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Roy Hage
Lebanese-American tenor Roy Hage has performed over forty operatic roles including the Duke (Rigoletto), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Alfredo (La Traviata), Tamino (The Magic Flute), Des Grieux (Manon), Ruggero (La Rondine), Judge Danforth (The Crucible), Jeník (The Bartered Bride), The Italian Singer (Capriccio), Chevalier de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites), and the title roles in The Tales of Hoffmann, Roméo et Juliette, The Rake’s Progress, Candide, La Clemenza di Tito, Pelléas and Melisande. His performances have been broadcast on US and Lebanese television and radio, and he is featured on the multi-GRAMMY® nominated recording of Jennifer Higdon’s opera Cold Mountain.
Roy has performed with premier ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Symphony in C, and CityMusic Cleveland. He has worked with conductors of historic importance including Maestros Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Corrado Rovaris, Sir Richard Bonynge, Caren Levine, Vladimir Ashkenazy, George Manahan, Rossen Milanov, Xian Zhang, Stephen Lord, James Gaffigan, David Robertson, Michael Christie, and Christofer Macatsoris.
Roy has also performed with top opera companies and music festivals including Opera Philadelphia, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Maryland Lyric Opera, the Aspen Music Festival, Chautauqua Music Festival, and Miami Music Festival, Yale Opera, Curtis Opera Theater, Oberlin Opera Theater, and Academy of Vocal Arts.
Roy’s art consistently pushes expectations and boundaries of tradition and he enjoys finding new ways to explore and expand his artistic reach. He has been involved in a number of experimental and immersive adaptations of operatic and classical works including performing La Traviata at New York City’s famous cabaret, The Box, alongside celebrated Metropolitan Opera soprano Inna Dukach and star baritone, Paul La Rosa; performing a solo recital with Maestro Francesco Milioto as a part of an exhibition by Ann Hamilton titled: the common SENSE · the animals; creating the role of Paul in Georgia Shreve’s Rock Opera Love Sick which premiered at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust in Fall of 2018, and most recently performing alongside Broadway veterans in Georgia Shreve’s latest musical-play, Dialogues of Travelers, also at National Sawdust.
Roy has performed a number of premieres including Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Stucky’s The Stars and the Roses for tenor and chamber ensemble, the roles of Horus / The Beloved in David Hertzberg’s The Rose Elf during Opera Philadelphia’s 2016 Double Exposure performance, the world premieres of Tony Solitro’s More Beautiful Than Night, Kurt Rohde’s Three Minutes with Ned for tenor and piano, Jonathan Bailey Holland’s Must All Then Amount to But This, Peter Ash’s opera The Golden Ticket, Jennifer Higdon’s opera Cold Mountain, and the the East Coast Premiers of Theodore Morrison’s Oscar and, also, Cold Mountain.
Roy appears as Reid (Georgia Boy) and Home Guard Scout on the Pentatone Recording of the Santa Fe World Premier of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain. The recording was nominated for two GRAMMYs® in the 59th annual Grammy Awards (2017).
Roy has appeared on national and international television, and most recently was interviewed and performed “Nessun Dorma” on the morning edition of Lebanese MTV promoting his Lebanese debut with prominent Lebanese pianist and composer Guy Manoukian at a sold out benefit concert at the American University of Beirut. In the United States, some of his performances have been seen on PBS’s “Onstage at Curtis” and his performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Symphony in C, and Academy of Vocal Arts have been featured on National Public Radio.
Roy completed his operatic training at some of the top conservatories for each of his respective degrees—he attended Interlochen Arts Academy (High School Diploma), Oberlin Conservatory (Bachelor of Music), Yale University, Curtis Institute of Music (Master of Music), and Academy of Vocal Arts (Artist Diploma).
A citizen of both Lebanon and the United States, Roy spends his time between Boston and New York and hopes to be able to spend more time in Beirut working as an advocate for the arts, particularly in the commissioning and exploration of art that infuses operatic tradition with the local experience. Alongside singing, Roy plans on dedicating more of his time to helping others (particularly youth) with weight and body image struggles—having lost close to 180 pounds by means of the Keto diet, one of Roy’s passions has become fitness and self-care.