Artists

Biography:

Countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen brings his ‘astonishingly beautiful’, ‘golden-toned’ (The Guardian) instrument to a broad range of repertoire spanning the Baroque to the contemporary. He has been acclaimed as a ‘young star’ and ‘complete artist’ by the New York Times and as ‘extravagantly gifted… Nussbaum Cohen is poised to redefine what’s possible for singers of this distinctive voice type’, by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Nussbaum Cohen’s extensive competition successes include winning the Grand Prize at the 2017 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, top prizes in Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition and The Dallas Opera Guild Competition, a George and Nora London Foundation Award, the Richard Tucker Study Grant and Career Grant, and in 2024, top prize in the Gerda Lissner Foundation’s International Vocal Competition.

Nussbaum Cohen’s career highlights include his performance in the title role in Sir David McVicar’s production of Giulio Cesare in Egitto at Glyndebourne and his Metropolitan Opera debut as Rosencrantz in the U.S. premiere of Brett Dean’s Hamlet. In recent seasons, he has also performed with the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich, Adelaide Festival, Komische Oper Berlin, Glyndebourne, the San Francisco Opera, Ballet, and Symphony, The English Concert, Chicago Symphony, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra at the Concertgebouw, Music of the Baroque, Philharmonia Baroque, Buffalo Philharmonic, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In addition to Uncharted, Nussbaum Cohen’s growing recording catalogue includes a solo program of Gluck, Handel and Vivaldi with Jeffrey Thomas and American Bach, Handel’s Saul with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra led by Nicholas McGegan, Handel’s Jephtha with Music of the Baroque led by Dame Jane Glover, and Bach’s St. John Passion with the Cantata Collective led by Nicholas McGegan. Regarding the latter, Early Music America praised the countertenor for his ‘voice of arresting beauty, singing with the utmost expressiveness and artistry’. His first commercial recording, Kenneth Fuchs’s Poems of Life with the London Symphony Orchestra under JoAnn Falletta, won a GRAMMY® Award.

After earning his bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton University, Nussbaum Cohen participated in the Houston Grand Opera Studio, San Francisco Opera’s Merola and Adler Fellowship Programs and the Wolf Trap Opera Studio.