OfficialBiography
A winner of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions
A winner of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Miles Mykkanen garners recognition and praise on the world’s concert and operatic stages for his “focused, full-voiced tenor” (New York Times). Of his performance in the title role of Albert Herring, Opera News reported, “Miles Mykkanen displayed a lovely lyric voice with an appealing honeyed sweetness in the timbre, which he employed with intelligence and humor.”
Miles Mykkanen’s 2024-25 season includes his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Die Tote Stadt led by Lothar Koenigs and a return to The Cleveland Orchestra for staged performances of Jenufa under the baton of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. The tenor’s broad artistic range is also showcased in two productions at Dutch National Opera: he bows as Alfred in a new production of Die Fledermaus staged by Barrie Kosky with chief conductor Lorenzo Viotti on the podium, as well as in the world premiere creation of We Are The Lucky Ones by composer Philip Venables and director Ted Huffman conducted by Bassem Akiki. On the concert stage, he joins Music Director Tito Muñoz and the Phoenix Symphony for performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and returns to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for performances of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann.
Last season, the tenor debuted at San Francisco Opera in the North American premiere of the gripping one-act drama by Kaija Saariaho and Sofi Oksanen, Innocence, directed by Simon Stone and conducted by Saariaho specialist Clément Mao-Takacs and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Steuermann in Der Fliegende Holländer in a production by Tim Albery led by Henrik Nánási. Other highlights included Carmina Burana with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Krzysztof Urbański, Mozart’s Requiem with the Oregon Symphony and Music Director David Danzmayr, and Handel’s Messiah with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra led by Norman Mackenzie and with the Kansas City Symphony conducted by Aram Demirjian.
Highlights of recent seasons include Metropolitan Opera productions of Boris Godunov conducted by Sebastian Weigle, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg led by Sir Antonio Pappano, Ariadne auf Naxos with Marek Janowski, and Wozzeck with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin; debuts at the Festival d’Aix en Provence in L’incoronazione di Poppea in a new production by Ted Huffman conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón, at Staatsoper Hamburg as Fenton in Falstaff, and at Chicago Opera Theater in the title role of Albert Herring. Additional performances include Der fliegende Holländer with the Canadian Opera Company, a Minnesota Opera debut in the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell, A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Opera Philadelphia in Robert Carsen’s production conducted by Corrado Rovaris, and Ariadne auf Naxos with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra in a fully-staged presentation. One of his signature roles, Candide has been performed at Arizona Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Opéra de Lausanne, and at the Ravinia and Tanglewood festivals in concert with The Knights.
The tenor’s vibrant concert schedule has included performances of Bruckner’s Te Deum with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony, the world premiere of Mohammed Fairouz’ Another Time with Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Mozart Requiem with David Danzmayr and the San Antonio Symphony, a
New York Philharmonic debut with excerpts from West Side Story conducted by Leonard Slatkin, and Handel’s Messiah with the symphonies of Atlanta, Indianapolis, and New Jersey, the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center, and at the University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium under the auspices of the University Musical Society.
Equally distinguished in chamber music, he has spent many summer at the Marlboro Music Festival where performances have spanned from art songs of Brahms and Britten to chamber music of Brett Dean with distinguished guest artists Mitsuko Uchida, Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles, and many others. The tenor frequently appears with Steven Blier, Michael Barrett, and the New York Festival of Song and also has collaborated with Juilliard415, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, New World Symphony, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
The tenor is a Sara Tucker Study Grant winner, youngARTS Gold winner and the recipient of prizes from the Sullivan Foundation, Toulmin Foundation, Novick Career Advancement Grant, and Juilliard’s Joseph W. Polisi Award. Miles Mykkanen is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and earned his Artist Diploma in Opera Studies, along with his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Cynthia Hoffmann.
Miles Mykkanen is the Artistic Director of the Emberlight Festival in Ironwood, Michigan