Baritone Craig Irvin brings a vibrant sound and commitment to character to a wide variety of repertoire. Opera News has praised his “rich, resonant baritone” while the Dallas Morning News has celebrated his “truly commanding baritone”. During the 2021-2022 season, Mr. Irvin reprises one of his signature roles, The Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance at both Atlanta Opera and Utah Symphony and Opera. On the concert platform, he joins Orchestra Iowa for Handel’s Messiah and New West Symphony for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. During the COVID-affected 2019 and 2020 seasons, Mr. Irvin appeared in concert with Omaha Symphony, and was slated to appear as the title role in Sweeney Todd at Utah Festival Opera and Music Theater, Marcello in La boheme at Atlanta Opera, in Carmina Burana with San Antonio Symphony, and several other cancelled or postponed engagements. The 2018-2019 season brought the revival of his Dan Packard in Dinner at Eight with the Wexford Festival, Lt. Horstmayer in Silent Night with Austin Opera, Valentin in Faust with Opera Omaha, and Rachmaninoff’s The Bells with the Portland Symphony. The 2017-2018 season included singing Dominik and covering Mandryka in Arabella with Canadian Opera Company, Handel’s Messiah with the Jacksonville Symphony, Britten’s War Requiem with Music Worchester, Stubb in Moby Dick with Utah Opera, Dandini in La Cenerentola with Opera Orlando, and Frank in Die Fledermaus with Des Moines Metro Opera. While in residence with Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, Craig was seen as Angelotti in Tosca, Zuniga in Carmen, Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sam in A Masked Ball, Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly, Doctor/Professor in Lulu, and Ashby in La fanciulla del West. Additionally, he covered the roles of Bottom, the title role in The Mikado, the title role in Hercules, Escamillo in Carmen (a role he sang in the student matinee performance), Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, and Brander in Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust. Other recent engagements include Lieutenant Horstmayer in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ new opera Silent Night with Minnesota Opera and subsequent performances with Opera Philadelphia, Fort Worth Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Atlanta Opera. Additionally he has sung Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles with Utah Opera, Dan Packard in Dinner at Eight, Mandryka in Arabella, and Peter in Hänsel und Gretel with Minnesota Opera, made his role debut as Macbeth with LoftOpera, sang Escamillo in Carmen with Fort Worth Opera, debuted with Sarasota Opera as Marcello in La bohème and Anchorage Opera in the title role of The Mikado, sang Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance with Nashville Opera and Pensacola Opera, sang Dandini in Pensacola Opera’s La Cenerentola, and performed the Villains in The Tales of Hoffman and Leporello in Don Giovanni with Wolf Trap Opera. In addition, he has sung Betto in Gianni Schicchi and 1st Nazarene and Jochanaan/cover in Strauss’ Salome with Canadian Opera Company, covered Paolo in Simon Boccanegra with Los Angeles Opera, sang Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Phoenix Symphony, performed Dick Deadeye in HMS Pinafore and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Saratoga, Ramphis in Aïda with Pensacola Opera, Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Intermountain Opera and Knoxville Opera, Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore with Naples Opera, Bottom in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Des Moines Metro Opera, Private Willis in Iolanthe with Nashville Opera, and Don Alhambra in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers with Opera North. A winner of the Heinz Rehfuss Singing Actor Award sponsored by Orlando Opera, Mr. Irvin spent a season with the company as a Resident Artist. With Orlando Opera he has sung the Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance, Abimelech in Samson et Dalilah, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Elder Ott in Susannah, and Angelotti in Tosca. While in Orlando, Mr. Irvin also sang the role of Gaston in over 700 performances of Beauty and the Beast at Walt Disney World, MGM. In the course of his graduate work at The University of Tennessee, he performed with the Knoxville Opera as Pooh Bah in The Mikado, Der Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte, and Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, as well as Reverend Blitch in Susannah and the title role in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd with the Knoxville Opera Studio. A native of Iowa, Mr. Irvin completed his undergraduate study at the Simpson College in Indianola under the tutelage of Dr. Robert L. Larsen.