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 2025-26 season includes all three tenor roles in performances and a commercial recording of L'enfant et les sortilèges (Barcelona Symphony Orchestra), Ernesto in Don Pasquale (Opéra de Baugé), Sportin' Life in Porgy & Bess (Dayton Opera), Goro in Madama Butterfly (Opera Colorado), Bill Watson/Lloyd the Bartender in The Shining (Nashville Opera), Zweiter Schäfer in Daphne (Seattle Opera), a song recital (Lyric Fest), and the tenor soloist in Lori Laitman's Vedem (Music of Remembrance), The Ordering of Moses (The Syracuse Orchestra), Messiah (Pacific Symphony, Boise Philharmonic), and On Wenlock Edge (Cannon Beach Music Festival).

Other recent opera credits include Charlie Parker in Charlie Parker's Yardbird (Atlanta Opera, Arizona Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, New Orleans Opera, Dayton Opera, Indianapolis Opera), Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance (Virginia Opera, Kentucky Opera), Goro in Madama Butterfly (Dallas Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Utah Opera), Mime in Das Rheingold and Greene Evans in the premiere of Jubilee (Seattle Opera), Dr. Caius in Falstaff and Wilson (cover) in the premiere of Jake Heggie’s Intelligence (Houston Grand Opera), Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro (Seattle Opera, Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, Opera Saratoga), Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville (Opera Montana), Pong in Turandot (Opera Colorado), Ferrando in Cosí fan tutte (Syracuse Opera), Tamino in The Magic Flute (Opéra Louisiane), Prince Claus in Mark Adamo’s Becoming Santa Claus (Chicago Opera Theater), Michael in Dave Ragland's Steele Roots and Mingo in Porgy & Bess (Atlanta Opera), Bootleg Joe in Will Liverman and DJ King Rico's The Factotum (Portland Opera), Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette (Vashon Opera), Sellem in The Rake’s Progress (Lakes Area Music Festival), Gastone in La traviata (Seiji Ozawa Music Academy, Cincinnati Opera), Beppe in Pagliacci (Raylynmor Opera), Peter the Honeyman in Porgy & Bess (Seattle Opera, Fort Worth Opera), and Triquet in Eugene Onegin (Seattle Opera).

Recent concert and recital engagements include the tenor soloist in the premiere of Paul Moravec’s A Nation of Others (Oratorio Society of NY at Carnegie Hall), Messiah (Oratorio Society of NY at Carnegie Hall, Indianapolis Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, The Syracuse Orchestra, Calvin Oratorio Society), Carmina Burana (Cecilia Chorus of NY at Carnegie Hall, Symphony San Jose, Lubbock Symphony, New Hampshire Philharmonic), Ellen Reid’s dreams of the new world (Prototype Festival), and Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus (Grant Park Music Festival), a United Kingdom recital tour (Mirror Visions Ensemble), recitals of Paul Laurence Dunbar songs (Seattle Opera) and German Lieder (Sound Salon), and The Cartography Project (The Kennedy Center/Washington National Opera). 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.

Other notable new music credits include the premiere of Sheila Silver’s A Thousand Splendid Suns (Seattle Opera), a national tour of Wynton Marsalis' Abyssinian Mass (Blue Engine Records/Sony), 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), Daniel Catan's Il postino and Philip Glass' The Witches of Venice (Opera Saratoga), Dan Sonenberg's The Summer King (Pittsburgh Opera, Detroit Opera), Ricky Ian Gordon's Morning Star and Michi Wiancko's Murasaki’s Moon (On Site Opera), Jeremy Howard Beck's The Long Walk (Utah Opera, Pittsburgh Opera), Tobin Stokes' Fallujah (The Kennedy Center), the premiere of Anthony Gatto's Wise Blood (Walker Art Center/New Focus Recordings), William Bolcom's Lucrezia and Tobias Picker's Thérèse Raquin (Boston University), James Dashow’s Archimedes (Neuma Records), and Ted Hearne's The Source (LA Opera/Beth Morrison Projects).

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.

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, Opera Carolina, 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.

www.martinbakari.com