Performance Year: 2025
Stephen Costello has been hailed as “a prodigiously gifted singer whose voice makes an immediate impact” (Associated Press). The Philadelphia-born tenor quickly established a reputation as a “first-class talent” (Opera News) after coming to national attention in 2007, when, aged 26, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut on the company’s season-opening night.
Two years later, Stephen won the prestigious Richard Tucker Award, and he has since appeared at many of the world’s most important opera houses and music festivals, including the Royal Opera House, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wiener Staatsoper, Opéra national de Paris, Deutsche Staatsoper, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Semperoper Dresden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Hamburgische Staatsoper, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Arena di Verona, Salzburger Festspiele, Bregenzer Festspiele, and Glyndebourne Festival. As Opera News noted in a recent two-page spotlight, “the all-American tenor” is now “at the top of his game.”
In addition to winning the 2009 Richard Tucker Award and receiving further grants from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, Stephen won First Prize in the 2006 George London Foundation Awards Competition, First Prize and Audience Prize in the Giargiari Bel Canto Competition, and First Prize in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Competition. Stephen is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts.