CALL TODAY: 416.234.9268
Newfoundland tenor Ryan Downey has sung with opera companies and symphonies across Canada and has been critically acclaimed for his “nimbleness of voice” (Bachtrack) and “clear intention and character” (Schmopera). Ryan is a graduate of University of Toronto under the tutelage of Dr. Darryl Edwards and is currently a member of the prestigious Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program at Vancouver Opera.
Ryan has recently made a number of notable debuts; the most recent being with Vancouver Opera in Hansel and Gretel as the Gingerbread Witch, where critics praised him for his “excellent comic timing as the Witch” as well as for “[stealing] just about the entire third act” (Review Vancouver). Ryan also recently debuted for his hometown company, Opera on the Avalon, as John King in Ours; the 2016 commission by John Estacio and Robert Chafe about the massacre of the Newfoundland Regiment at the Battle of Beaumont Hamel in World War 1.
Upcoming engagements for Ryan include returning to Opera on the Avalon in Jake Heggie’s modern classic Dead Man Walking as Howard Boucher, as well as singing the roles of Basilio and Curzio in both Vancouver Opera and Windsor Symphony’s productions of Le Nozze di Figaro.
Other credits include Prince Charming (Cendrillon) with Vancouver Opera, Corcoran (HMS Pinafore) with Toronto Operetta Theatre, the Lyric Tenor (Postcard from Morocco), with U of T Opera as well as Arbace (Idomeneo) and Basilio/Curzio (Le Nozze di Figaro). Ryan is also an eager concert soloist; recent and upcoming engagements include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in G, Orff’s Carmina Burana, as well as excerpts from Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Bach’s Magnificat, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. Ryan is a proud alumnus of the Opera on the Avalon, Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, Highlands Opera Studio and Halifax Summer Opera Workshop summer program.
