Joseph Gaines is a versatile young artist is already attracting the attention of opera companies and orchestra as an exciting and engaging young performer known for beautifully sung, well-acted interpretations of character roles that have earned favorable notices from audiences and critics.

He has participated in  young artist training programs of Sarasota Opera, Central City Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera and has appeared on their stages in roles from Das Liebesverbot Madama Butterfly, Orpheus in the Underworld, L’Incoronazione di Poppea, and The Ballad of Baby Doe. A regular guest of the Indianapolis Opera,  Opera News Online, described his performance in Verdi’s Falstaff (“the sweet-voiced Bardolfo of Joseph Gaines could have been singing Fenton;” and, for The Magic Flute (“sang Monostatos' music beautifully while cavorting about the stage.”)   He has sung Beppe in I Pagliacci and Goro in Madama Butterfly, for Regina Opera, for which The Italian Voice described him as “a scene-stealing Goro. His fine, robust, and secure tenor and amusing deportment¼had the audiences’ attention at all times. He is naturally stage-worthy.”

This season, he will appear with the Pittsburgh Opera as Caius in Falstaff and as Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro, the Nashville Opera as Scaramuccio in Ariadne auf Naxos, Central City Opera as Goro in Madama Butterfly, and, on the concert stage, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra as Sellem in The Rake’s Progress as tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah at St. Thomas Church in New York and with Teatro Grattacielo in their production of The Jewels of Madonna.

Mr. Gaines holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Houston , where he studied with Joseph Evans, and performed a number of roles in his repertoire today, including Pedrillo in The Abduction from the Seraglio, the title role in Peri’s Orfeo ed Euridice, and Danceny in Susa’s Dangerous Liasons.  He also studied singing with Christina Wartenberg at the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, Germany under the auspices of a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship during which time he performed Triquet in Eugene Onegin and the title role in Rothchild’s Violin.

An active concert singer, Mr. Gaines has performed Handel’s Messiah with the Detroit Symphony and the renowned Choir of Men and Boys at New York City’s St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue New York, the latter available on commercial recording. He has also been a featured soloist with the Washington Bach Consort, Ars Lyrica Houston, Mercury Baroque, the Houston Chamber Choir, the Houston Bach Society, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, the Master Singers of Westchester (Mozart’s Grand Mass in C-minor), and the Bronx Symphony Orchestra (Haydn’s Harmoniemesse) among others.  He can also be heard on recording of Scarlatti’s oratorio La Concettione della Beata Vergine by Ars Lyrica Houston on the Naxos label.  Last season, he appeared with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra as tenor soloist inHandel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day.

Grants and awards include: The Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship; The Anna Sosenko Assist Trust; and The McGlone Award for Outstanding Young Artist at Central City Opera and the coveted 2007-2008 William M. Sullivan Foundation Awards, which includes a $10,000 career grant and continuing financial assistance for five years