Jonathan Woody
bass
Jonathan Woody is a versatile and dynamic musician active as a performer and composer across North America. In demand as a bass-baritone soloist, Jonathan makes regular appearances with such historically-informed orchestras as Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Apollo's Fire, New York Baroque Incorporated, and the Washington Bach Consort. The Washington Post noted his performance in Bach's St. John Passion as "richly and compellingly embodied by a powerful bass-baritone," while the New York Times remarked that "the charismatic bass-baritone Jonathan Woody was riveting..." while reviewing Handel's Messiah. Since 2022, he has served as Artistic Associate with Opera Lafayette in Washington, DC, singing featured roles in their productions of La Servante Maîtresse and Les Fêtes de Thalie, and curating and leading recitals with guest artists Justin Taylor and Christophe Rousset. In 2025, Opera Lafayette featured Jonathan in the role of Beher in Morgiane, in a world premiere performance of the previously-lost 1887 opera by Edmond Dédé and first full-length opera composed by an African-American. Also a committed chamber musician, Jonathan enjoys collaborating with the leading US vocal ensembles, and regularly joins Seraphic Fire and the Choir of Trinity Church, both GRAMMY®-nominated ensembles. Other recent collaborations include performances with Kaleidoscope Ensemble, Les Délices, the New Consort, Conspirare, and TENET Vocal Artists.
Jonathan is also immersed in the world of new music, as a performer and composer. His compositional voice blends 17th- and 18th-century inspiration with the minimalism and socially-conscious subject matter of today's music. Since 2020, he has received commissions from Apollo's Fire, the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Chanticleer, Tafelmusik, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Cathedral Choral Society of Washington DC, among others. In 2024, his work Lamentation premiered in New York City, a renaissance-inspired queer lament composed on texts reflecting the experiences of LGBTQ+ people. Jonathan has participated in several premiere performances of leading composers' works, including Ted Hearne's The Source (2014), Ellen Reid's p r i s m (2019 Pulitzer-Prize winner), Missy Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves (NYC premiere, 2018), and Du Yun's Angel's Bone (2017 Pulitzer-Prize winner).
Recent and upcoming season highlights include performances of Theodora (Handel) with Music of the Baroque and a new completion of the fragmented St. Mark Passion of Johann Sebastian Bach with Music Before 1800, as well as appearances with the Bethlehem Bach and Oregon Bach Festivals in 2025. A former Virginia Best Adams Fellow at the Carmel Bach Festival (2013), other festival appearances include Musica Festival in Strasbourg, France, Staunton Music Festival, Portland Bach Festival, American Bach Soloists Academy, and the Aldeburgh Festival at Snape Maltings, UK. On the operatic stage, Jonathan has joined Opera Lafayette, Philharmonia Baroque, Boston Early Music Festival and Haymarket Opera for recent productions, and has recorded with the Choir of Trinity Church under the Musica Omnia label on their GRAMMY®-nominated recording of Israel in Egypt. Other recording credits include ACRONYM's Cantica Obsoleta (Olde Focus Recordings), Boston Early Music Festival's St. Matthew Passion of J. Sebastiani and Circé of H. Demarest (CPO), New York Polyphony's Roma Æterna (BIS Records), and the Choir of Trinity Church's Missa Gentis Humanae (Musica Omnia).
Jonathan is committed to racial equity in the field of the performing arts, and has served on Early Music America's Task Force for Inclusion, Diversity Equity and Access Currently living on traditional Lenape lands now known as Brooklyn, NY, Jonathan holds degrees from McGill University and the University of Maryland, College Park and is represented by Athlone Artists. www.athloneartists.com/artists/jonathan-woody/