MilesMykkanen

The career of exuberant young Finnish-American tenor Miles Mykkanen was launched with a national win of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition in 2019. He has since impressed with a series of important debuts on the world’s major stages, including Bayerische Staatsoper, Canadian Opera Company, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and the Metropolitan Opera, where The Times declared him “the pick of the cast, whose flexible tenor lends lyricism and strength” in his star turn as Sam Clay in the house premiere run of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

In the 26/27 season, Mykkanen returns to Dutch National Opera as Ejlert Løvborg in the world premiere of Vasco Mendonça’s take on the Ibsen classic Hedda Gabler. He sings his first performances as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Ravinia Festival, with James Conlon on the podium, and brings his “poignant lyricism and vibrant tone” (San Francisco Classical Voice) to Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at London’s Royal Ballet & Opera at Covent Garden. Elsewhere, he appears in concert with Colorado Springs Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony.

Mykkanen has quickly become the go-to tenor for roles requiring a deft balance of power, lyricism, and dramatic acuity, including Sam Clay in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay at the Metropolitan Opera, a new Barrie Kosky production of Die Fledermaus and Philip Venables’ world premiere We Are The Lucky Ones, both at Dutch National Opera, a new Ted Huffman production of L’incoronazione di Poppea at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and the North American premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence at San Francisco Opera and the Met. Additional appearances include Die tote Stadt (Bayerische Staatsoper), Falstaff (Staatsoper Hamburg), Candide (Opéra de Lausanne, Ravinia, Tanglewood), Silent Night (Houston Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera), Die Zauberflöte (LA Opera), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Opera Philadelphia), and Boris Godunov, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Wozzeck, all at the Met. His Albert Herring at Chicago Opera Theater was praised by Opera News for “an appealing honeyed sweetness which he employed with intelligence and humor.”

Mykkanen has performed under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst(Ariadne auf Naxos, Jenůfa, and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Cleveland Orchestra), Krzysztof Urbański (Carmina Burana with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra), Manfred Honeck (Bruckner’s Te Deum with Pittsburgh Symphony), Tito Muñoz (Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Phoenix Symphony), Nathalie Stutzmann (Missa Solemnis with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra), and Leonard Slatkin (West Side Story with New York Philharmonic and Mohammed Fairouz’s Another Time with Detroit Symphony). His in-demand interpretations of Handel’s Messiah have taken him to the symphonies of Atlanta, Kansas City, Indianapolis, and New Jersey, as well as Chicago’s Music of the Baroque with Dame Jane Glover and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center.

Mykkanen’s compelling blend of charisma and honesty has engaged audiences in cabaret performances at Joe’s Pub, Neue Galerie’s Cabaret at Café Sabarsky, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he curated Lavender Nights, a live installation of queer anthems. He honed his artistic flexibility in explorations of chamber music and art song with legendary musicians like Mitsuko Uchida, Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles, and Steven Blier at the Marlboro Music Festival, New York Festival of Song, New World Symphony, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He is proud to have been featured in Juilliard’s annual Alice Tully Vocal Recital in his Carnegie Hall solo recital debut.

A proud Yooper from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Mykkanen leveraged his pandemic downtime to create community around the arts in his hometown of Ironwood. As founding Artistic Director of the Emberlight Festival, he has built a formidable board, raising more than $900,000 in a county where the annual median income is $29,000. Through its annual summer programming, Emberlight has now produced over 160 events – including chamber music, cabaret, theater, visual art, and folk art. Its film festival has received submissions from more than 80 countries, while performance infusions feature regional artists in everything from Ojibwe basket weaving to wool waulking. More than 70% of those events have been free to attend, ensuring that the arts are accessible to everyone in the rural region.

Mykkanen is grateful for the support he has received from the Richard Tucker Foundation, Sullivan Foundation, Toulmin Foundation, YoungArts, and the Juilliard School, where he received a Novick Career Advancement Grant and the Joseph W. Polisi Award. He is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and earned his BM, MM, and Artist Diploma in Opera Studies from Juilliard under the tutelage of Cynthia Hoffmann.