Colin RAMSEY

Chinese-American Colin Ramsey possesses a “majestic, rotund, ravishing bass” (Opera Today). During the 2025-2026 season, Mr. Ramsey’s schedule includes his Lyric Opera of Kansas City debut as Alidoro in La Cenerentola. He sings the title role in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Las Vegas, joins the roster of the Metropolitan Opera to cover Dumas in Andrea Chénier, and makes a return to Opera Santa Barbara in the title role in Giulio Cesare and TJ Rigg in Elmer Gantry. In concert, he reprises Timur in Turandot with Orchestre Philharmonique des Melomanes, sings Raphael/Adam in The Creation with San Luis Obispo Master Chorale, and joins MidAmerica Productions at Carnegie Hall as the Bass Soloist in Fauré’s Requiem. Next season, Mr. Ramsey is set to make his Metropolitan Opera debut as the Jailer in Tosca and return to Opera Santa Barbara as Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia. On the concert stage, he will join Portland Baroque Orchestra as the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah.

Mr. Ramsey’s 2024-2025 season included a return to Opera Santa Barbara for the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, performing Escamillo in Carmen at Amarillo Opera, and the title role in Polifemo, which he also performed in the U.S. premiere at Opera NEO. On the concert stage, he was featured as the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah with both the Pacific Chamber Orchestra and the Santa Barbara Choral Society.

Mr. Ramsey’s repertoire includes Colline in La bohème, Escamillo in Carmen, Hunding in Die Walküre, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Le Comte des Grieux in Manon, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, The Bonze in Madama Butterfly, Edward Teller in John Adams’s Dr. Atomic, Father Palmer in Silent Night, Alidoro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, The Speaker and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Collatinus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Fafner in Das Rheingold, Seneca in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Il Frate in Verdi’s Don Carlo, Angelotti in Tosca, and Cadmus and Somnus in Handel’s Semele.

Mr. Ramsey has appeared as a bass soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and La Jolla Symphony. His concert repertoire includes Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Handel’s Messiah, Fauré’s Requiem, and the Brahms Requiem.

Mr. Ramsey is a winner of the Pasadena Opera Guild Competition, a 3rd Prize winner in the Rocky Mountain Region of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and an Encouragement Award recipient from the George London Foundation Competition. He has participated in apprentice programs with The Santa Fe Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, and the Crested Butte Music Festival.

As a passionate advocate for the arts and for the future of opera, Mr. Ramsey currently serves as an adjunct professor at Westmont College in Montecito, CA. A native of Greenwich, CT, Mr. Ramsey was raised in a family that encouraged his love of music. He pursued training at the Manhattan School of Music, where he was a Presidential and Presser Foundation Scholar and received the Hugh Ross Award.