Praised by Opera News for his “charm, sharp diction, and ping,” tenor Chance Jonas-O’Toole is an artist committed to engaging audiences through passionate storytelling. 

In 2022, Chance joined the Merola Opera Program, singing Monostatos in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, as well as scenes of Donizetti and Britten with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. Also in 2022, Chance was chosen as a finalist in the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition.

He was a 2021 Gerdine Young Artist at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where he covered Captain Collins in the New Works, Bold Voices workshop, as well as performing in the Center Stage concert. Chance closed out 2021 with Liederabend, Op. Senses, a night of new vocal works curated by National Sawdust and Beth Morrison Projects in Brooklyn, New York. 

In 2019, Chance made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as the tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy under Andris Nelsons. 

In the summers of 2017 and 2018, Chance was a tenor fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he was able to explore his passions for song, chamber music, and new works, working with internationally-renowned artists such as Dawn Upshaw, Stephanie Blythe, and Simon Keenlyside. During those fellowships, he premiered works by Michael Gandolfi and Doug Balliett, and performed in programs of Bach Cantatas under the direction of John Harbison.

Chance is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he received his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Music. While there, he performed multiple roles, including the Prologue in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, Mercure in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie at Juilliard,  Jo the Loiterer in Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All at the Met Museum with Met Live Arts, and the First Sailor in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas on tour with Juilliard 415. Juilliard is also where Chance developed a love for song and concert repertoire, participating in New York Festival of Song, Juilliard Songfest, WQXR’s Midday Masterpieces, and premiering Jonathan Dawe’s Oroborium with the New Juilliard Ensemble in Alice Tully Hall.

Chance is a recipient of the Novick Career Advancement Grant from the Juilliard School. 

He is currently based in Boston, MA.