From the Kennedy Center to Hong Kong City Hall, baritone Nicholas Provenzale’s international appearances have delighted audiences and critics alike. A versatile performer, educator and director, he enjoys an active career in opera, oratorio, art song, and musical theatre.
His operatic engagements include performances with Musica Viva Hong Kong, Indianapolis Opera, Kentucky Opera, San Diego Opera, Dicapo Opera Theatre, and Bronx Opera. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Sioux City Symphony, the South Dakota Symphony, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, and the Thailand Philharmonic. As part of an Abraham Lincoln bicentennial concert in 2009, Nicholas portrayed a young Lincoln in scenes from a new opera at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Nicholas' many opera roles include Silvio in Pagliacci, Danilo in The Merry Widow, Dandini in La Cenerentola, Marcello and Schaunard in La Bohème, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, the Father in Hansel and Gretel, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus. He most recently appeared as Aeneas in Wilmington Concert Opera’s virtual production of Dido and Aeneas.
A recording artist with Albany Records, he can be heard as Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, and Beau Braxton in the world premiere of Pasatieri’s God Bless Us, Every One. His latest album featuring songs of Ernest Charles, When I Have Sung My Songs was released in the spring of 2022. It is described by Fanfare Magazine as "sung with loving care and considerable skill. His voice is handsome... he gives these songs their due and then some."
Other recordings include the studio cast album of a new musical about the formative years of the American labor unions, Mother Jones (2022); and the title role in an opera about the life of American folk singer Woody Guthrie, Woody: For the People (2011).
Nicholas is an active recitalist, most recently performing at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Italy; West Chester University; the Sam Houston State University Art Song Festival (virtual); Austin, Texas (Twilight Concert Series); and Columbus, Ohio (Ohio Song Project). He has also appeared at the University of South Dakota; Idyllwild Arts Academy in California; Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand; Eastern Illinois University; the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre; and Sala Sudasiri Sobha in Bangkok, Thailand.
Nicholas was recently named a National Finalist in two categories of The American Prize (2023). His album, When I Have Sung My Songs was selected as a finalist for Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music. His recording of Poulenc’s Le travail du peintre was selected as a finalist for the American Prize in Virtual Performance. Nicholas won Third Place in the Art Song division of The American Prize in 2016 and won the Hawaii Public Radio Art Song Competition in 2013.
As a choral artist he has performed with Opera Philadelphia, Grant Park Music Festival Chorus, the South Dakota Chorale, Boston Lyric Opera, and the New York Philharmonic. As a member of the Pro Arte Singers, led by Paul Hillier, he is heard on William Byrd: The Three Masses, on the Harmonia Mundi label.
Nicholas has directed productions of Alcina, Viardot's Cinderella, Die Fledermaus, Robin Hood by Ben Moore and Kelley Rourke (collegiate premiere), L'elisir d'amore (a live drive-in opera), L'isola disabitata (Haydn), Hansel and Gretel, Many Moons (Dougherty), and more. In the summers of 2022 and 2023, he directed opera scenes at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Italy. He served as music director and conductor for Eastern Illinois University's 2016 production of the musical Dogfight.
An enthusiastic educator, Nicholas joined the faculty of West Chester University of Pennsylvania in 2020 as Director of Opera and Assistant Professor of Voice and Opera. He previously served on the faculty of the University of South Dakota, Eastern Illinois University, and Mahidol University in Thailand, where he was Chair of the Classical Voice Department. He has been a guest teacher and performer at Idyllwild Arts Academy, Payap University in Thailand, Burapha University in Thailand, the Myanmar Institute of Theology, and the Asho Chin Thelogical Seminary, in Myanmar.
Nicholas received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, studying with Giorgio Tozzi. In 2012, He completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Kentucky, where he studied with Dr. Everett McCorvey.
