A recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the recipient of a 2012 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Performing and Visual Arts, Paul Appleby has emerged as one of the most inspired voices of his generation and is both an admired and exciting presence on the world’s leading concert, recital, and opera stages.

Engagements of the 2012-13 season include a return to the Metropolitan Opera as the Chevalier de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites conducted by Louis Langrée and as Hylas in Les Troyens conducted by Fabio Luisi, as well as debuts with Santa Fe Opera as Fritz in Offenbach’s La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein conducted by Frederic Chaslin and with Boston Lyric Opera as Ferrando in Così fan tutte directed by Sir Thomas Allen.  Symphonic appearances include performances of the Mozart Requiem with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony, in Pittsburgh and on tour to Vienna, and Beethoven’s Mass in C with Mr. Langrée and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.  

Paul Appleby’s 2011-12 season included a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Demetrius in the Baroque pastiche, The Enchanted Island, conducted by William Christie and directed by the team of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch and a European operatic debut as Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress with Oper Frankfurt in a new production by Moritz Nitsche conducted by Constantinos Carydis.  Symphonic debuts included Mozart’s Mass in c minor with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert and a program of opera arias with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern conducted by Christoph Poppen.  The artist returned to the New York Festival of Song for recitals in New York and Washington, D.C., gave two programs of French mélodie at the Bard Music Festival, and brought Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin accompanied by Brian Zeger to the Schubert Club of St. Paul and to New York’s Rockefeller University.

Highlights of the past include a Metropolitan Opera debut as Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos under the baton of Fabio Luisi, the role of Jenik in The Bartered Bride in a co-production between the Metropolitan Opera and the Juilliard School conducted by James Levine and directed by Stephen Wadsworth, Agenore in Il Re Pastore with Opera Theatre of St. Louis under the baton of Jean-Marie Zeitouni, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream conducted by Steven Osgood at Wolf Trap Opera, and, with the Juilliard Opera, Chevalier de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites under the baton of Anne Manson, Martin in Copland’s The Tender Land conducted by David Effron, and Fenton in Falstaff conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson.  The artist has performed Gomatz in Zaïde first at Wolf Trap Opera conducted by Gary Thor Wedow and then at Carnegie Hall with Ensemble ACJW conducted David Robertson.

On the concert stage, Paul Appleby made his European debut in a performance of Haydn’s Die Schöpfung at the Wolfegg Festival under the baton of Manfred Honeck and a Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra debut in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion conducted by James Conlon at the May Festival.  Other recent debuts include a program of Schubert and Haydn with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Thomas Zehetmair, and Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge with Kent Tritle on the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, New York.

Passionate about the art of song, the tenor has performed recitals with Steven Blier and the New York Festival of Song, at the Kennedy Center under the auspices of the Vocal Arts Society, for the Marilyn Horne Foundation, the Aspen Music Festival, the Caramoor Festival, Music@Menlo, the Judith Raskin memorial concert, the Joy in Singing Foundation, and A Prairie Home Companion.  He made his Lincoln Center recital debut at Alice Tully Hall accompanied by Brian Zeger offering Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin.

Mr. Appleby has been recognized with the 2012 Top Prize by the Gerda Lissner Foundation, 2012 Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, 2011 Richard Tucker Career Grant and George London Foundation Award, and was a National Winner of the 2009 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.  A recipient of an Artist Diploma from the Opera Studies Program at the Juilliard School of Music, he received a Master’s Degree from Juilliard and a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and in Music from the University of Notre Dame.