Joseph Gaines, tenor, is a highly versatile and increasingly sought-after operatic and concert artist. A winner of the coveted 2007-2008 William M. Sullivan Foundation Awards, which includes a $10,000 career grant and continuing financial assistance for five years, Gaines has steadily been gaining recognition as an exciting and engaging young performer in both the United States and Europe. The Dresdner Neuste Nachrichten describes him as having “a wonderfully clear lyric voice with a gently responsive upper range.” He is especially known for beautifully sung, well-acted interpretations of character roles, as noted by Opera News Online in reviews of two 2007 performances at Indianapolis Opera: of Verdi’s FALSTAFF, “the sweet-voiced Bardolfo of Joseph Gaines could have been singing Fenton;” and of THE MAGIC FLUTE, that he “sang Monostatos' music beautifully while cavorting about the stage.” The Italian Voice describes him as “a scene-stealing Goro. His fine, robust, and secure tenor and amusing deportment…had the audiences’ attention at all times. He is naturally stage-worthy.”

He has been a member of the young artist training programs of Sarasota Opera, Central City Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera; his operatic repertoire includes roles from MADAMA BUTTERFLY, THE MAGIC FLUTE, FALSTAFF, ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD, L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA, I PAGLIACCI, IL VIAGGIO A REIMS, ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO, THE DANGEROUS LIAISONS, EURIDICE, THE BALLAD OF BABY DOE, EUGENE ONEGIN, among others.

Also often engaged as a concert artist, Gaines performed Handel’s MESSIAH with the world-famous Choir of Men and Boys at New York City’s St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in 2006, and again in his debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2007. He has also been a featured soloist with the Washington Bach Consort, Ars Lyrica Houston, Mercury Baroque, the Houston Chamber Choir, the Houston Bach Society, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, the Master Singers of Westchester (Mozart’s GREAT MASS IN C MINOR), and the Bronx Symphony Orchestra (Haydn’s HARMONIEMESSE), among others.

Gaines is also a featured soloist on two commercially available recordings: Handel’s MESSIAH (Mozart Orchestrations) by the Choir of St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue (of the live performance, the New York Times wrote that all the soloists “often sang with dramatic flair and plenty of bite”); and the first-ever recording of Scarlatti’s oratorio La Concettione della Beata Vergine by Ars Lyrica Houston, to be released by NAXOS in the Fall of 2008.

Other grants and awards include: The Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship; The Anna Sosenko Assist Trust; and The McGlone Award for Outstanding Young Artist at Central City Opera.

The year 2007 heralded several important debuts, including Indianapolis Opera, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Glimmerglass Opera (Opera Today described his Mercury in ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD as “wonderfully fey, wonderfully sung.” ) In 2008, Gaines returns to the Young American Artist Program of Glimmerglass Opera as Pontio Pilato in Wagner’s DAS LIEBESVERBOT, and also will have his debut with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in two performances of Handel’s ODE FOR ST. CECILIA’S DAY.

A native of Houston, Gaines holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Houston, where he studied with tenor Joseph Evans. He also studied singing with Christina Wartenberg at the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, Germany under the auspices of a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship. He is presently based in Pittsburgh, and studies with Leyna Gabriele in New York City, one of the two original “Baby Does” from the opera’s world premiere at Central City Opera in 1956.