American countertenor Ryan Belongie has been praised for his "oft-astounding vocalism" by San Francisco Classical Voice, for possessing a "remarkably warm, evenly produced voice whose supple phrasing included many an exquisite shade," by Opera News, and by the Chicago Tribune for musicianship that "brought wonderfully stylish singing,” in repertoire spanning early music and baroque to contemporary and new music.

 

On the operatic stage, Mr. Belongie has appeared with Lyric Opera of Chicago as the Mago Cristiano in Rinaldo and Canadian Opera Company as Athamas in Semele.  He has returned to Canadian Opera Company to cover Lychas in Hercules and to San Francisco Opera to cover Leonardo in Gabriela Lena Frank's El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego and Armindo in Partenope as well as appearing as Summer alongside Frederica Von Stade as Winter in Luna Pearl Woolf's Angel Heart at Festival Napa Valley.  Recent and upcoming operatic engagements include the Page / Emcee / Chanteuse in a new immersive production of Salome at Tulsa Opera, Athamas in Semele at St. Petersburg Opera, Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea at Boston Baroque, Lysander in The Fairy Queen with Chicago Opera Theater and Long Beach Opera, First Angel / Boy (cover) in George Benjamin's Written On Skin at Opera de Montréal, Ottone in Agrippina with West Edge Opera, Pirro in Pietro Andrea Ziani's La Circe at Ars Minerva in San Francisco, Angel in the world premiere of Aleksandra Vrebalov's Abraham in Flames in San Francisco, and soloist in the Hart Institute for Women Conductors concert at The Dallas Opera.  Recent and upcoming concert engagements include Carmina Burana with Alabama Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Utah Symphony, Messiah with Kansas City Symphony and Lexington Philharmonic, MacMillan's Quickening with the Grant Park Orchestra, a Midwest tour of St. John Passion with the Leipzig Baroque Orchestra, a return to Music of the Baroque for Dettingen Te Deum, a return to the Classical Music Chicago sing-a-long Messiah, St. John Passion with the Apollo Chorus of Chicago and Elmhurst Symphony, and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Mozart's Requiem with the St. Cecilia Orchestra.

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Previous engagements include Carmina Burana with St. Louis Symphony, Messiah with Alabama Symphony, Apollo Chorus of Chicago, and Seattle Symphony, St. Matthew Passion with Utah Festival Opera and Grand Rapids Symphony, Chichester Psalms and Bach Cantata 170 - Vergnügte Ruh with the Grant Park Orchestra at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park, Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea at West Edge Opera, Katte in the Metropolitan Opera's workshop of Scott Wheeler's The Sorrows of Frederick, and B minor Mass with the American Festival Chorus at Utah State University and Bach Institute at Valparaiso University.

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Earlier career highlights include Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream with Wolf Trap Opera, Didymus in Theodora with Opera Bergen, Norway, Arsamene in Xerxes with both San Francisco Opera (cover) and with Alan Curtis at West Edge Opera, Lychas (cover) in Hercules with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Gesualdo’s Responsoria with Il Complesso Barocco in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Bernstein's Missa Brevis with the Grant Park Music Festival, Purcell’s Ode to St. Cecilia, Spirit in Dido and Aeneas, and Secresie / alto soloist in The Fairy Queen at Music of the Baroque, and soloist with Alonzo King's LINES Ballet in Lyon, France.  Mr. Belongie has been heard on Chicago’s classical music station WFMT in numerous performances with Music of the Baroque in addition to a solo recital on the network’s series, “Live from WFMT,” and has appeared on PBS across the United States in A Renaissance Christmas.

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Born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, Mr. Belongie is a graduate of San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program and Adler Fellowship, and the Vocal Honors Program at Northwestern University.  In addition to being a two-time national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, he was the first place winner of the Igor Gorin Memorial Award, the recipient of a career grant from the Metropolitan Opera, a Shouse Career Grant from Wolf Trap Opera, two Richard F. Gold Career Grants from the Shoshana Foundation, and the Lola Fletcher Award from the American Opera Society of Chicago.