Derrick Ballard

Bass-baritone Derrick Ballard has appeared with major opera companies and orchestras across Europe and North America, to great acclaim. For his recent role debut as Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, Kulturmagazin wrote: “The performance of the singers increased over two and a half hours, but only one was at his best from the very beginning: Derrick Ballard, who sang a sparkling, dazzling Dulcamara, as though Donizetti had composed the role for him.” With his “warm and multi–faceted” voice, writes Opernwelt, he is equally comfortable on the opera and concert stage, excelling in music ranging from Baroque to modern.

In the 2008-09 season Derrick Ballard performs Leporello and Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni, the title role in Handel’s Hercules, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, the First Nazarene in Salome, and Hobson in Peter Grimes, all at the Staatstheater Kassel. During the 2007-08 season he sang Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, Mustafà in L’Italiana in Algeri, Pistola in Falstaff, and Luther and Crespel in Les contes d’Hoffmann with the Staatstheater Kassel, and was also featured as Mustafà in L’Italiana in Algeri as a last-minute replacement with the Staatsoper Hannover and Oper Bonn. He appeared as the bass soloist in a scenic version of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Staatstheater Kassel, and in the Prologue of Boito’s Mefistofele in the title role with the Staatsorchester Kassel. His concert engagements included Scarlatti’s Johannespassion (Christus) and the Bach cantata Christ lag in Todes Banden with Kantorei Kirchditmold, Fauré’s Requiem with the Kasseler Konzertchor, and a recital based on music inspired by Don Quixote, including the European premiere of Edward Ficklin’s song cycle Quixote Meditations, which was composed for Mr. Ballard.

Highlights of recent seasons include Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Joas in Porpora’s Il Gedeone, Paolo Albiani in Simon Boccanegra, and Harasta in The Cunning Little Vixen at the Staatstheater Kassel. Mr. Ballard made his European debut in the spring of 2005 as Biterolf in Tannhäuser with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, and returned to the same company to create the roles of Toolhoolsuite and the Fifth Indian in the world premiere of Hans Zender’s Chief Joseph. Also in 2005, he sang Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte with the Townsend Opera, Baron Mirko Zeta in Die lustige Witwe for Emerald City Opera, and created two other roles in world premiere performances: Michael in Anniversary by Edward Ficklin with the Voyeur Theater Ensemble, and John Williams in The Captivation of Eunice Williams by Paula Kimper with Old Deerfield Productions.

Mr. Ballard’s other engagements include Giovanni in Il corsaro and Lord Rochefort in Anna Bolena, both with Opera Orchestra of New York; Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia with the Merola Opera Program, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia with both OperaDelaware and Bronx Opera, and a return to OperaDelaware for Angelotti in Tosca. He has performed Captain Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin and Curio in Giulio Cesare with Opera Theater of Connecticut, Alessio in La Sonnambula for Bel Canto at Caramoor, and the title role in Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Company of Brooklyn. A strong advocate of contemporary music, Mr. Ballard has created roles in eight new operas, and is a founding performing member of the New York Composers Circle.

He has also performed the Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly for the Colorado Opera Festival, and returned for Die Zauberflöte in the roles of the Speaker, First Priest, and Second Armored Man. For the Joseph and Loretta Law Artist Center at Opera Colorado he covered the same three roles in Die Zauberflöte along with Banco in Macbeth, and on the mainstage sang Il medico in Macbeth and Paris in Roméo et Juliette. As an apprentice at the Santa Fe Opera, he sang the Cappadocian in Salome, the Commissioner in La Traviata and Djura in Arabella, and covered the Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly and the First Nazarene in Salome. He participated two consecutive seasons in the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Tour, singing El Prior in La Dolorosa and Tom/John in The Face On the Barroom Floor.

In concert, he has appeared with the Dallas Symphony as Angelotti in Tosca, both at the Myerson Symphony Center as well as the Vail Music Festival. He sang Nourabad in Les pêcheurs de Perles with the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the Navy Chorus, the Santa Fe Symphony, and the Boulder Philharmonic, and Mozart’s Requiem and the Christmas Oratorio by Saint-Saëns with St. Luke’s Orchestra. Mr. Ballard has been a featured concert soloist with the Princeton Composers’ Ensemble, American Opera Projects, Neale Concert Series, Caramoor Music Festival, New York Composers Circle, Rocky Mountain Chorale, and the American Institute for Verdi Studies. He is also is frequently featured in recital, and has premiered several new works for bass soloist and chamber ensemble.

Derrick Ballard was a semi-finalist at the Competizione dell’Opera in Dresden, a Rothman Award winner at the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, and a Finalist at the Metropolitan Opera Eastern Region National Council Auditions.