This season tenor Joel Andrew Weiss sings Ernesto in Don Pasquale at the Festival Cultural Mazatlan in Mexico, Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Salt Marsh Opera in Rhode Island, and his first Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Eugene Opera in Oregon. Also this season Joel sings a concert of Italian opera favorites with the Queens Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem with Da Corneto in Chicago, Keiser’s Markuspassion at Grace Cathedral in NYC as well as opera’s greatest hits concerts in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Chicago.
Future engagements include Salome with Opera Pacific starring Deborah Voigt, a concert of opera favorites with the Opera Company of North Carolina, Britten’s St. Nicolas Cantata with the Stonington Choral Society in Connecticut and Mozart’s Requiem in New York. Joel also is a finalist in the Mezzo Television Opera Competition, and travels to Szeged, Hungary this winter to sing excerpts from the opera Raoul.
Joel made his international debut in 2005 as Alfredo in La Traviata with The Polish National Opera conducted by Jacek Kaspszyk. Recent seasons include Don Giovanni with the Opera Company of North Carolina, Il Rè Pastore with the New York Chamber Opera, The Pirates of Penzance and Die Fledermaus with Maine Grand Opera, Lucia di Lammermoor at the Vermont International Opera Festival, The Mikado and Beppe in Pagliacci with Eugene Opera, as well as The Seagull and Gruenberg’s one-man opera The Creation that he recorded with OperaWorks.
Having grown up on the musical theater stage, Joel appeared regionally in Kismet, The Fantasticks, George M!, Once Upon a Mattress, as well as the hit off-Broadway musical Many a Good Hanging Prevents a Bad Marriage. Last season Joel premiered and recorded the role of Mikhail Gorbachev in the musical Raisa.
Joel and his wife Kelly are the founders of the Saint Blaise Foundation. Named after the patron saint of throats, the foundation raises money for cancer research. Originally from Virginia, Joel is a graduate of the Catholic University of America, where he studied voice with Todd Duncan.