Baritone Conor McDonald has been lauded by the New York Times as “irresistible” and praised by Opera News for his “warm voice and winning personality.” Known for his affinity for early and contemporary music, engagements for last season included the title role in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at OrpheusPDX, and his company début with Madison Opera as Brother and Jazz Trio Baritone in The Seven Deadly Sins and Trouble in Tahiti, as well as Morales in Carmen at Lyric Opera of Kansas City. McDonald welcomes this season with his return to The Atlanta Opera as Marullo in Rigoletto.

In recent seasons, Conor joined The Metropolitan Opera as cover of the Major-Domo in Ariadne auf Naxos and sang Dancaïre in Carmenin his Minnesota Opera début. Additionally, he made his début with Austin Opera as Marullo in Rigoletto, gave a master class and recital at Lee University, where he performed art songs by Mussourgsky, Britten, Poulenc, and Milhaud with fellow Tanglewood alumna Dr. ChoEun Lee, and performed in the workshop of The Halloween Tree with American Lyric Theater. McDonald has performed as Junius in The Rape of Lucretia as a guest artist with CUNY Queens; the Traveler in Curlew River with the Mark Morris Dance Group at Brooklyn Academy of Music; and made several appearances as baritone soloist with New York City Ballet, including Bernstein’s Dybbuk, Stravinsky’s Les Noces, and Brahms’s Liebeslieder Walzer.

As a Filene Artist at Wolf Trap Opera, he performed Tobias Ragg in Sweeney Todd, the title role in Gluck’s L’île de Merlin, the Major-Domo in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, as well as a recital of art songs at the Phillips Collection. Other recent engagements include Marchese d’Obigny in La Traviata with the Atlanta Opera; Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore with Anchorage Opera; and Ponchel in Kevin Puts’s Silent Night and the Soldier in Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale at the 2018 Glimmerglass Festival.

With an interest in the development of new works, McDonald has performed in workshops of newly commissioned operas coproduced by the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Cincinnati Opera, including Scott Davenport Richards’s Blind Injustice, Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce’s Fellow Travelers, Daniel Catán’s Meet John Doe, and Terence Blanchard and Michael Cristofer’s Champion. An active recitalist, McDonald has presented songs by Britten, Schubert, Ravel, Schumann, Debussy, Dessau, Mussorgsky, Eisler, and Weill.

McDonald holds bachelor’s degrees in vocal performance and art history from Northwestern University, and a master’s degree in voice and opera from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Bill McGraw.