Lewis Kirk

My very first gig as a professional bassoonist was playing Carmen for the Mobile (Alabama) Opera while still in high school. After music studies at the Peabody Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music, my first position was with the Bremerhaven (Germany) City Theater playing opera and operettas. The first production there was Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman. After returning to the US after my European sojourn I joined the New Orleans Symphony, also playing for the New Orleans Opera: the oldest opera company in the United States! In 1984 I joined the orchestra of the Santa Fe (New Mexico) Opera, and in 1987 the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Among my favorite productions at Lyric have been 2 complete Ring cycles (and part of a 3rd); Strauss operas Der Rosenkavalier, Salome and Elektra; Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, baroque operas by Handel and Gluck, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and Berg’s Wozzeck. Among the many conductors I have worked with at Lyric are Bruno Barteletti, Sir Andrew Davis, John Pritchard, Leonard Slatkin, Mark Elder, Eun Sun Kim, Harry Bicket, and Dennis Russell Davies. I especially enjoy working with Enrique Mazzola, who brings new energy to the bel canto and Verdi repertoire.

I am proud to have been a part of Lyric’s glorious legacy and look forward to exciting performances yet to come!