Dennis Chmelensky
Voice and Opera
Praised for his “strikingly individual timbre” (Philadelphia Magazine), German-American baritone Dennis Chmelensky was a member of the Washington National Opera’s Cafritz Young Artist program at the Kennedy Center. He is an alum of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Marlena Malas and Mikael Eliasen. This season, he will debut as Marquis de Corcy in Le Postillon de Lonjumeau at the Tiroler Festspiele in Erl under the baton of Beomseok Yi and directed by Hans Walter Richter.
Recent highlights include his debut at the Verbier Festival as Peter in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel conducted by Stanislav Kochanovsky, as well as Tom in Un ballo in maschera under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda. He also performed Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte at the Philips Collection and workshopped Sensor in Jeanine Tesori’s new opera Grounded, which was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Further highlights include appearances with Opera for Peace in Sochi, Russia, and his debut as Don Giovanni in a Curtis / Opera Philadelphia co-production under the baton of Karina Canellakis.
An avid recitalist, Dennis has toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe to perform works such as Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch. He made his Konzerthaus Berlin debut with Curtis on Tour, performing Ned Rorem’s Aftermath and works by Franz Schubert in 2019 on a tour through Greece, France, Spain, and Germany.
Dennis was a National Semifinalist of the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition. He is a 2018 Opera Awards career grant recipient and an alum of the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie in Neumarkt, the Chautauqua Music Festival, and the Franz Schubert Institute in Baden bei Wien. His debut album DENNIS was released by Sony Music.