Tenor Ryan Matos sings to connect deeply with the text, pluck audiences’ heartstrings, and have fun.
He is a passionate interpreter of baroque music on both concert and operatic stages. Recent seasons have included performances with Philharmonia Baroque, Bach Collegium San Diego, Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, Oregon Bach Festival, and consorts around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Equally at home with contemporary repertoire, Ryan has undertaken several premieres as a soloist, such as Brian Baumbusch’s The Pressure at Other Minds Festival 2019.
An art song fanatic, Ryan was personally selected by Malcolm Martineau for his art song residency in Scotland in 2018, and has performed song repertoire for Julius Drake, Dame Felicity Lott, Graham Johnson, and Isabel Bayrakdarian. In 2017, he gave a series of recitals in Italy with duo partner Peter Shepherd featuring works by Tosti, Barber, and Schubert.
Ryan is also an expert in Italian food traditions, cooking, wine, and travel. While living in Rome for two years, he immersed himself in the Slow Food movement, traveling many miles to taste traditional dishes at rural trattorie and explore each region’s wines. He took cheese and wine tasting courses, made huge maps of where to eat and drink, and mastered the preparation of traditional dishes of Rome and other regions. He learned Italian fluently (working as a translator), studied singing with Italian teachers, discovered he is in fact a beach person, and learned how to make guanciale, pancetta, ricotta, amari, and other Italian delicacies.
He is currently based in Burlington, Vermont.