JUNO Award-winning and Grammy-nominated Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins has been hailed by Opera Today as having “a glistening, malleable baritone of exceptional beauty, and the technique to exploit its full range of expressive possibilities from comic bluster to melting beauty.”

Joshua begins his 2024-2025 season with a debut at Semperoper Dresden to perform one of his signature roles, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia and returns later in the season to sing Papageno in Die Zauberflöte and Maximilian in a new production of Bernstein’s Candide. For his debut at Staatsoper Berlin, he reprises the roles of Apollo and Angry Audience Member in Bernard Foccroulle and Matthew Jocelyn’s new opera Cassandra. Joshua also returns to The Metropolitan Opera to portray another signature role, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, featured on a worldwide simulcast on April 26, 2025 as part of The MET’s Live in HD series.

In concert, Joshua brings his most personal project, Songs for Murdered Sisters, to Carnegie Hall and Marian Anderson Hall in Philadelphia with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra for its American orchestral premiere. He also performs the project with Naples Philharmonic under Alexander Shelley. Written by composer Jake Heggie and author Margaret Atwood, Songs for Murdered Sisters was conceived by Hopkins in remembrance of his sister, Nathalie Warmerdam, to bring awareness to ending intimate partner violence. The critically acclaimed film, directed by James Niebuhr, is available to watch on YouTube and the JUNO-nominated digital album, released on the Pentatone label, is available on all streaming platforms.

Elsewhere on the concert stage, Joshua performs Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain under Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He also joins Manfred Honeck for performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra of Haydn’s Mass in Time of War and with the Pittsburgh Symphony to sing Fauré’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah.

Joshua appears regularly at The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera Company and The Santa Fe Opera amongst many others. Latest role debuts include Zurga in Les Pêcheurs de Perles at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris with Les Grandes Voix; the title role of Cavaliere di Belfiore in a new Christopher Alden production of Verdi’s Un giorno di regno at Garsington Opera; Dandini in La Cenerentola and Belcore in L’Elisir d’amore, both at Lyric Opera of Chicago; the title role in Billy Budd with Central City Opera; and Athanaël in a concert version of Massenet’s Thaïs with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis and recorded for Chandos Records, for which he won a JUNO Award.

Past season highlights include his signature roles of Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at the Glyndebourne Festival, Verbier Festival, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Washington National Opera and Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon; Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia in house debuts at Opéra de Rouen and Den Norske Opera in Oslo, as well as The Santa Fe Opera, LA Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival in a new production by Francesca Zambello; and Papageno in The Magic Flute at The Metropolitan Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Washington National Opera, Vancouver Opera and the Ravinia Festival with Marin Alsop. As the title role in Don Giovanni, Joshua recently gave performances at the Hyogo Performing Arts Centre in Japan under the baton of Yutaka Sado.

Joshua has developed a reputation for his work in contemporary operas by celebrated American composers, creating leading roles for the World Premieres of new works both in the U.S. and Europe. He created the role of Orpheus in the World Premiere of Matthew Aucoin and Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice for his company debut at LA Opera and reprised the role at The Metropolitan Opera, which included a worldwide simulcast as part of The MET’s Live in HD series. Joshua received his first Grammy nomination in 2023 when the MET’s live recording of Eurydice was nominated for Best Opera Recording. Other recently created roles have included Niccolò Machiavelli in the premiere of Mohammed Fairouz and David Ignatius’s The New Prince in his company debut at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and Harry Bailey in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s It’s a Wonderful Life at Houston Grand Opera and in his debut at San Francisco Opera.

Mr. Hopkins made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Ping in Turandot in the 2009-10 season, conducted by Andris Nelsons. His notable past engagements have also included Cecil in Sir David McVicar’s new production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda for The Metropolitan Opera, his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Tadeusz in The Passenger in David Pountney’s acclaimed production, and his role debut as the title character in Don Giovanni with Utah Opera. Further highlights include the role of Junior in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place with New York City Opera, Sid in Albert Herring at The Santa Fe Opera under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis, Dr. Falke in a new production of Die Fledermaus at The Santa Fe Opera, Mercutio in Bartlett Sher’s production of Roméo et Juliette with Lyric Opera of Chicago and The Metropolitan Opera, and Valentin in Faust at Houston Grand Opera and Washington National Opera.

Past concert engagements include performances of Peter Lieberson’s Songs of Love and Sorrow with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Spain and with the Monterey Symphony; his Edinburgh International Festival debut as Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos, released on Linn Records; and Nielsen’s Symphony No. 3 with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Alan Gilbert, released on Dacapo Records. The chamber version of Songs for Murdered Sisters received its live World Premiere with the composer at the piano at Houston’s Rothko Chapel in March 2022, in partnership with Houston Grand Opera and subsequently received its European premiere at the Trasimeno Festival in Perugia, Italy with pianist Angela Hewitt. In 2023, Joshua gave the live World Premiere of the work's orchestral version with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra under the baton of Alexander Shelley in Ottawa, Toronto and Kingston.

Additional highlights of his concert schedule include his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy in performances of Peer Gynt; Haydn’s Creation with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum with the San Francisco Symphony; and Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem with the Houston Symphony under Hans Graf and the Colorado Symphony under Peter Oundjian.

Profoundly committed to the art of song, Joshua’s first recital disc, Let Beauty Awake, features songs of Barber, Bowles, Glick, and Vaughan Williams on the ATMA Classique label. He has given recitals in Chicago, Montreal, New York, Santa Fe, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington, D.C. Highlights of his varied appearances at Carnegie Hall include the World Premiere of Michael Tilson Thomas’ Rilke Songs, Poulenc’s Le bal masqué with the MET Orchestra Chamber Ensemble and a concert highlighting Benjamin Britten alongside Ian Bostridge and Iestyn Davies. Joshua has collaborated with Julius Drake, Richard Goode, Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt, Graham Johnson, and Warren Jones.

Most recently, Mr. Hopkins won a JUNO Award for his portrayal of Athanaël with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He was the winner of both the Verbier Festival Academy’s 2008 Prix d’Honneur and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2006. He was also a prizewinner at the prestigious 2006 ARD Musikwettbewerb in Munich and at the 2005 Operalia Competition held in Madrid. Joshua has received prizes from the George London Foundation, the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation, and won the Sylva Gelber Foundation Award from the Canada Council for the Arts.