Recognized by Opera News as “one of the finest singers of his generation,” American bass-baritone Ryan McKinny has earned his reputation as an artist with something to say. His relentless curiosity informs riveting character portrayals and beautifully crafted performances, reminding audiences of their shared humanity with characters on stage and screen.

This season, McKinny’s Joseph De Rocher, hailed by the Washington Post for his “figurative and literal muscular force” and “richly human performance” in Dead Man Walking, appears on the big screen opposite Joyce DiDonato for the Metropolitan Opera’s popular Summer HD Festival in Lincoln Center Plaza. He brings his commanding bass-baritone to a role debut as Jan Nyman in Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s haunting contemporary opera Breaking the Waves at Houston Grand Opera, and he makes company debuts at Ópera National de Chile and Des Moines Metro Opera as the title character in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman. Additional performances include Verdi’s Requiem with Colorado Symphony, Der Kaiser von Atlantis with Louisville Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Toledo Symphony and The Philadelphia Orchestra.

McKinny’s recent debut as Joseph De Rocher in Dead Man Walking at Lyric Opera of Chicago was hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “an indelible performance...an acting tour de force buttressed by a warmly inviting voice.” He has also appeared as the title character in Don Giovanni (Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra), Escamillo in Carmen (Semperoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Hamburg, Houston Grand Opera), Bluebeard in Bluebeard’s Castle (Boston Lyric Opera), and Mozart’s Figaro (Washington National Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Metropolitan Opera). This spring, he created the role of Gerald “Mac” McDonald in the world premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s newest opera, Before It All Goes Dark, on a three-city tour to Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago.

McKinny made a critically acclaimed Bayreuth Festival debut as Amfortas in Parsifal, a role he has performed around the world, including appearances at Argentina’s Teatro Cólon, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and Dutch National Opera. Other Wagnerian roles include Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde (Deutsche Oper Berlin, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera Company), Biterolf in Tannhäuser and Kothner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, both at the Metropolitan Opera, Wotan in Opéra de Montréal’s Das Rheingold, Donner/Gunther in Wagner’s Ring cycle (Washington National Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera), and the titular Dutchman in Der fliegende Holländer (Staatsoper Hamburg, Milwaukee Symphony, Glimmerglass Festival, Hawaii Opera Theater).

McKinny is a frequent guest artist at Los Angeles Opera, where he has sung Scarpia in Tosca, Count Alamaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Stanley Kowalski in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, opposite Renée Fleming as Blanche DuBois, and at Santa Fe Opera, where he has appeared as Jochanaan in Salome and Oppenheimer in Doctor Atomic. An alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Mr. McKinny has made a number of important role debuts on the HGO mainstage, including the iconic title roles of Don Giovanni and Rigoletto. His most recent appearance in Houston was as Jochanaan, for which Houston Press hailed his voice as “an instrument of awe and immense dignity.”

McKinny is a long-time artistic collaborator of composer John Adams and director Peter Sellars, having appeared in Sellars productions of Adams’ Girls of the Golden West (Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Opera, Dutch National Opera) and Doctor Atomic (Santa Fe Opera), in addition to Adams’ Nixon in China with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also performed under Sellars’ direction in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex (Sydney Festival), Tristan und Isolde (Canadian Opera Company), and Shostakovich’s Orango with the London Philharmonia and Los Angeles Philharmonic, the latter comprising Esa-Pekka Salonen’s final concerts as music director. He can be heard in the role of Clarence, which he originated, on the Grammy-nominated Nonesuch record of Girls of the Golden West.

Other recent orchestral engagements include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and a double bill of Michael Tilson Thomas’ Rilke Songs and Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with San Francisco Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and Bernstein’s Mass with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and National Symphony, Rossini’s Stabat Mater at Grant Park Music Festival, Britten’s War Requiem with Marin Alsop and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Oedipus Rex with Chicago Symphony.

McKinny benefited from early educational opportunities at the Aspen Music Festival, where he sang his first performance of Winterreise accompanied on the piano by Richard Bado, and at the Wolf Trap Opera Company, where he sang Barone di Kelbar in Verdi’s Un giorno di regno, Le Gouverneur in Rossini’s Le comte Ory and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro. McKinny made his Carnegie Hall debut in Handel’s Messiah with the Musica Sacra Orchestra while still a student at the Juilliard School.

The first recipient of Operalia’s Birgit Nilsson Prize for singing Wagner, McKinny has also received the prestigious George London-Kirsten Flagstad Award, presented by the George London Foundation to a singer undertaking a significant Wagnerian career. McKinny represented the United States in the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, where he was a finalist in the Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize, and he was a Grand Finalist in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, captured in the film The Audition.

McKinny draws on his wide-ranging artistic experiences in his increasing work as a film and stage director. Through Helio Arts, he commissioned artists to write, direct, and film original stories, leveraging his personal power to help elevate fresh voices and visions in the classical performing arts world. He has partnered with artists like John Holiday, J’Nai Bridges, Russell Thomas, and Julia Bullock to create stunning films for Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, On Site Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival. In collaboration with co-director Tonya McKinny, he created a new stage production of Silent Night which premiered at Wolf Trap Opera in August 2024.