Tenor Joseph Leppek is joining the Minnesota Opera Resident Artist Program for the 2020-21 season, where he will perform Pedrillo in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Triquet in Eugene Onegin and Stuart Ullman in The Shining. He was a two-year member of the Resident Artist Program at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, under the tutelage of tenor Vinson Cole. At Kansas City, he sang the role of Pedrillo with “clarity and enormous charm” (KC Independent). Joseph was also seen as Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Delbert Grady in The Shining, and was involved in a number of community and Exploration Series performances in the area.
Professionally, he has worked with theaters across the United States, including as an Apprentice Artist with Central City Opera (Billy Budd), with Michigan Opera Theatre (The Summer King), and Houston Grand Opera (HGOco’s web-series “Now” and the world premiere of It’s a Wonderful Life!). Joseph was a young artist with the Glimmerglass Festival in the summers of 2017 and 2018. In his second summer he starred as Tony in West Side Story, where he “sang elegantly, danced gracefully, and had a winning chemistry with Maria” (Classical Voice America). He is a 2017 graduate of Rice University, where he performed as Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Joseph was honored to be a National Semifinalist in the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He has a Bachelor’s in Voice Performance from DePauw University in Indiana and originally is from Novi, Michigan.
Website: josephleppek.com
