Tenor Drew Ladd, an alumnus of Chicago College of Performing Arts-Chicago Opera Theater's Professiona Diploma in Opera Program, is distinguishing himself as an emerging artist in Chicago and beyond.

 

He is the recipient of the 2013 Eleanor Pearce Sherwin Award from the American Opera Society of Chicago. In September 2013, he sang  the role of Delil and covered Carlo VII in Chicago Opera Theater's production of Verdi's Giovanna D'Arco directed by David Schweizer.  As a young artist, he spent two seasons with Chicago Opera Theater, and was featured as La Jealousie in Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Médée and the First Armored Man in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte under the direction of Christian Curnyn and Steuart Bedford, respectively.  He has also appeared in Shostokovich's Moscow Cheryomushki and Handel's Teseo.  

He appeared as Dodge in the Chicago premiere of Daron Hagen’s Amelia and with the Sugar Creek Symphony & Song Festival as Gherardo in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Other roles include Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, The Doctor in Debussy’s The Fall of the House of Usher, Papa in Hagen’s New York Stories, Beppe in Donizetti’s Rita, La Théière in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, and Le fils in Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias. 

 

A devoted performer of song, he has sung a wide range of repertoire in recital, celebrating the music of American women composers, Liszt, Schubert, Dvořák, Britten and Poulenc. Most recently, he and pianist Scott Gilmore gave a recital celebrating Benjamin Britten's 100th birthday, performing, among other works, his masterpiece Winter Words.

 

Born in Batesville, Arkansas, he earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Central Arkansas and a Master of Music degree from Roosevelt University, where he studied with Michael Best, Judith Haddon, and Scott Gilmore.