Grammy-Award winner Lucas Meachem (www.lucasmeachem.com) is considered one of the greatest baritones in the world today. Hailed by critics as “vocally faultless and a natural actor” (Classical Chicago Review) with “a clear baritone whose fragments can pierce the soul” (Forum Opera), and “a rock star of opera” (Opera Pulse), his 2017-18 season brings both new and signature repertoire to theaters across the United States and Europe.
Following his sensational return to the Metropolitan Opera as Marcello in La Bohème alongside Sonya Yoncheva and Michael Fabiano with a “winning, smooth baritone [that] was at once refined and robust” (Parterre), Meachem made his house debut at the Houston Grand Opera as the title role of Il Barbiere di Siviglia where “[he] gave the audience evidence of why this has become his signature role” (Houstonia).
Meachem then debuted his 50th operatic role as Athanaël in Thaïs at the Minnesota Opera. He will next return to the Semperoper Dresden in the title role of Don Giovanni, followed by a performance of Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder with the Prague Philharmonia under the baton of Emmanuel Villaume. This summer he will tour with conductor Kent Nagano and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal the concert work by Penderecki, St. Luke’s Passion, including his house debut at the Salzburg Festival. Meachem will conclude the summer with another European debut at the Grafenegg Music Festival with Britten’s War Requiem, which will be broadcast on Austrian Television.
Named the winner of San Francisco Opera’s inaugural “Emerging Star of the Year” Award in 2016, Lucas Meachem enjoys a busy career at the most important opera houses across the United States and Europe. Notable performances in Meachem’s American career include Chorèbe in Les Troyens, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Valentin in Faust at Chicago Lyric Opera; Eugene Onegin, Don Giovanni, and Il barbiere di Siviglia, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, and Fritz/Frank in Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt at San Francisco Opera; Silvio in Pagliacciand Mercutio in Roméo and Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera; Don Giovanni with Santa Fe Opera, New Orleans Opera, and Cincinnati Opera; Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles at the Florida Grand Opera; Il barbiere di Siviglia at San Diego Opera, Opera Colorado and Los Angeles Opera where he gave his Grammy award-winning performance of Figaro in The Ghosts of Versailles.
A regular performer across Europe, Meachem has performed the title role in Il barbiere di Siviglia with the Vienna Staatsoper, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Den Norske Opera; Glyndebourne Festival and Semperoper Dresden as the title role in Don Giovanni; Opéra National de Paris as the title role in Britten’s Billy Budd; Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and Royal Opera House as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro; Wolfram von Eschenbach in Tannhäuser at the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan under the baton of Seiji Ozawa; the title role in Eugene Onegin with Opéra national de Montpellier; with the Teatro Real de Madrid in the world premier of El Viaje a Simorgh as well as Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride and a European tour with Anna Netrebko as Robert in Iolanta with 11 performances Europe’s most important musical centers and venues including Vienna, Munich, Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam.
Meachem made his Hollywood Bowl debut in 2014 as Silvio in Pagliacci with Gustavo Dudamel. He has sung with the New York Philharmonic in Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion under Kurt Masur; the Saint Louis Symphony in Carmina Burana and Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony; the San Francisco Symphony in concert performances of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe; the American Symphony Orchestra in the United States premiere of Ferdinand Hiller’s oratorio The Destruction of Jerusalem at Avery Fisher Hall; with the Saint Louis, Pittsburgh, and Seattle Symphonies in performances of Carmina Burana; and with soprano Hei-Kyung Hong for a duet concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Born in North Carolina, Lucas Meachem studied music at Appalachian State University, the Eastman School of Music, and Yale University before becoming an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera.
Blogul lui Lucas Meachem: www.thebaritoneblog.com
First-generation First-generation Romanian-American pianist, Irina Meachem coaches and accompanies as a freelance artist for many opera singers, opera companies and classical music festivals.
Mrs. Meachem served as a staff pianist/coach at companies such Palm Beach Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Birmingham, Amarillo Opera, Nashville Opera, Shreveport Opera, OperaWorks, Chicago Summer Opera, Mill City Summer Opera, Opera in the Ozarks, Bay View Music Festival, The Banff Centre, and the Interlochen Summer Arts Academy.
As a soloist, Ms. Meachem performed Rhapsody in Blue with the Augsburg Symphonic Band in a Romanian tour in 2009.
She earned a Master’s of Music degree from Florida State University and a Bachelor’s of Music from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Additionally, she attended the George Enescu High School of Music in Bucuresti, Romania and received an Artist Diploma Award during her training at the MacPhail Center of Music in Minneapolis.
Irina performed with her husband, baritone Lucas Meachem, in recitals at the Athanaeum in Bucuresti, Romania, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and Hamline University in Minnesota. She will perform next season with the North Carolina Performing Arts.
