Alan Held
Well into his fourth decade as “one of the leading singing actors today”, American bass-baritone, Alan Held, has appeared in major roles in the world’s finest opera houses, including The Metropolitan Opera, The Vienna State Opera, The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, The Paris Opera, The Bavarian State Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, and The Canadian Opera Company. His many roles include Wotan in Wagner’s “Der Ring Des Nibelungen”, Amfortas in “Parsifal”, Scarpia in “Tosca”, The Four Villains in “Les Contes d’Hoffmann”, Jochanaan in “Salome”, Don Pizzaro in “Fidelio”, Orestes in “Elektra”, Balstrode in Peter Grimes, and the title roles in “Gianni Schicchi”, “Der Fliegende Holländer”, “Wozzeck”, and “Cardillac”.
An active concert performer, he has appeared with the world’s leading orchestras including The Berlin Philharmonic, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Pittsburgh Symphony, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, and The Paris Orchestra. He has also appeared at the Salzburg and Tanglewood Festivals as well as the BBC Proms.
Recent recordings include the spectacular Marek Janowksi conducted CD of Weber’s “Der Freischütz” on the Pentatone label with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra. Mr. Held sang the role of Don Pizzaro for the EMI Classics recording of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” with The Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. Mr. Held can be seen in the title role on the Harmonia Mundi DVD recording of “Cardillac” from The Paris Opera lead by Kent Nagano. He appears as Donner on the Deutsche Grammaphone DVD recording of “Das Rheingold” from The Metropolitan Opera conducted by James Levine. Also from The Met, Mr. Held can be seen as Peter on the EMI DVD recording of Humperdink’s “Hansel and Gretel” staged by Richard Jones and conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.
Mr. Held is also a noted clinician and from 2002-2019 gave public master classes and private coaching sessions at Yale University. In January, 2014, Mr. Held was named The Ann and Dr. Dennis Ross Faculty of Distinction in Opera at Wichita State University. He currently serves as the Director of Opera studies at WSU. Students of Mr. Held have been members of prestigious young artist programs including the Lindemann Young Artist Program at The Metropolitan Opera and at the Adler Fellowship Program at The San Francisco Opera. He is also on the faculty of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In July, 2021, Professor Held became the Director of Sacred Music at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita, Kansas. He resides, with his wife of 44 years, Nancy, in Wichita where he is the father of four and the grandfather of three beautiful granddaughters.
In February, 2026, Mr. Held was a recipient of the Kansas Governor’s Arts Legacy Award. In 2025, he was named the recipient of the Burton Pell Award, presented by the Wichita Arts Council.
