Grammy Award-winning baritone Edward Parks, a native of Indiana, Pennsylvania, holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Yale University. A National Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Parks trained at the Met’s Lindemann Young Artists Development Program, and was also awarded third prize in Placido Domingo’s Operalia Competition.
Noted for his interpretations of new works, Ed begins the 2023-2024 season as The Creature in the world premiere of Gregg Kallor’s Frankenstein with Arizona Opera. He joins Andrea Bocelli for an 11-city US tour, including two dates at New York City's Madison Square Garden, sings a Gala concert performance with violinist Joshua Bell and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields at The Soraya Performing Arts Center, and bows as Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterflyat the Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Japan. Further ahead, he will sing a leading role at Houston Grand Opera.
Projects for the 2022-2023 season included Jack Torrance in The Shining with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Marcello in Yuval Sharon’s contemporary staging of La bohème with Boston Lyric Opera, a presentation of Peter Knell’s new opera Arkhipov, centered around the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a seven-city US stadium tour with renowned Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
During the 2021-2022 season Mr. Parks joined Bocelli on national tour, performing in dozens of venues including New York City’sMadison Square Garden and Los Angeles’Hollywood Bowl. He reprised Jack Torrance with Opera Colorado and bowed as Marcello in Yuval Sharon’s production with Detroit Opera (formerly Michigan Opera Theater).
Mr. Parks made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia and has since appeared Figaro in Barbiere, Schaunard in La bohème (also on tour to Japan), and as Larkens in La fancuilla del West, which was broadcast to cinemas worldwide as part of the Met’s “Live in HD” series.
Parks has appeared with Lyric Opera of Chicago as Valentin in Faust, Escamillo in Carmen with the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in Japan, Steve Jobs in the world premiere of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at Santa Fe Opera, Audebert in Silent Night(which he recorded for Naxos Records) and Marcello in La bohème with Minnesota Opera, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore with Opera Oviedo in Spain, and Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with Opera de Monte Carlo on tour in Oman. Other operatic performances include Inman in Cold Mountain with North Carolina Opera, Escamillo and Mercutio with Atlanta Opera and Nashville Opera, Valentin with Portland Opera, Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles at the Detroit Opera, Conte Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Central City Opera, and Ford in Falstaff with Des Moines Metro Opera.
Recent concert engagements have included Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Prague Proms International Music Festival and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, his debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the Duruflé Requiem, his Carnegie Hall debut in an evening of songs by Charles Ives, and Schubert’s Winterreise at both the Schubert Club in St. Paul and in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. He is a member of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, which has presented him in recital in New York including a recital with Susan Graham at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.
Mr. Parks was named a First Prize winner at theGerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition and has received awards from the George London Foundation