Heralded for his “firm, flexible baritone” (New York Times) and “swaggering, rakish” stage presence (Opera News), baritone Timothy Murray is a 2022 George London Foundation award winner and was a Grand Finalist in the 2021 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Additionally, he has won recognition in competitions from The Sullivan Foundation, Loren L. Zachary Society, Glyndebourne Opera Cup, and the Mario Lanza competition.
This season, Mr. Murray debuts at the Metropolitan Opera in Jeanine Tesori's Grounded and also joins the company's roster for Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar. In the spring, Tim returns to the title role in Don Giovanni for his debut at Opera Philadelphia and sings the title role in Tobias Picker's Fantastic Mr. Fox for his debut at Opera Omaha.
In the 2023-2024 season, Mr. Murray made his European debut in the title role of Don Giovanni in a new production by Emmanuelle Haïm and Guy Cassiers at Opéra de Lille. He also joined the Metropolitan Opera to workshop Mason Bates' The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, the Santa Fe Opera for the world premiere of Gregory Spears' The Righteous, and the New York Philharmonic for the US premiere of Émigré.
While in the Adler Fellowship Program at San Francisco Opera, his assignments included covering the title roles in Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, and The Barber of Seville, Sciarrone in Tosca, Scarus in John Adam’s world premiere of Antony & Cleopatra, Guglielmo cover in Così fan tutte, multiple covers in Dialogues des Carmélites, and Marchese d’Obigny in La traviata. He concluded his time as an Adler Fellow singing Billy Budd under the baton of SF Opera Music Director Eun Sun Kim in a performance which was praised by the SF Chronicle as “tender and sonorous”.
Other season highlights include the title role in Don Giovanni and Schaunard (La bohème) with North Carolina Opera, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, and a debut with the San Francisco Symphony in Carmina Burana. He also performed duets from I puritani, Les pêcheurs de perles, and The Merry Widow in San Francisco Opera’s Adlers: LIVE at the Drive-In concert. As a participant in the 2019 Merola Opera Program, he performed the role of Paul in the world premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s, If I Were You, and finished out the summer on the War Memorial Opera House stage singing the title role in a scene from Thomas’ Hamlet as part of the Merola Grand Finale. Previous highlights include William Dale (Silent Night) with Arizona Opera, Il Conte (Le nozze di Figaro) and Mercutio (Roméo et Juliette) with The Academy of Vocal Arts, covering the title role in Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s Eugene Onegin, his New Jersey Symphony debut as the baritone soloist in Berlioz’s Lélio, and his debut with the Oratorio Society of New York as Pater Ecstaticus in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8.
Tim grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, Manhattan School of Music in NYC, and the University of Minnesota.
