Andrew Robert Munn, Bass
Andrew Munn’s sonorous bass and sensitive phrasing were put on particularly good display. The Huffington Post August 2, 2016
With his warm and elegant voice, the young bass singer Andrew Robert Munn has won over opera and concert stages around the world. For the native Californian, who attracted attention as a finalist at the Innsbruck Cesti Competition in 2019, important debuts have highlighted the recent seasons: In 2022, as part of a coproduction between the Munich Biennale and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, he sang the role of the Man in Military Attire in the world premiere of Berhnard Gander’s Songs of Exile and No Return, based on texts by the Ukranian author Serhij Zhadan. At New York's Carnegie Hall, he took the stage as soloist in the world premiere of Zhou Long's oratorio Men of Iron and the Golden Spike. He also appeared in Chaya Czernowin's Heart Chamber at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He returned to Opera na Zamku in Szczecin as Frère Laurent in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, and embodied King Atrace in Melani's L'empio punito at the Innsbruck Early Music Festival in summer 2020. In the 2021/22 season he took on roles such as Truffaldin in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and Sarastro in The Magic Flute at the Landestheater Salzburg.
After completing his studies at the renowned Juilliard School in New York, the student of Dawn Upshaw and Sanford Sylvan moved to Berlin in 2018. During his first season in Europe, he appeared as Seneca in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, as Inspector and Uncle Albert in Philip Glass' The Trial (based on Kafka's novel of the same name), and as Sarastro in Mozart's The Magic Flute. In 2019, he founded the duo+ and collaboration hub Chimera with long-time collaborator pianist Rami Sarieddine. They presented recitals in Abu Dhabi, Athens, Berlin, and Cyprus, performing repertoire including Purcell, Schubert, Wolf, Barber, and world premieres of works composed for the duo+ by Andys Skordis and Conrad Winslow. They were also finalists with Winter Journey in a Post-Winter World at #LIEDINNOVATION 2021 of the Rhonefestival in Switzerland.
In his commitment to new music projects, his musical passions and personal interests intersect: As the child of two classical archaeologists, he was born into a familiarity with the ancient and an ability to reflect on social change. He gained extensive experience as an environmental activist from 2008 to 2014, when he helped organize the fight for climate policy in the coal mining areas of the Appalachian Mountains. In cooperation with composers of his generation, he is now working on these themes in his double role as soloist and librettist. In collaboration with Nina C. Young, for example, he created the opera Making Tellus as a meditation on the geological age of the Anthropocene. Nate May composed the scenic song cycle Dust in the Bottomland for him, which contextualizes the US opioid crisis amid ecological destruction. Funded by the Neustart Kultur programme of the German Music Council, Andrew Robert Munn wrote English verses for Hanns Eisler's Hollywooder Liederbuch, partly close to the model, partly freely adapted, which continue Eisler's and Brecht's political art into the present day. The result is the Berlin Verses project, developed by a team of five, which highlights ecological issues and the authoritarian aspect of neoliberal capitalism, and in the framework of which a film is also being made.
Before his leap across the Atlantic, Andrew was a 2018 Gerdine Young Artist at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where he sang Doctor Grenvil in Verdi's La Traviata and Specialist Swanson in the world premiere of Huang Ruo's An American Soldier. In 2017 he had his Lincoln Center debut with Juilliard Opera under the direction of Laurence Cummings in Handel's Agrippina. Further operatic roles include Dr. Cajus and Falstaff in Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor by Otto Nicolai; Rocco in Beethoven’s Fidelio, Gremin in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, The Lion in Oliver Knussen’s Higglety Pigglety Pop!, and Beethoven in the world stage premiere of Steven Stucky and Jeremy Denk’s The Classical Style.
In concert, Andrew has performed Mozart’s Requiem under the baton of Ádám Fischer, Haydn’s The Creation with the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein, Handel’s Messiah with Mr. Botstein’s The Orchestra Now, Rossini’s Stabat Mater with The Orchestra of the Triangle, and Jesus in Bach’s St. John Passion with Cathedral of All Saints and Handel and Haydn Society. In 2018, he debuted at Merkin Concert Hall in New York Festival of Song's acclaimed programme of politically inspired music, Protest!, with pianist Steven Blier. He was a Vocal Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2017, where he was featured as a soloist in Bach's Liebster Jesu mein Verlangen, conducted by John Harbison, and in excerpts from Heinrich Schütz's Symphoniae Sacrae as well as recital programmes.