Tenor Will Upham is quickly gaining a reputation as an exciting, visceral, and versatile lyric tenor. Ably spanning the repertoire gamut, Will recently covered the role of Herod and performed as First Jew in Des Moines Metro Opera’s summer 2024 production of Salome. Also recently, Will successfully performed as tenor soloist in his first Beethoven Ninth Symphony with the Carmel Symphony Orchestra. Spring 2024 saw Will perform as Beadle Bamford in I.U. Opera Theater’s highly anticipated production of Sweeney Todd.
Upcoming throughout spring 2025, Will is excited to return to Indianapolis Opera as Resident Artist, this time to cover the role of Tony and perform various roles in the company’s mainstage production of West Side Story, among other performing opportunities with the company. Further upcoming in spring 2025, the tenor will make his tenor soloist debut with Masterworks Chorus of New Jersey in Beethoven’s Mass in C and Christ on the Mount of Olives. On the heels of Will’s major success in Des Moines Metro Opera’s Salome, he has already been re-engaged for summer 2025, primarily to cover the role of Steuermann in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman.
In summer 2023, Will served as Young Artist at the Glimmerglass Festival, where he covered the role of Roméo and performed as Benvolio in Roméo et Juliette. Prior to that, Will performed as tenor soloist in both Howells and Schnittke’s Requiems and in Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien at Indiana University. Of further note, he created the role of Comrade Belka in an I.U. Opera Theatre workshop production of Martin Hennessy’s new work, Swimming in the Dark. In spring 2023, Will served as Resident Artist at Indianapolis Opera, where he performed as Donald Hopewell in Moore’s Gallantry, as Monostatos and Tamino (cover) in The Magic Flute, and in a children’s opera entitled The Monon Town Musicians.
Other noteworthy engagements include Will’s summer 2022 international debut with La Musica Lirica in Novafeltria, Italy as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi and Rodolfo (cover) in La Bohème. That spring, Will debuted with the Dallas Opera as Nemorino in their Education Artist production of The Elixir of Love and performed as Reverend Samuel Parris in The Crucible with Southern Methodist University Lyric Theatre. Additional highlights include the role of Alfredo (cover) in La Traviata with La Musica Lirica in Baraboo, Wisconsin, the roles of Il Principe Aprile in Respighi’s La bella dormente nel bosco, Jamie Wellerstein in Brown’s The Last Five Years, Le Prince Charmant in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Eddie Souther in Alan Menken’s Sister Act, Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Lippo Fiorentino in Weill’s Street Scene, all with DePauw Opera Theatre.
A native of Franklin, Indiana, Will Upham is currently pursuing his Performer Diploma in Voice Performance at the world-renowned Indiana University School of Music under the tutelage of Metropolitan Opera bass, Peter Volpe. Previously, Will received his Master of Music degree in Voice Performance from Southern Methodist University, where he studied with Clifton Forbis, and his Bachelor of Music degree, also in Vocal Performance but with a minor in Political Science, from DePauw University. Will Upham resides in Bloomington, Indiana as he prepares to take the world by storm as a professional opera/concert tenor!