On the international stages of opera, concert, and recital, Canadian John Tessier has gained attention and praise for the beauty and honesty of his voice, for a refined style and creative versatility, and for his handsome, youthful presence in the lyric tenor repertoire.  The Juno Award winning artist has worked with many of the most notable conductors of our day including Lorin Maazel, Leonard Slatkin, Plácido Domingo, John Nelson, Franz Welser-Möst, Emmanuelle Haïm, Charles Dutoit, Donald Runnicles, Robert Spano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Bernard Labadie.

On the opera stage of the 2011-12 season, John Tessier makes a Netherlands Opera debut as John F. Kennedy in the world premiere of Robin de Raaff’s Waiting for Miss Monroe and debuts with Boston Lyric Opera as Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia.  Additional appearances include returns to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as the Steuermann in Der Fliegende Holländer under the baton of Jeffrey Tate, to Minnesota Opera as Ferrando in Così fan tutte, and to Manitoba Opera as Tonio in La fille du Régiment.  Highlights of his orchestral calendar include selected Bach cantatas with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Berlioz’ L’enfance du Christ with the Utah Symphony Orchestra, Messiah with the Edmonton Orchestra, and Haydn’s Die Schöpfung with the Vancouver Bach Choir.

A busy 2010-11 season saw John Tessier as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni for his South American debut at the Teatro Colón with conductor John Neschling, as Narraboth in a concert presentation of Salome at the Verbier Festival conducted Valery Gergiev, and as Count Almaviva in a new production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at Grand Théâtre de Genève under the baton of Alberto Zedda.  In North America, John Tessier joined the Minnesota Opera as Don Ramiro in La cenerentola, debuted at Seattle Opera as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, and assayed the title role of La clemenza di Tito at Vancouver Opera.  His demanding concert schedule included performances of Berlioz’ L’enfance du Christ under Serge Baudo with the Orchestre National de Lyon, Carmina Burana and a concert version of Der Rosenkavalier as the Italian Singer, with Osmo Vänskä and Andrew Litton, respectively and the Minnesota Orchestra, and Rossini’s Stabat Mater in a return engagement with Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst.

On the opera stage John Tessier has sung Don Giovanni and Hamlet conducted by Plácido Domingo at the Washington National Opera, Der fliegende Holländer at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Marc Albrecht, Il viaggio a Reims at Oper Frankfurt conducted by Johannes Debus, I Capuleti e i Montecchi for Glimmerglass Opera, The Elixir of Love at English National Opera in a new Jonathan Miller production, and The Barber of Seville for English National Opera, New York City Opera, Edmonton Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, L’Opéra de Québec, and in a new Leon Major production at Glimmerglass Opera.  He has bowed in L’elisir d’amore at the New York City Opera, Lakmé for the operas of Calgary and Edmonton, La Cenerentola at Glimmerglass Opera,  Così fan tutte at Vancouver Opera and in a new production by Tim Albery at Glimmerglass Opera, Don Pasquale with Opera Lyra Ottawa and Arizona Opera, Die Zauberflöte with Opera Lyra Ottawa under Pinchas Zukerman, The Merry Widow and Die Zauberflöte with L’Opéra de Montréal, L’italiana in Algeri, dialogues des Carmélites, Don Giovanni, and La fille du Régiment at Vancouver Opera, Don Giovanni, Falstaff, and Acis and Galatea at New York City Opera, Il Re Pastore at the Mostly Mozart Festival, Die Zauberflöte with the Opera Company of Philadelphia and the Edmonton Opera, Die Entführung aus dem Serail with L’Opéra de Québec, Little Women with Minnesota Opera, and Haydn’s Orlando Paladino and Handel’s Imeneo at Glimmerglass Opera. 

Symphonic performances of the recent past have included John Corigliano’s A Dylan Thomas Trilogy with Leonard Slatkin and the Nashville Symphony (recorded and commercially available on Naxos), Stephen Paulus’ To Be Certain of the Dawn with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra (recorded and commercially available on BIS Records), Berlioz’ L’enfance du Christ under the baton of John Nelson in Spain, Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings with Carl St. Clair and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Itzhak Perlman and the Russian National Orchestra at Festival of the Arts Boca, Haydn’s Mass in the Time of War with Bernard Labadie and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with Donald Runnicles and the Orchestra of Saint Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, Mozart’s Mass in C with Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic, Berlioz’ Te Deum under the direction of Charles Dutoit at the Philadelphia Orchestra, Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra, and Haydn’s The Creation with Jane Glover and Chicago’s Music of the Baroque and with John Nelson and Ensemble Orchestral de Paris.  He has given performances of Messiah with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Carmina Burana and Szymanowski’s Third Symphony with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Mozart Requiem with Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (recorded and commercially available on Telarc), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Nicholas McGegan and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and to Vienna, Paris, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Milan on a tour presentation of Handel’s Messiah with Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d'Astrée.

Comprehensive information is available at www.johnptessier.com.