Praised by Opera News as a "vocally charismatic" performer with a "golden tenor", Martin Bakari continues to distinguish himself as a dynamic artist in a wide array of musical and theatrical genres. A 2018 George London Competition award winner, Mr. Bakari's 2023-24 season included Charlie Parker in Charlie Parker's Yardbird (Indianapolis Opera), Mime in Das Rheingold (Seattle Opera), the tenor soloist in Messiah (Oratorio Society of NY - Carnegie Hall) and Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus (Grant Park Music Festival), Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance (Kentucky Opera), Goro in Madama Butterfly (Opera Philadelphia), Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette (Vashon Opera), Sellem in The Rake’s Progress (Lakes Area Music Festival), and both Dr. Caius in Falstaff and Wilson (cover) in the premiere of Jake Heggie’s Intelligence (Houston Grand Opera). Mr. Bakari’s 2024-25 season includes Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Indianapolis Opera), Greene Evans in the premiere of Jubilee (Seattle Opera), Goro in Madama Butterfly (Utah Opera), Gastone in La traviata (Seiji Ozawa Music Festival - Japan), Michael in the premiere of Dave Ragland's Steele Roots (Atlanta Opera), Bootleg Joe in a workshop of Will Liverman and DJ King Rico's The Factotum (Portland Opera), and the tenor soloist in Messiah (Boise Philharmonic, Calvin Oratorio Society) and Carmina Burana (Lubbock Symphony Orchestra). Future seasons include his debut performances and recording with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, his debuts with Nashville Opera, Music of Remembrance, and Lyric Fest, and his returns to Seattle Opera, Opera Colorado, Dayton Opera, and the Boise Philharmonic. 

Other recent engagements include Charlie Parker in Yardbird (Atlanta Opera, Arizona Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, New Orleans Opera, Dayton Opera), Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance (Virginia Opera), the tenor soloist in the premiere of Paul Moravec’s A Nation of Others (Oratorio Society of NY - Carnegie Hall), Messiah (Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Symphoria), and Carmina Burana (Symphony San Jose, Cecilia Chorus of NY - Carnegie Hall), Pong in Turandot (Opera Colorado), Triquet in Eugene Onegin and Jalil/Wakil/Guard in the premiere of Sheila Silver’s A Thousand Splendid Suns (Seattle Opera), recitals of Paul Laurence Dunbar songs (Seattle Opera) and German Lieder (Sound Salon - Seattle), Prince Claus in Mark Adamo’s Becoming Santa Claus (Chicago Opera Theater), Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville (Intermountain Opera Bozeman), Goro in Madama Butterfly (Dallas Opera), a United Kingdom recital tour (Mirror Visions Ensemble), Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro (Seattle Opera, Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival), The Cartography Project (The Kennedy Center/Washington National Opera), Ferrando in Cosí fan tutte (Syracuse Opera), Mingo in Porgy & Bess (Atlanta Opera), Peter the Honeyman in Porgy & Bess (Seattle Opera, Fort Worth Opera), Tamino in The Magic Flute (Opéra Louisiane), Beppe in Pagliacci (Raylynmor Opera), Philip Glass’ In the Penal Colony and a double bill of David Lang’s The Difficulty of Crossing a Field and The Little Match Girl Passion (Portland Opera), La traviata and Le nozze di Figaro (Cincinnati Opera), The Summer King (Pittsburgh Opera, Detroit Opera), Murasaki’s Moon and Morning Star (On Site Opera), The Long Walk (Utah Opera, Pittsburgh Opera), The Source (LA Opera/Beth Morrison Projects), and Ellen Reid’s dreams of the new world (PROTOTYPE Festival). Mr. Bakari also premiered and recorded Grigory Smirnov's song cycle Dowson Songs (Naxos) which was featured by Opera News as a "Critic's Choice" recording.

Since 2016, Mr. Bakari has joined NY Harlem Productions for tours of Porgy & Bess as both Sportin' Life and Mingo, which have marked his German debuts at Semperoper Dresden, Staatsoper Hamburg, Deutsches Theater München, Alte Oper Frankfurt, and the Kölner Philharmonie, his Israeli debuts in Haifa and Tel Aviv, and his Italian debut at Bari's Teatro Petruzzelli.

As an Emerging Artist at Virginia Opera from 2014 to 2016, Mr. Bakari sang in productions of HMS Pinafore, Salome, Orpheus in the Underworld, La bohème, Roméo et Juliette, and Der fliegende Holländer. Other 2016 performances included Roméo et Juliette (Opera Carolina), Carmina Burana (New Hampshire Philharmonic), and Le nozze di Figaro, Daniel Catán's Il postino, and Philip Glass' The Witches of Venice (Opera Saratoga).

Other notable new music credits include the leading roles of Wissam in Tobin Stokes' Fallujah (The Kennedy Center), Hazel Motes in the premiere of Anthony Gatto's Wise Blood (Walker Art Center/New Focus Recordings), Marcellus in James Dashow’s Archimedes (Neuma Records), and Lorenzo in William Bolcom's Lucrezia, Grivet in Tobias Picker's Thérèse Raquin, Katz in Stephen Paulus' The Postman Always Rings Twice, and a national tour of Wynton Marsalis' Abyssinian Mass (Blue Engine Records/Sony).

Chosen by James Levine to sing in a Tanglewood production of Ariadne auf Naxos, Mr. Bakari spent two summers as a Tanglewood Fellow during which he also sang John Harbison's Full Moon in March and a double bill of Milhaud's L'Enlèvement d'Europe and L'Abandon d'Ariane directed by Mark Morris. Of his performance in Full Moon in March, The New York Times wrote, "Bakari mastered completely the high-tension and occasionally melodic vocal writing."

In addition to the George London Competition, Mr. Bakari has received major awards from the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, Orpheus Vocal Competition, Tanglewood, the Juilliard School, and Boston University. He has since been engaged by Palm Beach Opera and has also appeared with Madison Opera, Opera North, Eugene Opera, Opera Ebony, Little Opera Theatre of NY, Pine Mountain Music Festival, and the Harlem Chamber Players.

Mr. Bakari is an alumnus of the master's degree program at Juilliard, the B.M. and Opera Institute programs at Boston University, and the study-abroad program at London's Royal College of Music. In addition to the numerous opera and musical theatre roles he performed while in Boston, he was an active concert soloist with performances including Elijah (Symphony Hall) and a solo concert of Italian arias (Salem Philharmonic Orchestra). A Filipino-African American, Mr. Bakari is featured as the cover story of FilAm Magazine’s June 2022 issue.