Donnie Ray Albert (Amonasro)
Baritone, Donnie Ray Albert, is a regular guest of opera companies and symphony orchestras around the world. He earned his Bachelor of Music at Louisiana State University and his Master of Music from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and is presently a resident artist with the Center for Black Music Research at Chicago’s Columbia College.
Mr. Albert may be heard on RCA’s Grammy and Grand Prix du Disque award winning recording of Porgy and Bess, NOW’s recording of The Horse I Ride Has Wings with David Garvey on piano, EMI’s Frühlingsbegräbnis and Eine Florentinesche Tragödie by Zemlinsky conducted by James Conlon, and Simon Sargon’s A Clear Midnight on the Gasparo label. He has performed with the opera companies of Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, Austin, Minnesota, Utah, New Orleans, Baltimore, Columbus, Omaha, Calgary, Edmonton, Canadian, Montreal, Manitoba, Vancouver, Berlin, Bordeaux, Köln, Bregenz, Milan, Mannheim and Hamburg. As a concert artist, Mr. Albert has sung with the orchestras of Washington DC (National), Köln, Southwest Florida, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Jerusalem, Seattle, Minnesota, St. Paul, Los Angeles, Palm Beach, Greensboro, Grant Park Music Festival, and Madison, Vienna and Linz, Austria. He debuts with the Metropolitan Opera as Germont in La Traviata and with the National Theatre in Prague as Jack Rance in La Fanciulla del West. His past two seasons included appearances with The Atlanta Opera as Scarpia, Opera Pacific as Amonasro, Austin Lyric Opera as the Count di Luna, Arizona Opera and the Lithuanian National Opera in the title role in Der Fliegende Holländer, the National Symphony Orchestra for Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, and the Cincinnati May Festival for Haydn’s Creation. Mr. Albert returned to Opera Pacific for concert performances of Porgy and Bess, the Madison Symphony Orchestra for Carmina Burana, Los Angeles Opera as Simone in A Florentine Tragedy, Peter in Hansel und Gretel and as Alaska Wolf Joe in Mahagonny. Last year, he appeared in Dresden for A Florentine Tragedy, in Prague as Jack Rance, and in concerts with the Arizona Opera, Cincinnati May Festival (Faurè Requiem), Austin Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven 9th), and the Master Chorale of Southwest Florida (Carmina Burana), and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Frederick Douglass in the world premiere of Kirk Meachum’s John Brown. This season he will perform in Vancouver as Rigoletto, in Orlando as Alfio and Cagliari, and in Sardinia as Amonasro.