Joshua Bloom
Australian-American bass Joshua Bloom is frequently praised for his “resplendent bass” and “huge vocal capacity” alongside an “outstanding dramatic precision and power”, (New York Times, Independent) across a remarkable variety of repertoire from Mozart, to Wagner and Strauss, to world premiere works by Gerald Barry and Richard Ayres. He has sung principal roles with Oper Köln, English National Opera, Garsington Opera, the Royal Opera House, San Francisco Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, LA Opera, Opera Australia, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Badisches Staatstheater, Irish National Opera, and New Israeli Opera, among others.
Bloom has also appeared on the concert stage with the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, all of the major London orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, the Auckland Philharmonia and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group as well as the Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide and Western Australian Symphonies.
In the 2022/23 season, Bloom will make multiple house debuts as Cadmus Semele for Opera de Lille, Bottom A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Opéra de Rouen Normandie and Kissinger Nixon in China for Opéra national de Paris. On the concert platform, he will perform Handel Messiah with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Rambo The Death of Klinghoffer at The Concertgebouw.
Highlights of previous seasons include Ratefreund Die Vögel and Vodnik Rusalka for Opera Köln, Ramfis and the King Aida for New Israeli Opera, Leporello Don Giovanni for Welsh National Opera, performances of The Garden by Richard Ayres, the opera written for him for solo Bass, Orchestra, and Electronics, both in the premiere with the London Sinfonietta and Asko Schoenberg and at New Days Opera in Ostrava; Tutor in Rossini Le Comte Ory with Garsington Opera for Cal McCrystal’s new production; Méphistophélès in Berlioz Le Damnation de Faust, with Edward Gardner at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Hunding in Wagner Die Walküre with Graeme Jenkins in Lisbon; The Ghost of Old Hamlet/Gravedigger in a new production of Brett Dean’s acclaimed Hamlet; Faraone in Rossini’s virtuosic Mosè in Egitto for Oper Köln;Swallow in Britten Peter Grimes for the International Enescu Festival; Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with English National Opera in the iconic Robert Carsen production; title role in Bartok Bluebeard’s Castle, in a new production by Enda Walsh;a house debut at the Royal Opera House in the world premiere production of Gerald Barry Alice’s Adventures Underground; and Kaspar in Der Freischütz in the International Hyogo Festival of the Performing Arts, Japan.
Bloom appears on NMC’s Grammy nominated recording of Gerald Barry The Importance of Being Earnest, conducted by Thomas Adès; the New York Philharmonic’s live recording of Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen, conducted by Alan Gilbert; The Metropolitan Opera’s HD Broadcast of Mozart Don Giovanni, conducted by Fabio Luisi; the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall broadcast of Ligeti LeGrand Macabre, and the LSO Live recording of Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande both conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.
Bloom was born in Australia to musician parents and studied cello and double-bass as well as being a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne. He went on to study History at the University of Melbourne and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.
His professional debut in opera was in an OzOpera touring production of The Barber of Seville, after which he joined the Young Artist Programme of Opera Australia in Sydney, and later the Merola and Adler Fellowship Programmes at the San Francisco Opera.