Starring as Tamino in the Kenneth Branagh film adaptation of The Magic Flute, conducted by James Conlon and released in 2007, Joseph Kaiser is recognized by audiences for his beauty of tone, for the intelligence of his programming, and for an innate sense of style and elegance. He is internationally acclaimed as one of the most gifted artists of his generation and enjoys success in opera, oratorio, and concert throughout North America and Europe.
In the present season Joseph Kaiser makes two highly anticipated debuts: a Los Angeles Opera debut as Tamino under the baton of James Conlon and a debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper as Steva Burja in Jenůfa, in a new production by Swiss theatre director Barbara Frey, conducted by Kirill Petrenko. The artist returns to the Salzburg Festival as Septimius in a new Christoph Loy production of Handel’s Theodora, conducted by Ivor Bolton, and bows at the Metropolitan Opera as Narraboth in Salomé with Mikko Franck conducting. His dynamic concert schedule includes performances of the Berlioz Requiem, under Marek Janowski, with the combined forces of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Christoph von Dohnányi and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, and a European concert tour with soprano Annette Dasch and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern under the direction of Christoph Poppen.
The 2007-08 season saw Mr. Kaiser’s Metropolitan Opera debut, opposite Anna Netrebko, in the title role of Roméo et Juliette under the baton of Plácido Domingo and performances of Die Zauberflőte conducted by Kirill Petrenko. Further debuts included performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in a new David McVicar production of Salomé, under Philippe Jordan, and the North American premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater at the Santa Fe Opera in a production by Peter Sellars. His busy concert schedule included Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with Sir Simon Rattle and the Philadelphia Orchestra (at the Kimmel Center and at Carnegie Hall), and the Berlioz Requiem under Donald Runnicles both with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Highlights of recent seasons include a new production of Eugene Onegin, by the celebrated German theater director Andrea Breth, at the Salzburg Festival under the direction of Daniel Barenboim, Das Rheingold at the Aix en Provence Festival in a new production by Stéphane Braunschweig and conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, the title role of Béatrice et Bénédict at Chicago Opera Theater in a new production by German theatre director Nicola Raab with Jan Latham-Koenig conducting, the world premiere of John Musto’s Volpone at the Wolf Trap Opera Company, John Philip Sousa’s The Glassblowers at Glimmerglass Opera and New York City Opera, and the Baz Luhrmann production of La bohème on Broadway. He made his Ravinia Festival debut in Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Christoph Eschenbach and in Verdi’s Otello with James Conlon and has sung Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Joseph Kaiser joined the prestigious Ryan Opera Center in the spring of 2004 and, during his residency with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, was involved in productions of The Midsummer Marriage, Fidelio, Aida, and Das Rheingold, singing under the batons of Sir Andrew Davis and Christoph von Dohnányi. As a principal artist with the company, he has bowed in the title role of Roméo et Juliette, as well as in Die Fledermaus, Salome, and Dialogues des Carmélites with Sir Andrew Davis.
Deeply committed to the art of recital, Mr. Kaiser has appeared at the Caramoor Festival, in a joint program with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, which was presented under the auspices of the New York Festival of Song (commercially available on the Bridge Records label), in Chicago at the Chicago Humanities Festival, in Montreal with the André Turp Society, and on the Debut Series of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. He joined a roster of emerging artists on a special gala program, hosted by Renée Fleming and Sherrill Milnes, under the auspices of the George London Foundation and, as the Song Prize winner of the Julian Autrey Foundation, offered his New York solo recital debut, both at Weill Hall
A prize winner in the 2005 Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition, Joseph also was recognized with the Robert Jacobson Memorial Grant by the George London Foundation, first prizes at the Elardo Opera Competition and Orlando Opera Heinz Rehfuss Singing Actor Award, and numerous scholarships at McGill University.