Opera Masterclass with Joel Balzun, Lyric Opera OC

Join us for a public Masterclass with acclaimed Baritone and Composer Joel Balzun. Young Artists engaged in Lyric Opera of Orange County's 2025 Emerging Artist Studio will present arias and duets from classic repertoire, in a rare coaching that will be shared with the public. 

Praised for his "voluminous sound" and “imposing, ringing baritone,” Canadian baritone and composer Joel Balzun is establishing himself as a dynamic force both on and off the stage. A recent award-winner in the Wagner Society of New York Singers Competition, he also won the Fulham Opera Robert Presley Memorial Verdi Prize. Highlights of the 2024-2025 season include his house début at Chautauqua Opera as Marcello (La bohème) and the title role in Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Lincoln in the Bardo, which he also previews for the Metropolitan Opera. Additional engagements include a world premiere by Kurt Erickson, Don Marco Bomba (Don Bucefalo) with Pacific Opera Project, and an important debut as bass soloist in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the San Luis Obispo Master Chorale. Other recent performance highlights include notable debuts at Los Angeles Opera (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Opera Las Vegas (Schaunard, La bohème). His role and house debut as Escamillo in Carmen Union Avenue Opera was hailed as “swaggering, supremely self-confident” with a “thunderous” and “booming” voice.

Tickets for this event are free, with a recommended donation of $15.