OfficialBiography
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 2023-24 season includes a debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Steuermann in Der Fliegende Holländer in a production by Tim Albery led by Henrik Nánási, as well as a San Francisco Opera debut in the North American premiere of the gripping one-act drama of Kaija Saariaho and Sofi Oksanen, Innocence, directed by Simon Stone and conducted by Saariaho specialist Clément Mao-Takacs. The tenor also makes a house and role debut as Ernesto in Don Psaquale at Opera Omaha. Mykkanen’s concert appearances this season include 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 under the baton of Roberto Kalb.
Last season, Miles Mykkanen gave three prominent role debuts: Steuermann in Der fliegende Holländer in a return engagement with the Canadian Opera Company, the title role of Albert Herring in his debut at Chicago Opera Theater, and his first Fenton in Falstaff for a company debut at the Staatsoper Hamburg. Other operatic engagements included the tenor’s return to the Metropolitan Opera to cover Tamino in the company’s new production by Simon McBurney of Die Zauberflöte and the title role of Candide in performances with the Opéra de Lausanne. Concert engagements were anchored by multiple performances of Handel’s Messiah at University Musical Society, Ann Arbor and with the Atlanta and New Jersey Symphonies.
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, a debut at the Festival d’Aix en Provence in L’incoronazione di Poppea in a new production by Ted Huffman conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón, his 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. One of his signature roles, Candide has been performed at Arizona Opera, Palm Beach Opera, 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, with 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.
Miles Mykkanen has spent numerous summers at the Marlboro Music Festival where his 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. He 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 2019 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 founder and artistic director of the Emberlight Festival in Ironwood, Michigan. emberlight.org