Philip Lima’s burgeoning career has been marked by critical praise: “His singing was glorious” (The Boston Globe) – “vibrant baritone and a commanding presence” (Cleveland Plain Dealer).
In recent seasons, Mr. Lima has sung an extraordinary array of challenging operatic roles including Johann Mattes, the protagonist in Weill’s monumental Die Bürgschaft at the international Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau, Germany; Cadmus in Handel’s Semele with the Handel & Haydn Society under the direction of Christopher Hogwood at Boston Symphony Hall; John Proctor in The Crucible and Alidoro in La Cenerentola at Lyric Opera Cleveland. For Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, he triumphed in the title role of Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis, as well as the world premiere of Just Above my Head, a jazz opera based on James Baldwin’s last novel. He was the Speaker on a live PBS broadcast of The Magic Flute; sang the world premiere of Vanqui by Leslie Burrs-John Williams with Opera Columbus; the High Priest in El Paso Opera’s production of Samson et Dalila; the title character in The Mikado with the Boston Academy of Music; and Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia with Boston’s Prism Opera.
Highlights of recent concert engagements include performances of Bach’s St. John Passion, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Bernstein’s Mass, both the Brahms and Fauré Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, the New York premiere of Mendelssohn’s Grosse Festmusik zum Dürerfest, Orff’s Carmina Burana, ASea Symphony of Vaughan Williams, and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast which he sang in Boston with the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus and in Korea with the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra.
Philip Lima has been a guest artist with ensembles across the United States, including Amor Artis of New York; Boston Baroque; Canterbury Choral Society; Handel & Haydn Society; Harvard University Collegium Musicum; Memphis Symphony; New Hampshire Music Festival; North Carolina’s Eastern Music Festival; Oklahoma City Philharmonic; Portland (Maine) Ballet; San Diego Chamber Orchestra; Winter Park (Florida) Bach Festival; and the orchestras of Champaign and Rockford (Illinois), and Richmond, Virginia.
As a solo recitalist, Mr. Lima debuted in Rome with a concert of spirituals in 2000, and at Boston’s historic Jordan Hall singing music of Joaquin Rodrigo in 2001.
A graduate of Yale University in literary theory, he is an alumnus of the Tanglewood Music Center, did post-graduate work at Boston University where he received the Vocal Achievement Award, and studied with Richard Conrad in Boston. Philip Lima is represented by Dispeker Artists’ Management, New York.