Bio
American tenor Matthew Plenk is Associate Professor of Voice and Artistic Director of Lamont Opera Theatre at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music and Theatre. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2007 as a member of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and has subsequently appeared with leading opera companies and orchestras throughout the United States and Europe.
Recent operatic engagements include Radamès in Verdi’s Aida with the Pannon Philharmonic in Hungary, as well as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and Alfred in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus with Central City Opera. His operatic repertoire also includes Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth, Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème, and Arturo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. His opera credits include performances with the Los Angeles Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Virginia Opera, Atlanta Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Des Moines Metro Opera, and more than 50 appearances at the Metropolitan Opera.
As a concert artist, Plenk has performed with The Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony, Houston Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, among others. Recent engagements include Verdi’s Requiem with the Colorado Symphony and Artosphere Festival Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with the Yakima Symphony, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Longmont Symphony, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Grand Junction Symphony, and Verdi’s Defiant Requiem at Terezín with the Lamont Symphony Orchestra. In the spring of 2027, he will appear as the tenor soloist in The Creation with the Littleton Symphony.
Plenk is an active recitalist and collaborator, with recent performances at the University of Denver including Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin. His creative work also includes a forthcoming recording project featuring new string-quartet arrangements of Gerald Finzi’s A Young Man’s Exhortation, created in collaboration with composer Arthur Keegan.
In addition to his performing career, Plenk has directed numerous productions for Lamont Opera Theatre, including Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, Handel’s Semele, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Strauss’ Die Fledermaus.
Plenk holds an Artist Diploma and Master of Music from Yale University and a Bachelor of Music from the Hartt School of Music. He was a Samling Scholar and a Grand Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. His recordings include contributions to the complete songs of Charles Ives for Naxos Records, Lobgesang with the Yakima Symphony on Albany Records, as well as performances featured in Metropolitan Opera HD broadcast series and Juraj Filas’s Requiem: Oratio Spei.