Dominic Armstrong

Dominic Armstrong impresses audiences with his musicianship, characterization, and dynamism of repertoire. A Metropolitan Opera National Council Finalist and winner of the George London Competition, Mr. Armstrong has made important debuts with companies in the United States and internationally.

This season will find Dominic performing in recitals at University of Missouri, University of Missouri Kansas City, and his alma mater Truman State University, symphonic concerts with University of Missouri (Verdi’s Requiem), Salisbury Symphony, and the Bangor Symphony (Beethoven’s 9th), and a return to Opera Carolina, performing Alfredo in their production of La Traviata.

In the 2021-22 season, Mr. Armstrong returned to a more active performance schedule, including recitals at Georgia Southern University, the University of Binghamton, and The University of South Carolina, Brooklyn Art Song Society in New York, The Castleton Festival, and with Mirror Visions Ensemble in Toronto, Canada; as well as concerts with Amarillo Symphony (Mozart’s Requiem), the Indianapolis, Baton Rouge, and North Carolina Symphonies (Beethoven’s 9th), the Aiken Symphony Orchestra (Handel’s Messiah), and the Charlotte Symphony. He also performed operas with Dayton Opera (appearing as Orville Wright in Laura Kaminsky’s world premiere Finding Wright) and Opera Carolina (appearing as First Sergeant and Jump Master in Redler’s The Falling and the Rising). He made his UK debut premiering Will Todd’s Requiem Gravare with Dr. Alicia Walker and the University of South Carolina Concert Choir. 

During the closures of the pandemic, Mr. Armstrong performed a number of concerts digitally, including a concert for the Lyceum Series with Truman State University (a collection of Beethoven and Schumann duets with his wife, soprano Ashley Emerson), a return to Brooklyn Art Song Society in their digital theatre (performing Schubert’s Schwanengesang with Joel Harder), as well as a virtual recital with Opera Carolina and Dr. Gregory Thompson, and a virtual concert with the Bangor Symphony orchestra.

In 2019-20, Mr. Armstrong made a debut with Kentucky Opera (Don José in Carmen), returned to OnSite Opera (Peter Quint in Turn of the Screw), and performed in Ricky Ian Gordon’s new work Intimate Apparel with Lincoln Center Theatre.  He also performed in concert and recital work with The New Choral Society and Brooklyn Art Song Society.

Other recent performances have included productions of Tosca (Cavaradossi) with Maestro Emmanuel Plasson in a tour of southern France; a nationwide tour of the US with Mikael Eliasen and Milos Repicky for Curtis on Tour; as well as debuts with LA Opera (Edgar Allen Poe and Cecil Cheshire in Gordon Getty’s Scare Pair), Opera Omaha (Lurcanio in Handel’s Ariodante), Syracuse Opera (Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth), and the completion of Wagner’s Die Walküre portraying Siegmund with the Miami Music Festival under the baton of its founder, Michael Rossi. 

Other milestones include performances with the New York City Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Philadelphia, Opera Colorado, Opera Regio Torino, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wexford Festival Opera, Ars Musica Hong Kong, Carnegie Hall Presents, Lincoln Center Festival, Chautauqua Opera, Prototype Festival, and many others.

On the concert stage, Dominic has recently joined the Florida Symphony for Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, Kaohsiung Symphony in Taiwan for a New Year’s Concert, Milwaukee Symphony for Bach’s Magnificat, and the Orchestra of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Svetlanov) and several other Russian orchestras with Maestro Mark Mandarano on a tour celebrating Leonard Bernstein. Other symphonies and orchestras Mr. Armstrong has appeared with include The Russian National Symphony (Brabbins), Philadelphia Orchestra (Nizet-Seguin), Boston Symphony Orchestra (Nelsons), Detroit Symphony (Slatkin), Portland Symphony (Portland, Oregon), Rochester Symphony, Waterbury Symphony, Princeton Symphony, Symphony in C, National Symphony Orchestra, Lansing Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic (Gilbert).

In recital, Dominic has been heard with his consistent partners at The Brooklyn Art Song Society, performing most recently Janacek’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared with Kate Maroney and Joel Harder. Other recent collaborations include concerts in San Francisco (Lieder Alive), Davis, CA, The Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the series at the La Jolla Athenaeum. Summer of 2019 Dominic made a return to Twickenham Festival in Huntsville, Alabama, where he sang the complete songs of Henrí Duparc with Susanna Phillips and Roman Rabinovich. Other art song collaborators have included Craig Rutenberg, Mikael Eliasen, Brian Zeger, Rachel AuBuchon, Michael Brofman, Milos Repicky, Shannon McGinnis, Joel Harder, and Wilson Southerland. In the fall of 2019, an album of Lori Laitman art songs was released featuring Dominic collaborating with Warren Jones and Andrew Rosenberg.

Mr. Armstrong has worked with many contemporary composers interpreting, creating, and workshopping operas, art songs, and oratorios by composers such as; John Corigliano (Ghost of Versailles), André Previn (A Streetcar Named Desire), John Musto (The Inspector; Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt), Ben Moore (Gene and Tate), Matthew Aucoin (The Crossing), Harold Meltzer (Beautiful Ohio), Jeremy Gill (A Whitman Portrait), Laurence Siegel (Kaddish), Frédéric Chaslin (Clarimonde), Steven Stucky (The Classical Style), Gordon Getty (Usher House; The Canterville Ghost), Missy Mazzoli (Breaking the Waves), Julia Adolphe (A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears) and creating the role of Arthur Dimmesdale in Lori Laitman’s The Scarlet Letter. He has also participated in American Opera Project’s Composers and the Voice program.

Along with the National Council and George London awards, Dominic has received prizes, grants, and awards from The Sullivan Foundation, The Opera Foundation, Opera Index, Gerda Lissner Foundation, SAI Vocal Competition, The Annapolis Opera, Gold Medal Competition (Truman State University), NATS State and Regional awards, and was the winner of the 2009 Liederkranz Art Song Competition. He holds degrees from Truman State University, The Juilliard School, and The Curtis Institute of Music.  In the Fall of 2020, he joined the faculty of the University of South Carolina as an Associate Professor of Voice, and joined the faculty of the Opera Conservatory of The Chautauqua Opera in the summer of 2022.