Baritone Nathaniel Wilkens performed as part of the Chautauqua Summer Music Festival this year, where he sang the role of Ariodate in Handel’s Serse. A native of Cincinnati, Nathaniel attends Miami University where he has been seen in roles such as The Count in The Marriage of Figaro, Bob in Menotti’s The Old Maid and The Thief, and Mr. Gobineau in Menotti’s The Medium. In 2018, Nathaniel made his international debut with La musica lirica in Novafeltria, Italy, in the role of Guglielmo for Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte. Equally at home with concert repertoire, Nathaniel has been the baritone soloist for Faure’s Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in G, Buxtehude’s Magnificat, Gorczycki’s Nunc Dimitis, and Ramirez’s Misa Criolla all with chorus and orchestra. Nathaniel has also been a featured soloist for two song and dance shows with the Cincinnati Brass. “All I need is the Girl” in A Grand Night for Singing: Love Letters to Ella and “Snow” in A Grand Night for Singing: A Swingin’ Holiday were both smashing successes. Recently Nathaniel won Second place in the Undergraduate Artist Competition at Miami and also made the finals of the Campus Superstar Competition at the Aronoff Theatre in Cincinnati. He won First place in the Ohio NATS Competition in the Junior/Senior Men’s category, and in the fall of 2018 was a finalist in the S. Livingston Mather’s Competition in Cleveland where he sung for Sherrill Milnes. In 2018, Nathaniel won a scholarship to attend the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, where he studied in the Lieder program.