Ryan Lustgarten is a tenor from the Seattle area currently based in Manhattan, NY. He recently concluded a performance of Die Entführung aus dem Serail singing Pedrillo and covering Belmonte with Festival Napa Valley and was previously with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist for the summer. Ryan is a versatile performer of classic and contemporary opera alike (with a particular love for newer works), musical theatre, choral music, and concert repertoire.
With Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Ryan covered the role of Older Galileo in a revival of Phillip Glass’s opera Galileo Galilei. He enjoyed performing segments of the role both as part of Opera Theatre’s Spotlight series, and at an event sponsored by the James S. McDonnell Planetarium.
Ryan’s 2023 was an industrious one for him during which he took part in multiple workshops of new operas, debuted two new roles, and was awarded in various competitions. In the Spring, he performed the roles of Gastone in La traviata with Virginia opera and Chevalier de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites with Bronx Opera. Ryan would return to Des Moines Metro Opera for the summer covering the role of Trouffaldino in Prokofiev’s zany and fantastical The Love for Three Oranges. He made his American Lyric Theater debut in the Fall with a public presentation of a workshop of Alex Weiser and Stephanie Fleischmann’s new opera Tevye’s Daughters in which he portrayed the character Arontshik. Ryan also continued workshopping a piece he holds near and dear to his heart in Damien Geter and Lila Palmer’s American Apollo with Des Moines Metro Opera (world premiered July, 2024).
Ryan continued to make strides in the voice competition scene in 2023, presenting a recital for having won 1st Prize in the Don Wilkinson Young Singers Competition in Boston, MA, reaching the semi-finals of the Lotte Lenya Competition, and being awarded the Munday Encouragement Award in the Jensen Foundation Competition.
Ryan has spent numerous seasons as a member of Upper Valley Baroque, a professional early music ensemble under the baton of maestro Filippo Ciabatti dedicated to providing an authentic, high-caliber early music experience to the Upper Valley community.
Also in his wheelhouse, Ryan is often engaged in the performance of popular music. In 2020, he performed Bocelli’s The Prayer with Tony-award-winning Heather Headley in an effort to raise money for Songs By Heart Foundation, a charitable organization whose mission is to improve the quality of life for persons facing age-related memory issues through the power of music. In 2021, Ryan was a featured soloist in Symphony New Hampshire’s Holiday Pops Concert. Last year, Ryan performed an orchestral arrangement of Josh Groban’s You Raise Me Up with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra dedicated to first responders in the greater Norfolk community.
Ryan holds a Master of Music in Voice & Opera from Northwestern University where he studied under W. Stephen Smith, and a Bachelor of Music at Washington State University (Go Cougs!).
Away from the stage, Ryan enjoys a rousing game of pickleball, a juicy book, watching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sundays, and avidly consuming any and all things Star Wars.