Canadian-American tenor Isaiah Bell sings across North America as a soloist in opera and concert. Having distinguished himself early as an interpreter of Handel, Britten, and Bach’s Evangelists (Lincoln Center, Edinburgh Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Toronto Symphony), he has found an artistic home collaborating on new work and re-interpretations of classic works. He premiered the role of Antinous in Rufus Wainwright and Daniel MacIvor’s Hadrian at the Canadian Opera Company, and brought “immense stage presence” and a “powerful, beautiful instrument” to the premiere of La Reine-garçon (Bilodeau/Bouchard) at Opéra de Montréal. On his pandemic-era adaptation and translation of Poulenc’s La voix humaine, Opera Canada wrote, “Bell’s finely tuned performance is so perfectly married to his own sensitive and intelligent adaptation that the viewer is irrevocably drawn into [its] unfolding.”

Isaiah also writes for the theatre, most notably in his solo show The Book of My Shames. The piece, built with director Sean Guist around Isaiah’s own words and music, has elicited overwhelming audience response: “impossibly beautiful”; “broke my heart wide open with the pure honesty, raw vulnerability and humanity of it”; “I honestly thought this was one of the most compelling shows I’ve ever seen.”

Recent and upcoming engagements include a return to La Reine-garçon (Canadian Opera Company), Messiah with Nicholas McGegan and Trevor Pinnock, The Turn of the Screw with Pacific Opera Victoria, and Janáček’s Jenůfa at Opéra de Montréal. Isaiah also appears on the world premiere recording of Mendelssohn’s Matthew Passion transcription (Bach Choir of Bethlehem).