Alan Held

Well into his fourth decade as “one of the leading singing actors today,” American bass-baritone Alan Held has appeared in major roles in the world’s finest opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra National de Paris, Bayerische Staastoper, Teatro alla Scala, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, and Canadian Opera Company. His repertoire of over 80 roles includes Wotan (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Amfortas (Parsifal), Scarpia (Tosca), The Four Villains (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Jochanaan (Salome), Balstrode (Peter Grimes), and the title roles in Gianni Schicchi, Der Fliegende Holländer, Wozzeck, and Cardillac. An active concert performer, he has appeared with the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Orchestre de Paris. He has also appeared at the Salzburg and Tanglewood festivals as well as the BBC Proms. He has worked with such distinguished conductors as Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, James Levine, Charles Dutoit, Kirill Petrenko, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Franz Welser-Möst, Sir Simon Rattle, David Robertson, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Jeffrey Tate. Mr. Held’s discography and video recordings include Salome, Rusalka, Der Freischütz, Hansel and Gretel, Fidelio, Das Rheingold, and Cardillac.

Mr. Held has had great success as a vocal instructor as well as an opera stage director and conductor. His students appear on the rosters of opera companies around the world and have been members of prestigious young artist training programs including the Lindemann Young Artist Program and the Ryan Opera Center. He has twice served as the artist in residence at the Cafritz Young Arts Program at Washington National Opera as well as at Wolf Trap Opera. For nearly 20 years, he presented yearly guest masterclasses at Yale University. Currently, he holds the position of director of opera and professor of voice at Wichita State University and is the Dennis and Ann Ross Faculty of Distinction in Opera. He also serves as the director of sacred music for the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, Kansas.

Mr. Held joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2025.