American tenor Matthew Plenk holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Hartt School of Music, a Master’s degree from Yale University and is a Samling Scholar. He is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and has sung several roles with the company, including Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Tamino in The Magic Flute, and Janek in The Makropulos Case.
This season, Mr. Plenk appears with the Fort Worth Symphony for Handel’s Messiah, as well as the Artosophere Festival Orchestra for the Verdi Requiem, under the baton of Corrado Rovaris. Recent appearances for the tenor include the world premiere of Drew Hemenger’s Ozymandias – To Sell a Planet with the Boulder Philharmonic, Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) and Alfred (Die Fledermaus) with Central City Opera, Bruckner’s Te deum and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Colorado Symphony, and Die Schöne Müllerin with Keith Ward at the University of Denver.
During the 2020-21 season, Matthew was scheduled to return to the Cleveland Orchestra, Denver Philharmonic (Donizetti, Beethoven, Mozart), and debut with the Rogue Valley Symphony – all cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Matthew Plenk has been seen on the operatic stages of Los Angeles Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Virginia Opera, Atlanta Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Des Moines Metro Opera. In concert, he has appeared with the Cleveland, Boston, Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Baltimore, Houston, Colorado and Hartford Symphonies, University Musical Society, Aspen Music and La Jolla Summerfest festivals, and with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi.
In 2005 Mr. Plenk was one of sixteen singers invited to work with Naxos Records and Yale University in a collaborative project to record the complete songs of Charles Ives. Amongst a number of awards and recognitions, he was a Grand Finalist in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Matthew Plenk is the Artistic Director of Lamont Opera Theatre at The University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, where he also serves Assistant Professor of Voice.
