Described as “a voice of rare beauty” (Seen and Heard International), award-winning countertenor Cody Bowers is a Sullivan Foundation Award winner, a National Semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, and a George London Foundation Finalist Award Recipient. In the 23-24 performance season, Mr. Bowers will make his Lincoln Center debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Handel’s Israel in Egypt, in addition to debut performances with The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a World Premier of Jonathan Leshnoff’s The Sacrifice of Isaac. In previous seasons, Mr. Bowers has performed in The Metropolitan Opera house, San Francisco Opera War Memorial Opera House, the Stern auditorium at Carnegie Hall, San Diego Opera, Minnesota Opera, Utah Opera, The Atlanta Opera, Boston Early Music Festival, Opera Neo, and Tanglewood Music Center.
On the Operatic stage, Mr. Bowers continues to expand a broad and contrasting list of characters that range from Tolomeo, Handel’s Cesarian foil, and prince of Egypt; the lost and mysterious Refugee from Jonathan Dove’s Flight; Federico Garcia Lorca, the celebrated 20th century poet and playwright in Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, who was martyred during the Spanish Civil War; Leonardo, the ghostly Greta Garbo impersonator who inspires Frida Kahlo to make peace with her troubled life in Garbiela Lena Frank’s new Opera El último sueño de Frida y Diego; the stubborn child who, after being disobedient, is scorned by his own furniture as it comes to life in Ravel’s Lenfant et Les Sortilèges; and Orlando, the conquering hero of antiquity who’s desire to love and be loved drives him into the pits of insanity—and the underworld.
As a concert performer, Mr. Bowers has performed numerous works by J. S. Bach including St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio, Mass in B minor. Other concert credits include Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, Ralph Vaughn William’s Mass in G Minor, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Mozart’s Mass in D Major.
Mr. Bowers is an active member of internationally celebrated ensembles like Gramophone Award-winning Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, The Handel & Haydn Society, Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, The Thirteen, Bach Society Houston, VAE: Cincinnati, Ensemble Altera, and The Choir at the Church of the Advent.
Permanently based in New Haven Connecticut, when he isn’t singing, Mr. Bowers enjoys tending to his many houseplants, brushing his two cats Lily & Leonard, and exploring new Ina Garten recipes with his husband.
JACOB PERRY, tenor, is lauded for his stylish interpretations of early music. As a soloist, he lends his graceful sense of phrasing and luminous tone to engagements with the American Classical Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, Bach Collegium San Diego, Philharmonia Baroque, Portland Baroque, Tafelmusik, Tempesta di Mare, and Washington Bach Consort. In 2024, he was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award as a soloist on Apollo’s Fire’s recording of Handel’s Israel in Egypt. Deeply immersed in vocal chamber music, Jacob performs with ensembles including Les Canards Chantants, Blue Heron, and TENET. Career highlights include his recent solo debut with the New York Philharmonic singing Handel’s Israel in Egypt, headlining the inaugural festival of Western Early Music at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music with Les Canards Chantants, and English Orpheus—a tour-de-force exploration of love songs and poems from the Elizabethan, Restoration, and early 18th-century periods he performed with Tempesta di Mare.