Grammy Award-winning baritone Edward Parks, a native of Indiana, Pennsylvania, holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Yale University. A National Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Parks trained at the Met’s Lindemann Young Artists Development Program, and was also awarded third prize in Placido Domingo’s Operalia Competition.
During the 2024-2025 season, Ed makes his Houston Grand Opera debut as the painter Marcello in Puccini’s timeless La bohème, and returns to Detroit Opera to sing Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Così fan tutte in a radical new staging by Yuval Sharon. A frequent featured soloist on tour with Andrea Bocelli, he appears in 8 concerts across the United States with the beloved Italian tenor.
Noted for his interpretations of new works, the baritone began the 2023-2024 season as The Creature in the world premiere of Gregg Kallor’s Frankenstein with Arizona Opera. Throughout the season, he joined acclaimed Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli as the featured baritone in concerts across the United States and Canada, including two dates at New York City's Madison Square Garden. During the summer, he bowed as Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Japan.
Projects for the 2022-2023 season included Jack Torrance in The Shining with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Marcello in Yuval Sharon’s contemporary staging of La bohème with Boston Lyric Opera, a presentation of Peter Knell’s new opera Arkhipov, centered around the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a seven-city US stadium tour with renowned Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
Mr. Parks made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia and has since appeared Figaro in Barbiere, Schaunard in La bohème (also on tour to Japan), and as Larkens in La fancuilla del West, which was broadcast to cinemas worldwide as part of the Met’s “Live in HD” series.
Parks has appeared with Lyric Opera of Chicago as Valentin in Faust, Escamillo in Carmen with the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in Japan, Steve Jobs in the world premiere of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at Santa Fe Opera, Audebert in Silent Night (which he recorded for Naxos Records) and Marcello in La bohème with Minnesota Opera, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore with Opera Oviedo in Spain, and Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with Opera de Monte Carlo on tour in Oman. Other operatic performances include Jack Torrance with Opera Colorado, Marcello for Detroit Opera, Inman in Cold Mountain with North Carolina Opera, Escamillo and Mercutio with Atlanta Opera and Nashville Opera, Valentin with Portland Opera, Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles at the Detroit Opera, Conte Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Central City Opera, and Ford in Falstaff with Des Moines Metro Opera.
Recent concert engagements have included Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Prague Proms International Music Festival and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, his debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the Duruflé Requiem, his Carnegie Hall debut in an evening of songs by Charles Ives, and Schubert’s Winterreise at both the Schubert Club in St. Paul and in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. He is a member of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, which has presented him in recital in New York including a recital with Susan Graham at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.
Mr. Parks was named a First Prize winner at the Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition and has received awards from the George London Foundation, the Marilyn Horne Foundation, the Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Competition, the Irma M. Cooper Opera Columbus International Vocal Competition, the Connecticut Opera, the Palm Beach Opera Competition and the Music Academy of the West.
