About this Artist

Recently recognized in the 2019 Grammy^® Awards, 25-year-old American countertenor ARYEH NUSSBAUM COHEN (David) is one of opera’s most promising rising stars. First Prize Winner and Audience Choice Award recipient at the 2018 Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition, in his breakout 2016/17 season, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen was awarded the Grand Prize of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was the recipient of a Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. He was First Prize winner of the Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition, and winner of the Irvin Scherzer Award from the George London Foundation. His first commercial recording project - the world premiere recording of Kenneth Fuchs’ Poems of Life with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by JoAnn Falletta - was recently honored with a 2019 Grammy Award in the Best Classical Compendium category, which honors albums with multiple soloists and multiple works.

Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen joined San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellowship program in autumn 2018 and he makes a main stage debut with the Company as Medoro in Orlando in a bold new production by English director Harry Fehr in summer 2019 under the baton of Christopher Moulds. Performances of the season also include the role of David in Handel’s Saul with Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, including for his debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Ottone in Handel’s Agrippina in staged performances with Ars Lyrica Houston conducted by Matthew Dirst and directed by Tara Faircloth, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Matthew Dirst and the Portland Baroque Orchestra, the world premiere of a ballet by Yuri Possokhov with the San Francisco Ballet, and a gala concert with American Bach Soloists, with whom he then records his debut solo album. He covers the role of Polinesso in Handel’s Ariodante conducted by Harry Bicket at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

The New York City native became the first countertenor in the history of the Houston Grand Opera Studio where he was a member during the 2017/18 season. His performances for the company included the roles of Nireno in Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Second Maid in Strauss’ Elektra, both under the baton of Music Director Patrick Summers. He made his Cincinnati Opera debut in a new production by Zack Winokur of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea conducted by Gary Thor Wedow and appeared in concert programs of Bach and Handel with the American Bach Soloists and with Ars Lyrica Houston. 

Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen made his European debut at the Theater an der Wien singing Timante in Gluck’s Demofonte with Baroque ensemble Il Complesso Barocco, under the baton of Alan Curtis. His opera roles also include Nerone and Ottone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Raphael (The Angel) in Jonathan Dove’s Tobias and the Angel, The Son in Philip Glass’ The Juniper Tree, and Cefalo in Cavalli’s Gli Amori di Apollo e Dafne. The artist’s experience in the world of sacred music is no less impressive and highlights include serving as the alto soloist in Bach’s Magnificat with the Leipzig Barockorchester in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Germany. 

Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen earned a bachelor’s degree in History from Princeton University (with a concentration in Intellectual and Cultural History) and was awarded academic certificates in Vocal Performance and Judaic Studies. During his senior year, he became the first singer in a decade to win the Princeton University Concerto Competition and he was awarded the Isidore and Helen Sacks Memorial Prize for extraordinary achievement in the arts, granted each year by Princeton University to the student of greatest promise in the performance of classical music.