Ian Matthew Castro
Puerto Rican-American tenor, Ian Castro, earned his Master of Music from The Juilliard School in 2021. During his studies at Juilliard, he appeared as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elsiir d’amore and John Adams in Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All in collaboration with the New York Philharmonic and MetLiveArts.
Building his performance skills in the New York area, he starred in Light Opera of New Jersey’s production of Cosí fan tutte as Ferrando as well as Montclair State University’s production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia as the Male Chorus. He has also had the opportunity to hone his skills with Mise-en-Scène Studio’s concert series with select scenes from Verdi’s Rigoletto, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and Massenet’s Werther.
Currently, Ian is making extraordinary strides in the European music scene. With the generosity of the New York Opera Foundation’s 2021 Kinesis Scholarship, Ian has spent the last two seasons in the Dutch National Opera Studio. He has had the opportunity to appear in many of their production’s including Verdi’s La Traviata as Gastone, Donizetti’s Anna Bolena as Signor Hervey, and Bizet’s Carmen as Le Remendado. Ian has also had many opportunities to build his stage experience with consistent concert work, including DNO’s Opera Gala and multiple appearances at the Concertgebouw recital series.
He is also building upon his concert repertoire, having the opportunity to perform Mendelssohn’s Elias at Fest Aix-en-Provence’s Vocal Academy and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle with Toonkunstkoor Amsterdam.
In 2023, Ian was a finalist in Tenor Viñas competitions and was awarded the Festival de Música de Cadaqués prize. He will also be appearing in the final rounds of the 2023 Belvedere competition.
He is currently a member of the Bühnen Bern Opera ensemble. In his first season, he made several successful debuts as Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Roméo (Roméo et Juliette), and Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail). In the 2024/25 season, he will be continuing the trend debuts in La Vie Parisienne, Arabella, Eugene Onegin, and Rigoletto.
Photography by Patricia Westley Photography