Matthew Dexter, bass-baritone from McKinney, Texas, is a member of the 2026/27 Ryan Opera Center ensemble at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Matthew recently earned his Master of Music degree in Early Music Voice from Yale University and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (Class of 2026). While at Yale, he performed the roles of Zebul in Jephtha, Abinaswar in Siddhartha, She and Guilio in Il martirio di Sant’Orsola. He also toured Raphael in Die Schöpfung while touring internationally with Yale Schola Cantorum. As a vocal fellow at Spoleto Festival USA, he has sung in multiple choral concerts, appeared in the 2022 world premiere of Rhiannon Giddens’s and Michael Abels’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Omar, and in 2023 played the role of the Old Doctor in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa. Dexter toured as a soloist with Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra in the winter of 2025 and recently performed with the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra as an invited soloist.  

As an undergraduate at the University of North Texas, he performed the roles of Mícha in Prodaná nevěsta, Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zuniga in Carmen, and the Conductor in That Hellbound Train with UNT Opera. He also performed the roles of Herold and the Jailor in concert versions of Othello and Tosca respectively with the UNT Symphony orchestra. While at UNT, he was a recipient of the Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award which honors one student entering their senior year who has shown extraordinary musical and academic accomplishments.

In addition to receiving the audience favorite award, Dexter placed third in the James Toland Vocal Arts competition and participated in Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy in 2024. He has sung in solo recitals with the Puccini Society of Dallas and at UNT, and has sung in masterclasses around the country with artists such as Donnie Ray Albert, Ana María Martínez, and Gordon Hawkins.