Tyrese Byrd, tenor, is a native of Greenville, South Carolina, known for his musicianship and expressive tone. In his 2024-25 season, Tyrese sang the roles of Prologue/Peter Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and the role of Tito in the orchestra workshop of The House on Mango Street. This summer, he joins Opera NEO as an Apprentice Artist, where he will sing Ubaldo in Haydn’s Armida in a joint production with the Hungarian State Opera and will cover Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore.

In the 2023-2024 season, Tyrese appeared as Aristée/Pluton in Orpheus in the Underworld with the University of Michigan and as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion with S.C. Bach and the NC Baroque Orchestra. He was the tenor soloist for Mendelssohn’s Elijah with The University of Michigan Chamber Choir and The Washington Chorus in Argentina. He spent the summer as a Studio Artist at Chautauqua Opera covering the role of David in Nicholas Benavides’ Pepito.

His 2022-2023 season included his debut with Toledo Opera as Police Buddy 1 in Blue by Jeanine Tesori, and a return to Madison Opera as Don Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro. On the concert stage, Tyrese made his debut with Akron Symphony, performed with S.C. Bach, returned to Toledo Symphony for their performance of Handel’s Messiah, and will give several seminar-recitals with the Singing Justice Collaboratory Team at the University of Michigan.

His 2021-2022 season brings several company debuts. He made his debut with Michigan Opera Theatre singing the role of Don Basilio in Ragnar Kjartansson’s Bliss. He served as a studio artist at Madison Opera, where he performed Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor and Mercury in Orpheus in the Underworld. With the Chicago-based organization Hearing in Color, Tyrese sang the role of Jesse in the world premiere performance of Undying Love, a one-act opera by Steve Wallace. Tyrese also made his debut with the Toledo Symphony in December as the tenor soloist in Messiah.

Tyrese is also passionate about uplifting the music of Black composers who are often excluded from the Western canon. For three years, he’s worked with a research team called Singing Justice with the University of Michigan Humanities Collaboratory, who endeavor to infiltrate the concert stage using Black Song.

Tyrese received his graduate degrees from the University of Michigan SMTD where he studied with Dr. Louise Toppin and Daniel Washington. Tyrese completed his undergraduate studies at Furman University where he studied with Dr. Grant Knox, where he sang Le Prince Charmant in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Arpad in She Loves Me, and the title role in Bastien und Bastienne. He is an accomplished concert soloist, with repertoire including Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Magnificat, several other sacred and secular cantatas, Mozart’s Requiem, Coronation Mass in C, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

For more information, visit his website at tyresebyrdtenor.com.