March 6, 2026

The Metropolitan Opera’s 2026–2027 season features a remarkable 11 MSM alumni. Those 11 artists will account for nine principal roles; three performances in the Diamond Jubilee (see below for details); and one high-profile stint on the podium.

These featured artists join the many MSM alumni and faculty who perform as part of the Met Orchestra and Chorus.

In addition to its regular season of high-profile performances featuring the best of the opera profession, the Met’s season is showcasing a Diamond Jubilee gala on May 25, 2027, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. The gala will feature performances of fully staged scenes by some of opera’s biggest stars, accompanied by the Met Opera Orchestra and Chorus.

Learn here about next season’s featured MSM alumni, presented in alphabetical order.

Justin Austin (BM ’14, MM ’17), baritone,
Lieutenant Gordon in Silent Night

Performing all dates: March 8—April 3, 2027

Baritone Justin Austin (BM ’14, MM ’17) was named Rising Star of the Year at the 2024 International Opera Awards; in the same year, he received the Marian Anderson Vocal Award. He will appear in the Met Opera 2026–27 season as Lieutenant Gordon in Puts’s Silent Night. Previous appearances at the Met include the roles of Ned Keene in Britten’s Peter Grimes and Motorcycle Cop in Heggie’s Dead Man Walking.

SeokJong Baek (BM ’16, MM ’18), tenor,
Cavaradossi in Tosca; Radamès in Aida; Diamond Jubilee

Tosca: performing Nov 1, 6, 9, 14, 17, 20, 2026

Aida: performing Apr 9, 13, 18, 23; May 15, 22, 28, 30; Jun 4, 6, 12, 2027

Diamond Jubilee: May 25, 2027

Tenor SeokJong Baek (BM ’16, MM ’18) returns to the Met Opera and the role of Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca. He will also perform the role of Radamès in Verdi’s Aida. Highlights of the 2025-26 season include Cavaradossi and Calaf in Turandot for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and Radamès in Aida for the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

J’Nai Bridges (BM ’09), mezzo-soprano,
in Diamond Jubilee

Performing in the Diamond Jubilee gala on May 25, 2027

J’Nai Bridges (BM ’09) will be taking part in the Met Opera’s Diamond Jubilee Gala taking place on May 25, 2027. During the 2025–26 season, J’Nai has been on stage singing the title role of Bizet’s Carmen at Teatro Real Madrid and Seattle Opera; as Maddalena in Mozart’s Rigoletto at San Francisco Opera; and as Elisabeth Proctor in Ward’s The Crucible at Washington National Opera. In February 2026, she earned her second Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for Houston Grand Opera’s recording of Heggie’s Intelligence (she sang the role of Lucinda). Recent Met Opera appearances include Maddalena in Rigoletto, and as Mary (water) in Adams’s El Nino.

Le Bu (BM ’22), bass-baritone,
Colline in La Bohème

Performing Sep 25, 27; Oct 1, 3, 7, 10, 16, 2026

Bass-baritone Le Bu (BM ’22) returns to the Met Opera in 2026–27 as Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème. Recent Met performances include the Speaker in the 2025 holiday presentation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Angelotti in Puccini’s Tosca, the First Nazarene in Strauss’s Salome, Ferrando in Verdi’s Il Trovatore, and Queequeg in Heggie’s Moby Dick. Mr. Bu was a 2024 Operalia First Prize winner, a 2022 Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition, and a recent alumnus of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Anthony Roth Costanzo (MM ’08, HonDMA ’22), countertenor,
Miss Elise Traynor in Lincoln in the Bardo

Performing all dates December 31, 2026, through January 30, 2027

Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo (MM ’08, HonDMA ’22) returns to the Met Opera in 2026–27 to sing the role of Miss Elise Traynor in Mazzoli & Vavrek’s Lincoln in the Bardo. He has appeared with many of the world’s other leading opera houses, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, and Opéra national de Paris. He won a 2022 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for his titular role in the Met’s recording of Glass’s Akhnaten.

Eve Gigliotti (BM ’97), mezzo-soprano,
Annina in Der Rosenkavalier

Performing all dates March 24–April 10, 2027

Eve Gigliotti (BM ’97) will sing the role of Annina in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier in the Met Opera’s 2026–27 season. Ms. Gigliotti is performing in the current Met season as Esther Klayman in Bates & Scheer’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, the Fortune-Teller (and covering Adelaide) in Strauss’s Arabella, and Enrichetta in Bellini’s I Puritani. She made her Met debut as Mercédès in Bizet’s Carmen (2010).

Clay Hilley (PS ’09), tenor,
Samson in Samson et Dalila

Performing all dates Nov 27—Dec 23, 2026

Heldentenor Clay Hilley will sing the titular role of Samson in Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila in the Met Opera’s 2026–27 season. During the current season, Mr. Hilley is singing the titular roles of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at Deutsche Oper Berlin and at the Gran Teatre del Liceu; Parsifal at the Bayerische Staatsoper; and Tannhäuser at the Wiener Staatsoper (also there, the role of Bacchus in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos). Clay has earned critical acclaim for “vocal heft, clarion sound and stamina” (New York Times) and for performances described as “close to perfection—powerful, subtle, intelligent, every word crystal clear” (Financial Times).

Soloman Howard (MM ’10), bass,
Ramfis in Aida 

Performing May 15, 22, 28, 30, 2026; Jun 4, 6, 12, 2027

Soloman Howard (MM ’10) will sing the role of Ramfis in Verdi’s Aida. A native of Washington, D.C., Soloman made his Met debut as the King in Aida in 2014. Winner of the 2021 Washington Performing Arts Ambassador of the Arts Award and the Kennedy Center’s 2019 Marian Anderson Vocal Award, Mr. Howard’s voice is described as “sonorous” by The New York Times, “superhuman” by The Denver Post, and “a triumph” by The Guardian.

John Keenan (PC ’80), Conductor,
Aida

Conducting on June 12, 2027

While in his mid-20s, John Keenan (PC ’80) joined the Metropolitan Opera as one of the youngest conductors in its history. He has conducted performances with the company of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung, Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Verdi’s Aida, Simon Boccanegra and Un Ballo in Maschera, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte, among others.

Isabel Leonard (PC ’98, HonDMA ’21), mezzo-soprano

Performing May 25 in the MET’s Diamond Jubilee

Three-time Grammy Award-winner Isabel Leonard (PC ’98, HonDMA ’21) has established herself as one of the most in-demand performers on the world’s leading stages. During the current Met Opera season, Ms. Leonard is singing the titular role in Bizet’s Carmen and Frida in Gabriela Lena Frank’s El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego.

William Guanbo Su (BM ’17), bass,
Colline in La Bohème

Performing Oct 9, 15, 22, 24, 28, 31, 2026

Heralded by The New York Times for his “musical taste, honest execution of Handelian ornaments and bel canto filigree, and a solid voice,” William Guanbo Su (BM ’17) has sung with top international opera companies. A 2024 Rising Star nominee at the International Opera Awards, Mr. Su will once again sing the role of Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème during the Met Opera’s 2026–27 season. Earlier in the current Met season, he sang the role of Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Mr. Su was a 2019 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition Grand Finals winner.

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