In the 2018-2019 season, Canadian bass Robert Pomakov will make role debuts Nourabad in Les Pêcheurs de Perles at Santa Fe Opera, and Méphistophélès in Faust for his house debut with Vancouver Opera. He will return to Oper Frankfurt to sing King René in a new production of Iolanta directed by Lydia Steier and to the Metropolitan Opera to reprise the role of Monterone in Rigoletto. Concert performances of the 2018-2019 season will include his debut with the Victoria Symphony, singing König Heinrich in Act III of Lohengrin.

In the 2017-18 season, Mr. Pomakov returned to the Metropolitan Opera to sing Luther and Crespel in Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Bonze in Madama Butterfly, and to cover Wurm in Luisa Miller. He also returned to the Canadian Opera Company to sing Monterone in Rigoletto and to cover Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, as well as to Oper Frankfurt to sing Oroveso in a new Christof Loy production of Norma.

Mr. Pomakov made his Metropolitan Opera house debut as Monterone in Michael Mayer’s new staging of Rigoletto in a production that was seen live in HD in cinemas around the world. He has also appeared at the MET as Don Basilio in Bartlett Sher’s production of The Barber of Seville and as Mathieu in Andrea Chénier opposite Patricia Racette and Marcelo Álvarez; he also sang in Manon with Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo, in productions of Le Nozze di Figaro conducted by James Levine, and in roles in both Don Carlo and Les Contes d’Hoffmann, as well as covered the title role in Verdi’s Attila in a new production by Pierre Audi conducted by Riccardo Muti.

Highlights of past seasons included performances with the Canadian Opera Company as Alberich in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, Hobson in Britten’s Peter Grimes opposite Ben Heppner, and Chamberlain in Le Rossignol, in addition to company and role debuts Oper Frankfurt as Yevgeny Gremin in a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Onegin, Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Vodník in Rusalka and Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Banquo in Macbeth. Houston Grand Opera has welcomed him for numerous appearances including the Second SS Officer in Weinberg’s The Passenger, in a co-production with the Lincoln Center Festival, Monterone in Rigoletto, Benoit in a new production of La Bohème, and Haly in a new production of L’italiana in Algeri. He debuted with Santa Fe Opera as Monterone in Rigoletto and in the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain, as well as covering Jochanaan in Strauss’ Salome. Mr. Pomakov made is company debut with San Francisco Opera as Monterone, and later returned to sing Mathieu in Andrea Chénier, in a production by Sir David McVicar, conducted by Nicola Luisotti. Other appearances include successful debuts with Opéra National de Paris as Monterone in Rigoletto, Washington Opera as Leporello in Don Giovanni in a new production conducted by Plácido Domingo, Teatro Real as Nikitich in Boris Godunov opposite Samuel Ramey, and Theatre Royale de la Monnaie in Brussels as Varlaam in Boris Godunov.

Notable concert performances of past seasons include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Sioux City Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem with the Elora Festival in Ontario, his Ravinia Festival debut in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy conducted by James Conlon, the role of Virgil in Rachmaninov’s Francesca da Rimini and the Hector Berlioz version of Der Freischütz both under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach, a concert with Dmitri Hvorostvsky at the Canadian Opera Company, the Roy Thomson Hall Millennium Opera Gala with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (released on CBC Records), Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 with the Canadian Opera Company, a European tour of Handel’s Apollo e Dafne (Released on Naxos Records), his Concertgebouw debut with the European Union Baroque Orchestra, Schubert’s Fierrabras with the Bard Music Festival and performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Orchestre Métropolitain under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He was the bass soloist in performances of Mozart’s Requiem with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières and Phoenix Symphony conducted by music director Tito Muñoz. Mr. Pomakov has performed Handel’s Messiah with both the North Carolina and Phoenix Symphonies. He appeared with the Calgary Philharmonic and at the Elora Festival in performances of the Verdi Requiem, and sang his first König Heinrich in a concert version of Wagner’s Lohengrin with Le Festival de Lanaudière conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Recital credits include two recitals at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio one of which was broadcast by the CBC.

Mr. Pomakov has been a prize winner in several of the world’s premier singing competitions: a finalist in the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Belgium, second place at the Belvedere Competition in Vienna and third place in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia. Mr. Pomakov was decorated with the Simeon, the First Honorary Medal from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, and with a diploma from the Minister of Culture for his achievements in opera’s art and special merit to Bulgarian culture and its dissemination all over the world, an encouragement award in the George London Foundation Competition, an world. Other prizes have included first prize in the Oratorio Society of New York’s completion, an award from the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition, the Victoria Scholars Grant, Second Prize in the Canadian Music Competition, and First Prize in the Kiwanis Music Festival in Toronto. Pomakov is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music.