Performance Year: 2026
GRAMMY-nominated artist Omar Najmi maintains a busy schedule as an operatic tenor while splitting his time between performance and composition. In the upcoming season, he will debut with The Spoleto Festival as Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw, Boston Modern Orchestra Project as Demler in Frederick Douglass, the Tucson Symphony in Mozart’s Requiem, and he will return to Boston Lyric Opera as Enoch Snow in Carousel. Recent appearances include Handel’s Messiah with Boston Baroque and the Seattle Symphony and Simon in Adoration with LA Opera and Beth Morrison Projects. A member of Washington National Opera’s 2025 American Opera Initiative, his new opera Mud Girl, created in collaboration with librettist Christine Evans, was premiered at the Kennedy Center to great acclaim.
Other recent performing credits include Valcour in The Anonymous Lover with Boston Lyric Opera, Ruggero in La Rondine with Opera on the James, Lord Byron in the world-premiere of The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage with Guerilla Opera, Alessandro in Il Re Pastore with Orpheus PDX, Rodolfo in La Boheme with Opera Steamboat, Astolfo in Furiosus with Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimo, and Shakur in Thumbprint with Portland Opera. He has appeared in concert as the tenor soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with Greenwich Choral Society, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Coro Allegro, Haydn’s Mariazellermesse with Masterworks Chorale, and Bach’s St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, and Christmas Oratorio with Emmanuel Music.
Najmi enjoys a long standing relationship with Boston Lyric Opera, where he began his professional career as an Emerging Artist (2013-2015), and has performed in over 15 productions with the company. Najmi has been the recipient of the Harold Norblom Award from Opera Colorado, the Stephen Shrestinian Award from Boston Lyric Opera, 2nd prize from the Wilkinson Young Singers Fund, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellowship from Emmanuel Music, 2nd place nationally in the Handel Aria Competition, and has been a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions.
Najmi began his composition career with the production of his first opera, En la ardiente oscuridad, in 2019. After a run of sold-out performances, he was invited to serve as the first ever Emerging Composer in residence with Boston Lyric Opera (2020-2021), where he worked with Boston Youth Poet Laureate Alondra Bobadilla in the creation of the song cycle my name is Alondra. In 2022, his motet The Last Invocation was premiered by Emmanuel Music. His second opera This Is Not That Dawn was premiered in concert by Catalyst New Music in 2022, and his song cycle More Than Our Own Caves received its premiere with Juventas New Music Ensemble in 2023. Najmi was a 2023 finalist in Atlanta Opera’s 96-Hour Opera Project, and his recent opera Jo Dooba So Paar was presented by White Snake Projects as part of their “Let’s Celebrate” initiative.
