BASS-BARITONE SOLOIST

American baritone CODY QUATTLEBAUM, equally in demand for both operatic and concert repertoire ranging from the Baroque to contemporary, will debut at Theatre Bonn in a world premier composed by Param Vir called Awakening. Quattlebaum will perform the role of Prince Gautam in this Vasily Barkhatov production. He will perform Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Riccardo Minasi at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia before making his house debut at La Fenice as Vulcano in Sciarrino’s Venere e Adone.

Last season saw Quattlebaum star in several exciting projects: a newly imagined trilogy of Carl Orff’s works entitled Trionficonducted by Kent Nagano and staged at the Staatsoper Hamburg by acclaimed director Calixto Bieito; his highly anticipated debut at English National Opera as the Count in The Marriage of Figaro;  Handel’s Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music at The Barbican and in Las Palmas; Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Riccardo Minasi; and Zebul Jephtha with Il pomo d’oro.

Other recent highlights include Don Giovanni in Simon Steen-Andersen’s new production and opera Don Giovanni’s Inferno for his company debut at the Royal Danish Theatre; Kurwenal Tristan und Isolde at the Opéra de Rouen; Venere Venere e Adone at Staatsoper Hamburg; Bhishma in the world premiere of Thierry Pécou’s Until The Lions and Ratefreund in the French premiere of Braunfels’ Die Vögel, both with Opéra National du Rhin; Il Conte in Le nozze di Figaro with The Handel and Haydn Society conducted by Raphaël Pichon; his debut at the Israeli Opera as Figaro Le nozze di Figaro and with San Francisco Opera as Masetto Don Giovanni. Highlights on the concert platform include Georg Muffat’s Missa in labore requies with Philharmonia Baroque; Beethoven Missa Solemnis with the Oslo Philharmonic conducted by Klaus Mäkelä; Hanns Eisler’s Deutsche Sinfonie with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under the baton of Carlos Miguel Prieto and a concert version of Don Giovanni at Tanglewood Festival with Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons.

Further recent appearances include his company debuts at the Royal Ballet & Opera as Schaunard La bohème; Teatro Real as Masetto Don Giovanni as role which he also performed at San Francisco Opera; his BBC Proms debut in Handel’s Jephtha; Berlioz Roméo et Juliette with the RTVE Symphony Orchestra; Mefistofele Prologue with the Oakland Symphony Orchestra; a concert tour of Bach Coffee Cantata with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale and Richard Egarr; a New Year’s Concert Gala at the Teatr Wielki; Don Fernando Fidelio with Marc Minkowski at the Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; Handel Brockes Passion and Bach St John Passion – both at the Barbican with Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music and Segeste Arminio andDettingen Te Deum at the Händel-Festspiele in Göttingen under the baton of Laurence Cummings.

As a member of the Dutch National Opera Studio during the 2018/19 season, his roles included Geronimo Il matrimonio segreto and Bruno Zirato in the world premiere of Micha Hamel’s Caruso a Cuba. Prior to this, Quattlebaum was a member of the prestigious Opernhaus Zürich International Opera Studio, performing roles such as Schriftsteller in the world premiere of Der Traum von Dir, Larkens La Fanciulla del West and Zuniga in Barrie Kosky’s acclaimed production of Carmen.

Quattlebaum was a finalist in the 2018 Glyndebourne Cup 2018, the Metropolitan Opera National Council competition in 2017, and the recipient of a Sara Tucker grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation. He is an alumnus of the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and the Juilliard School.

COMPOSER

DOUGLAS KNEHANS is an American-Australian composer whose music has been performed, recorded, and broadcast worldwide by leading orchestras, opera companies, chamber ensembles, and distinguished soloists. Hailed by The New Yorker for its "primitive force and melodic insistence that recall Stravinsky," his music has earned international recognition through performances, recordings, broadcasts, and awards including The American Prize, ISCM World Music Days, the Kennedy Center, New Music USA, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Australia Council for the Arts. He is the founder and Artistic Director of ABLAZE Records, and his music is distinguished by dramatic intensity, architectural clarity, expressive immediacy, and exceptional orchestral craftsmanship.

Recent major orchestral recordings include his searing Cloud Ossuary: Symphony No. 4 the triptych Unfinished Earth: Symphony No. 3 and the flute concerto Tempest, recorded by London Symphony Orchestra Principal Flutist Gareth Davies with the Brno Philharmonic; Dark City: Cello Concerto No. 2, recorded by Grammy Award-winning cellist Zuill Bailey and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Ripple: Symphony No. 1 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine; and Drift for oboe and strings, performed by Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Principal Oboist Dwight Parry under the baton of Awadagin Pratt.

Knehans' operatic works have likewise earned international recognition. His first opera, The Ascension of Robert Flau, received its premiere in a Barrie Kosky production for Opera Australia in Sydney. His second opera, Backwards from Winter, was premiered by the Center for Contemporary Opera during New York's NYOperafest before receiving a new Dutch production for Australia's Dark Mofo Festival. Reviewing the recording, Colin Clarke described the work as "an astonishingly visceral Winterreise for the 21st century… this is what contemporary opera should be like."

Gramophone has described Knehans as "a composer of considerable fluency and instrumental imagination," while Fanfare hailed his music as "...radiant and multicolored. This is music of tremendous imagination. Knehans scores with a masterly hand, his sound paintbrush unerringly hitting the mark."

His artistic career has been recognized through prestigious residencies and fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Meet the Composer in New York, and the 1995 Boulez/IRCAM Carnegie Hall Residency devoted to Pierre Boulez's ...explosante-fixe.... In 2025 he was named Wachtmeister Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He has appeared as featured guest composer at international festivals in Ukraine, Poland, Australia, and the United States, and at leading universities throughout the world.