Bio

Puerto Rican bass-baritone David Guzmán, currently based in Milwaukee, WI, has made a name for himself as a frequent performer on stages across the Midwest. Since 2022, some of David’s stage work includes Vodník in Rusalka and the Newscaster in the world premiere of Night of the Living Opera (Milwaukee Opera Theatre), the Fifth Jew in Salome and Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro (Madison Opera), and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte: Remix and the Duke of Verona in Roméo et Juliette (The Florentine Opera). Additionally, in the 2023-2024 season, he joined the chorus of the Lyric Opera of Chicago for their performances of Der fliegende Holländer and Aida.

During the summer of 2022, David made his Milwaukee Opera Theatre debut in their new English adaptation of L’Orfeo. “As the stern Pluto, David Guzmán’s low bass was filled with foreboding” [Gwendolyn Rice] and “carried a much more divine energy about him in the role” [The Small Stage]. Other engagements during the 2021-2022 season included Figaro in Brew City Opera’s performance of the second act of Le nozze di Figaro, the Court Usher in Rigoletto with The Florentine Opera, and Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Teatro América in Puerto Rico.

Early in 2021, David performed the role of Truffaldin in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos as well as Leporello in excerpts from Don Giovanni, both at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). Other engagements at CCM include the role of Pistola in Falstaff and the bass solo in Bach’s Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen [BWV 12] with the CCM Chamber Singers. In 2019, David reprised the role of Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at the Aquilon Music Festival. The bass-baritone debuted this role in 2017 at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music.

In 2018, David made his Wisconsin solo debuts performing the bass solo of Bach’s Jesu, der du meine Seele [BWV 78], part of the St. Casimir Concert Series, and by stepping in as Eddie in Michael Lydon & Ellen Mandel’s football-themed opera Passion in Pigskin, produced by Opera on Tap–Wisconsin. During the same year, he formed part of the young artist roster at the Aquilon Music Festival in Oregon, performing the role of Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro and creating the role of Monsieur Harpin in the modern-day world premiere of the French parody La chûte de Phaëton, by Lully/Le Grand.

Past roles include Kecal in The Bartered Bride and Thierry & M. Javelinot in Dialogues des Carmélites (Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music), the Herald in Verdi’s Otello (Teatro de la Ópera), King Herod in the world premiere of Albert Guidobaldi’s opera-oratorio El Auto Sacramental de los Reyes Magos, and Don Attilio in The Phantom of the Opera (PSB Productions).

During the 2016-2017 season, David co-founded and directed the baroque vocal octet, the Puerto Rico Baroque Singers. He presented two all-Bach concerts with the ensemble and performed the bass solo in Christ lag in Todes Banden [BWV 4].

David regularly performs with Cincinnati-based ensemble The Union under the baton of Trevor Kroeger. Early in 2019, David joined the Junges Stuttgarter Bach Ensemble in Germany where, during Bach Week, he performed cantatas by Bach and Telemann as well as Telemann’s Johannes-Passion in a series of lecture concerts led by Hans-Christoph and Jos van Veldhoven. In 2015 and 2017, the bass-baritone formed part of the Weimar Bach Cantata Academy, led by Helmuth Rilling. Similarly, David’s time with the ensemble consisted of lecture concerts in Weimar, Leipzig, and Eisenach, among other cities where J.S. Bach lived and worked. Later in winter 2017, David was invited for a special Weihnachts-Oratorium engagement with Helmuth Rilling in Schwäbisch Gmünd.

Aside from his onstage pursuits, David is an avid language lover whose studies have recently focused on Russian and his native Spanish. In 2024, the bass-baritone founded Thee Studio, providing voice lessons and vocal and language coaching to artists and enthusiasts.

David Guzmán holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music Degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.