra under conductor James Gaffigan. Mr. Blue also sang the American premiere of the rarely heard Franz Liszt opera Sardanapalo at the Library of Congress. Additional roles with Washington National Opera included Monsieur Triquet in Eugene Onegin; Hippo/Holy man/Dog/Water Seller in Tesori’s The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me; and David in Benavides’s Pepito as part of the American Opera Initiative Festival.

Mr. Blue’s previous seasons have included his debut at Carnegie Hall in Handel’s Messiah with the Oratorio Society of New York; performances in Moravec’s Sanctuary Road at Merkin Concert Hall with New York Festival of Song; the American premiere of Philip Glass’s The Trial at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; and performing the roles of Scaramuccio in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss with Austin Opera and Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore  with the Music Academy of the West. Mr. Blue was a semi-finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and sang on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in April of 2018. He has also received the Ellen Lopin Blair award for 1st place in the 2017 Oratorio Society of New York solo competition and was noted as an Emerging Artist in the 2017 Opera Index Competition in New York City.

Mr. Blue earned his bachelor’s degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and graduated from The Juilliard School with a master’s degree, studying voice with Dr. Robert C. White, Jr. In 2018, Mr. Blue was an Apprentice Singer with Santa Fe Opera’s summer festival. He is an alumnus of the Cafritz Young Artist program with the Washington National Opera.