Mark Walters - Baritone

Mark Walters, hailed as an exceptional singing actor, is rapidly gaining international attention with a repertoire of over 50 roles for the lyric stage and 20 oratorio works. He has been seen in leading roles throughout the United States and has recently received offers to perform in Japan, Italy, Greece, Spain and the Czech Republic.

For the 2008/2009 season, Walters will add two new Verdi roles to his growing repertoire when he makes his debut as Germont in La Traviata with Florida Grand Opera and returns to Da Corneto Opera in the role of Amonasro in Aida. He also makes his debut as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Baltimore Opera and returns to Opera Memphis as Valentin in Faust. Walters will also return to Nevada Opera as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia and as Prince Sergius in Kalman's Die Zirkusprinzessin. Internationally, he will be seen in Japan in the title role of Don Giovanni with the Osaka Kammer Orchestra and featured in concert at the Sakai Noh Theater.

During the 2007/2008 season, Walters was heard as the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro with Opera Southwest and with Shreveport Opera. He returned as Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore with Nashville Opera and as Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale with Anchorage Opera. Walters was also heard in a special fund raising gala with the Cumberland County Playhouse, he gave a solo recital and masterclass at McNeese State University and appeared as a guest artist in solo recital for the NATS Southern Regional Conference at the University of Mississippi.

During the 2006/2007 season, he made company debuts as Don Carlo in La forza del destino with Da Corneto Opera and as Escamillo in Carmen with Shreveport Opera. Walters will also be seen in return engagements as Escamillo in Carmen with Opera Memphis, as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte with Nevada Opera, as Joey in The Most Happy Fella with Utah Festival Opera and will be featured in Anchorage Opera’s Viva Verdi! concert. He will be heard in solo recital at Coastal Carolina Community College, in Mozart’s Requiem and Vesperae solennes de confessore with the Choral Society of Pensacola, and will make his international debut in Mozart’s Requiem with the Osaka Mozarteum, Japan. Walters will also reprise the role of William Clark in Corps of Discovery (Ching) with Fargo-Moorhead Opera, in which he sang the professional premiere with Memphis Opera in 2004 and make his debut with Greensboro Opera in their 25th Anniversary Gala concert.

For the 2005/2006 season, Walters was asked to portray the role of the Reverend Olin Blitch in a special 50th year anniversary production of Susannah at Florida State University, which was overseen personally by Carlisle Floyd. He debuted with Nevada Opera as the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance and with Fargo-Moorhead Opera as Nourabad in Les Pêcheurs de perles. He was also seen in return engagements with Sarasota Opera as Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus and with Utah Festival Opera as Marcello in La Bohème. In concert, Walters was heard in recital at Coastal Carolina Community College and returned to the Choral Society of Pensacola for The Creation by Haydn.

Highlights of his concert work include his recent debut at Carnegie Hall in Orff’s Carmina Burana and the Fauré Requiem conducted by John Rutter. In competition, Walters has been a District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition, twice a finalist in the MacAllister Awards and he was also the first recipient of the Hannah J. Beaulieu Career Development Award through Florida State University.

Walters has also been involved in a number of world premieres including the leading role of William Clark in Opera Memphis’ recent production of Corps of Discovery by Michael Ching, which celebrated the 200 year anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Other premieres include Good Neighbors by Robert Taylor at the Cumberland Playhouse, Blake by Leslie Adams with the Cleveland Choral Society and The Children of the Keweenaw by Paul Seitz with the Pine Mountain Music Festival.

He is in demand as a recitalist and was featured in Sarasota Opera’s Up Close, In Person, On Stage concert series. Walters has also had the pleasure to premiere the song cycles Of Passion’s Tide by Jeffrey Ryan, 4 Poems of Rossetti by Marty Robinson and Love’s Cycle by Mark Henkin.