Dr. Isaí Jess Muñoz
With a radiant voice, intense theatricality and a profound understanding of art song and operatic literature, tenor Isaí Jess Muñoz has collaborated with some of the world’s leading ensembles. Highlights have included performing with the Israel Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival (Lincoln Center), Voices of Ascension (New York), Verbier Festival (Switzerland), Bard Music Festival, New York City Opera and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre on Broadway. Dr. Muñoz has performed frequently with New York’s Center for Contemporary Opera; premieres include James Dashow’s electronic opera Archimides and McClatchy and Thorne’s Mario and the Magician.
A champion of contemporary and underrepresented works, Dr. Muñoz recorded the 2009 Grammy-nominated album Song of the Stars with Voices of Ascension, as well as world premiere releases of Pasatieri’s The Seagull (Albany), J.D. McClatchy and Francis Thorne’s Mario and the Magician (Albany), Hafez Nazeri’s Rumi Symphony Project Untold (Sony Classical) and David Lang’s Prisoner of the State (Decca Gold). His latest solo album titled Visca L’Amor: Catalan Art Songs of the XX and XXI Centuries, is available on Bridge Records and distributed worldwide on all major platforms by Naxos. Fanfare magazine awarded the disc its Five-Star rating, calling it “A perfect recording” and a “Cultural Milestone.”
Dr. Muñoz currently serves as associate professor of voice and opera at the University of Delaware, as vice president of the National Opera Association (NOA), and as chair of the Sacred in Opera Initiative— a division of the NOA that explores, through research and performance, the interplay between music-drama and the ideologies of world religions. Dr. Muñoz is also a proud member of the NATS National Committee on Advocacy— an initiative geared to support inclusion and diversity in the fields of singing. In Fall 2018, Dr. Muñoz was named associate artistic and executive director at Musiktheater Bavaria (MTB) in Germany, which provides advanced singers and instrumentalists with mentorship from some of today’s leading scholars and artists in the field of opera, musical theater and early music. MTB’s students have gone on to win important competitions and secure positions in prestigious young artist programs, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Jensen Foundation Competition, the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Merola Opera Program.
For his ongoing creative activities in education and performance, Dr. Muñoz has been recognized by the American Prize, the National Opera Association, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Delaware Division of the Arts and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. As a much sought-after educator, he enthusiastically works with a vast array of students—from young collegiate singers to celebrity clients performing in music theatre, opera, and other varied areas of contemporary and classical commercial music. Actively maintaining a busy teaching studio in New York City and Delaware, Dr. Muñoz has had students appear in opera houses throughout America, in the Broadway and National companies of many shows including A Chorus Line, Chicago, Gypsy, Oklahoma, On The Town, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Finding Neverland and Jesus Christ Superstar, and on major recording labels including SONY, RCA, Atlantic, and Time Life.
Dr. Muñoz is graduate of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and Stony Brook University. He is married to pianist Oksana Glouchko of Tel Aviv and they divide their time between Delaware and New York City. They consider their greatest accomplishments to be their three children, Giovanni, Marco and Salomé. Visit: www.JessMunoz.com
