Andrew Ryker

American baritone Andrew Ryker is an award-winning voice teacher, musician, and nationally recognized stage director. Recent voice and opera students perform on stages all over the country, from the Met to San Francisco Opera. Ryker has had nine award winners in Metropolitan Opera competitions, over 50 winners at NATS, and young artist placements at Santa Fe Opera, Sarasota, Merola, Des Moines Metro, Minnesota, Utah Festival, St. Louis, the Spoleto Festival, and more. Recent Musical Theatre alumni are on Broadway national tours (Anastasia, Come from Away, Hairspray), in off-Broadway shows (The Office, Friends, Stranger Sings), on cruise ships (Beetlejuice, Cats, Jersey Boys, Kinky Boots), at Disney (Aladdin, Beauty & the Beast, Frozen), and featured on several original cast albums.

Ryker has served as Director of Opera at both Ohio University and Capital University and staged more than 40 productions for companies like Opéra Louisiane, Des Moines Metro, Opera North, Boston Opera Collaborative, Intermezzo, FIO Italia, Opera New Jersey, MetroWest Opera, and more. He and spent seven years at Des Moines Metro Opera, directing for their summer festival, educational outreach tours, and nationally recognized apprentice artist program. Prior to his time in Des Moines, Andrew was Artistic Director of Boston Opera Collaborative and served on the directing staff at the New England Conservatory. Awards have included an Elliot Norton Award, a Cloris Award, a Cincinnati SongSlam Award, a Goldowsky Directing Fellowship, and his production of Britten’s Curlew River was named Boston’s “Best Staged Opera of the Year” by The Boston Phoenix.

Ryker has a diverse background onstage. Operatic roles included Papageno, Don Alfonso, the Count, Silvio, Belcore, Marco, St. Brioche, Strephon, John Brooke, and the lead role in the US premiere of Dvorak’s Kral a Uhlir. Oratorio credits include Bach’s Johannes Passion, Durufle’s Requiem, Faure’s Requiem, and Handel’s Messiah and he’s been heard with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, College Light Opera Company, La Musica Lirica, Trinity Church, and more. Recent highlights include the lead role in Parade with StageWest, a solo cabaret at Noce jazz club, Messiah at the Church of the Good Shepherd, and the title role in I am Harvey Milk with The Des Moines Gay Men’s Chorus. Andrew has sung in master classes with Warren Jones, Pierre Vallet, Vinson Cole, and Alan Held and is an alumnus of Millikin University, where he studied with Kathryn Hartgrove. He received his master’s in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory where he graduated with Academic Honors and was a student of William Cotten and John Moriarty.

Andrew is coming to Atlanta from Columbus, Ohio, where he lives with his husband and two dogs and was the Director of Opera & Musical Theatre at Capital University.