Joshua Sanders

Joshua Sanders joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the 2023-24 season, covering Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola. He made debuts with Opera San José's Roméo et Juliette as Roméo and in Il Barbiere di Siviglia as Count Almaviva, as well as with Nashville Opera as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte. At Los Angeles Opera, he covers the role of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni.

In the 2022-23 season, Sanders joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera for Robert Carsen’s production of Der Rosenkavalier, and the Palm Beach Opera as a Benenson Young Artist singing the role of Goro in Madama Butterfly and covering Ferrando in Così fan tutte.

Sanders made his international debut in 2017 at Teatro Regio Torino as Der Hirte in Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. During his year-long tenure at Teatro Regio, he sang the role of the Prince of Persia in Turandot, Second Nazarene in Salome, Eco in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro, and the Prior of Milan in Verdi’s I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata, which was recorded for Naxos. In that same season, he also debuted at Deutsche Oper Berlin as the Judge in Un Ballo in Maschera conducted by Donald Runnicles.

In concert, Sanders made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2019 as a soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music. He has appeared as a guest soloist with the New Jersey Symphony as the titular character in Berlioz’s Lélio and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Lee Mingwei’s "Sonic Blossom" exhibit, featuring the music of Schubert. He has also performed at the Public Theater in a cabaret curated by Justin Vivian Bond for New York State’s NY PopsUp concert series. Additional concert credits include appearing as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St. John's Passion, and Vaughan Williams’ Pilgrim’s Journey.

Past seasons have included performances with Heartbeat Opera as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni; with Berkshire Opera Festival as Borsa in Rigoletto; with Madison Opera as Tobias Ragg in Sweeney Todd; and a concert version of Frank Martin’s rarely-heard Le Vin Herbé, coproduced by Wolf Trap Opera and Washington Concert Opera. Sanders trained at Wolf Trap Opera in the Studio Artist program, where he performed Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro and Wilhelm in The Ghosts of Versailles. As part of the Young Artist program at Bel Canto at Caramoor, he performed in Manuel Garcia’s Un avvertimento ai gelosi and covered Gualtiero in Bellini’s Il Pirata.

A highly awarded artist, Sanders was a finalist in the 2023 Belvedere Competition and was awarded a study grant from the Metropolitan Opera's Laffont Competition in 2021, after being named a national semifinalist in 2020. He was the winner of the prestigious Amber Capital Scholarship from the Opera Foundation in 2017, the Sachi Liebersgesell award from Opera Index in 2019, and the 2017 Bel Canto Vocal Scholarship Competition. He also won second prize in the 2019 Violetta DuPont Competition at Opera at Florham and third prize in the 2018 Grand Stage International Song and Lieder Competition. Sanders holds a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.