IanRucker
- Fellow
- Baritone


About Ian
American baritone Ian Rucker is in his third and final season as an ensemble member with the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. His recent appearances at the Lyric include The Foreman Jenufa and Raimbaud Le Comte Ory, both of which he jumped in for as cover, as well as Man in Bar Champion, and Moralés Carmen.The remainder of the 2024/25 season sees him perform as Schaunard in Puccini’s La bohème, as well as the title role in the world premiere of The Story of Billy Budd at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Ian was recently a prize winner in the final of the highly acclaimed Neue Stimmen vocal competition, and he sang the role of Diener IV in Strauss’ Capriccio at the 2024 Salzburg Festival.
Contact
For availability and general enquiries

Angelica Conner

Charlotte Bateman
Representation
Season Highlights
Photos
Selected Repertoire
Bizet
Carmen (Moralès)
Janáček
Jenufa (Stařek)
Mozart
Die Zauberflöte (Papageno) • Don Giovanni (title role) • Le nozze di Figaro (Il Conte)
Rossini
Il barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro) • Le Comte Ory (Raimbaud)
Terence Blanchard
Champion (Man in Bar)
News
Press
The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor
Festival d'Aix-en-ProvenceJul 2025Ian Rucker is a cherub with the voice of an angel fallen from the heaven...
- Bachtrack
- 08 July 2025
To the question “can you read?” posed by the evil Claggart, Billy Budd replies “no, but I can sing.” Nothing could be truer for the American baritone Ian Rucker. From the very first performances, the audience discovers a powerful instrument, rich in a myriad of high harmonics that radiate throughout the room. Whether he is singing a sea shanty to entertain the crew, or lamenting his impending fate, the light and catchiness of the timbre never falter, making the performer a young man whose kindness of soul and youthful features seduce his comrades (sometimes even literally), provoking the jealousy of his captain-at-arms. The scene that reveals him, alone, awaiting death, is a suspended moment where rebellion, nostalgia and an almost Christ-like resignation mingle, of a moving intensity.
- Olyrix
- 07 July 2025
Ian Rucker isn't just a tall, blond angel. Beyond his Michelangelo-esque physique, the American baritone has a powerful, rich voice, with the ideal range for this tense tessitura. His technique is remarkable (especially for a 27-28 year-old singer) but goes unnoticed as it serves his expressiveness. His voice can be lit up with sunshine or darkened, tinged with honey in a delicate mix. His composition is moving, refined beneath an apparent simplicity, consistent throughout the work, and culminates in a moving final scene where anger, hope, and resignation intertwine. An exceptional Billy.
- Forum Opera
- 08 July 2025
Ian Rucker is an ideal Billy Budd, and his beauty does not make him miss his character to which he gives all his human qualities. The singing line is precise, the high notes controlled, the sensitivity omnipresent and the seduction has no trouble operating.
- ConcertClassic.com
- 08 July 2025
... above all, Billy Budd [is] so intensely embodied in his presence and voice by Ian Rucker.
- Crescendo Magazine
- 08 July 2025
Starting with the statuesque Billy Budd of the American baritone Ian Rucker, with his powerful singing of solar clarity in revolt as in resignation at the dawn of death. Goldilocks, angel's face, muscles and tattoos visible, he embodies this Edenic hero, too perfect...
- SceneWeb
- 08 July 2025
At first, I was mostly struck by the vocal and scenic quality of Ian Rucker as Billy Budd.... His voice was secure, idiomatic, and perfectly capable of sustaining the continuous play between song and speech in the score. But what inspired me most was how a singer with a high and yet very baritonal voice managed to achieve that rare quality of ingenuity and honesty so essential to the role... Also, even with a reduced orchestra, it is impressive to hear a baritone who can sing such a high part while preserving such beauty of tone...
- Opera Wire
- 17 July 2025
The Lyric Opera of Chicago Celebrates its Fiftieth Anniversary
Lyric Opera of ChicagoJun 2024Ian Rucker from OshKosh, Wisconsin, is a third-year student. His baritone has such a dramatic, deep rich resonant rounded voice and the fact that he is handsome makes him mesmerizing on stage.
- Susan Lillis, Splash Magazines
- 05 June 2024
Le Comte Ory
Lyric Opera of ChicagoNov 2022 - Nov 2022Sher’s staging, which also features the vocally elegant Zoie Reims as Ragonde, the attendant to the Countess, walks a deft tonal tightrope. At the performance I saw, the bass understudy Ian Rucker sounded rich indeed in the role of Raimbaud, normative sidekick to Ory.
- Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
- 14 November 2022
Joshua Hopkins was indisposed Sunday as Raimbaud, and Ian Rucker made an impressive company debut subbing as Ory’s friend and partner in crime. The towering singer, an Oshkosh native and first-year member of the Ryan Opera Center, showed a firm baritone and relaxed confidence on stage, capably delivering Raimbaud’s comic narrative of his raiding of the castle’s wine cellar.
- Lawrence A. Johnson, Chicago Classical Review
- 15 November 2022
La bohème
Lyric Opera of ChicagoMar 2025It’s not often one walks out of a Bohème performance dazzled by the Schaunard. Ian Rucker, a third-year Ryan Center member from Oshkosh, displayed a big, warm-toned baritone, natural ease, and charismatic stage presence. One couldn’t help feeling that this was a voice and singer better suited to Marcello.
- Chicago Classical Review
- 16 March 2025
...and baritone Ian Rucker, a third-year member of the Ryan Opera Center, Lyric’s pre-professional training program, more than holding his own as Schaunard.
- Chicago Sun Times
- 16 March 2025