DEVON'S BIOGRAPHY

Celebrated for his “brilliant” and “booming” baritone, Devon Russo performs frequently as a soloist and ensemble member in Opera, Contemporary Music, and Early Music throughout the United States. Onstage, he has performed the roles of Sam (Trouble in Tahiti), Oloferne (La Giuditta), Papageno (Die Zauberflӧte), the Drunken Poet and Hymen (The Fairy-Queen), and Arbas in Lully’s Cadmus et Hermione and the title roles in Gianni Schicchi, Signor Deluso, Le Carnaval Mascarade and Dido and Aeneas. With a particular love for Handel’s operas and oratorios, he has sung Tirenio (Il Pastor Fido), Manoah (Samson), Farasmane (Radamisto) and Argante (Rinaldo). He has performed with the Boston Lyric Opera, Odyssey Opera, Opera in Williamsburg, Opera Providence, and Salt Marsh Opera.

In concert, he has sung the baritone and bass solos in Carmina Burana, Vaughan William’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols and Five Mystical Songs, Faure’s Requiem, Durufle Requiem, Cherubini’s Messa Solenne in Do Maggiore, Haydn’s Paukenmesse and Cacilienmesse, Finzi’s In Terra Pax, Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium and Markus-Passion as Jesus, the title role in Elijah and the bass solo in Messiah. He has performed with Quicksilver Baroque, Brevitas, the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Musica Dolce and the Star Island Chamber Music Festival, Et al., the Blacksburg Master’s Chorale, the Masterworks Chorale, Harvard pro Musica, the Nashua Choral Society, Cantata Singers in Boston, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

Devon has taken part in the Boston Early Music Festival Young Artist Program, the Voces8 Choral Scholar Programme, Académie Orford Musique, the Seraphic Fire Professional Choral Institute at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, Source Song Festival, the Manhattan Opera Studio Summer Festival, Singing Down the Barriers at the University of Michigan with the Hampsong Foundation, the Amherst Early Music Festival Opera Project and Winter Workshop, the Haymarket Opera Summer Institute, the Baroque Opera Workshop at Queen’s College and Connecticut Lyric Opera's Young Artist Program. He has been a vocal apprentice at the Nahant Music Festival and a Choral Scholar with the Oratorio Society of New York, the Berkshire Choral Festival, and Trinity Church (Newport, RI). He has performed in the Masterclasses of Frederica von Stade and Tom Cipullo. Locally, Devon performs both as a soloist and an ensemble member with the Schola Cantorum at St. Stephen’s (Providence, RI), Ensemble Altera, the Gregorian Concert Choir at the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, and with Collegium Ancora the ensemble-in-residence at Grace Church Providence.

Devon has performed in many world class venues including Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, the Boston Opera House, St. John the Divine (NYC), Marsh Chapel (Boston), the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and at Tanglewood. He was a Semifinalist for The American Prize in Voice Friedrich & Virginia Schorr Memorial Award (Art Song and Oratorio) in 2016 and in 2012 was the runner up for the NATS Artist Awards Competition. He currently studies with Penelope Bitzas and has studied with Mark Oswald and Mark Conley. Musical coaches include Christian Immler and Dashon Burton. He has performed in productions directed by Anne Bogart, Gilbert Blin, and Benjamin Luxon. He has sung in masterclasses presented by Frederica von Stade, Thomas Hampson, Ryan McKinny and Tom Chipullo. A passionate educator, he is currently a part of the voice faculty at Providence College, the Community College of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School and was a member of the voice faculty at South Shore Conservatory for many years. Many of his students move on to study in conservatories and universities while performing and placing with major state and national choirs and competitions. In 2018 Devon began reading for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance at Boston University. Devon earned his Master’s in Vocal Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and Bachelors in Vocal Performance and Music Education from the University of Rhode Island.

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