Daniel Okulitch

Daniel Okulitch, born January 30, 1976, in Ottawa, Ontario, is a Canadian bass-baritone whose Broadway debut came in 2002 with Baz Luhrmann's production of La bohème. Raised in Calgary, Alberta, Okulitch made his operatic debut at age 12 as a boy soprano, performing the role of Amahl in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Calgary Opera, followed by one of the three spirits in The Magic Flute. He continued performing through his teenage years before enrolling at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at age 19, where he studied with pedagogue Richard Miller and earned both a Bachelor of Music and a Master's in Opera Theater. He subsequently pursued further training at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music under William McGraw, and during this period served as an apprentice with the Des Moines Metro Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and the San Francisco Opera Merola Program. While a student at the Cincinnati Conservatory, he received the Andrew White Memorial Award and a Corbett Award.

Okulitch's Broadway career centers on his role as Schaunard in Luhrmann's staging of Puccini's La bohème, which opened at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco before transferring to Broadway, where it ran for 228 performances. When the production subsequently traveled to Los Angeles, Okulitch reprised the role and received the Ovation Award for Best Ensemble Performance from the Los Angeles Stage Alliance. A recording of highlights from the original 2002 Broadway cast was released on DreamWorks the same year.

His operatic career has taken him to major companies and concert halls across North America and Europe. Among his most prominent roles are those in the Mozart repertoire, including Don Giovanni, Almaviva, and Figaro, performed at institutions such as New York City Opera, Teatro Colón, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera, Vancouver Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Warsaw, Portland Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Hawaii Opera, Manitoba Opera, Lyric Opera Kansas City, and the Milwaukee Symphony. His Teatro alla Scala debut came in the role of Theseus in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and he also performed the role of Swallow in Peter Grimes at both Washington National Opera and La Scala. Additional credits include Creonte in Medee with Opera Genève and General Groves in Dr. Atomic at the Santa Fe Opera.

Okulitch has established a particular reputation in contemporary opera and world premieres. He created the role of Ennis del Mar in Charles Wuorinen's Brokeback Mountain at Teatro Real in Madrid, Seth Brundle in Howard Shore's The Fly at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and at Los Angeles Opera, Willy Wonka in Peter Ash's The Golden Ticket at Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Atlanta Opera, and Herman Broder in Ben Moore's Enemies, A Love Story at Palm Beach Opera. In 2016, he originated the role of Lyndon B. Johnson in David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's JFK at Fort Worth Opera, a performance he reprised for Opéra de Montréal in January 2018.

In March 2011, Okulitch released his debut solo album, The New American Art Song, on GPR Records, featuring world premiere songs by Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, Lowell Liebermann, and Glen Roven, each of whom accompanied him on piano. Concurrent with the album's release, the songs were presented in concert at Carnegie Hall, with the composers again serving as accompanists, with the exception of Heggie. His discography also includes Le roi Arthus by Ernest Chausson on Telarc (2005) and Frau Margot by Thomas Pasatieri on Albany Records (2007).

Okulitch has received recognition from numerous competitions and foundations. His prizes include first prize from the George London Foundation in 2004, first prize from the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation in 2004, a grant from the Sullivan Foundation in 2004, second prize from the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Competition, a grant from the Singers Development Fund in 2003, and fifth prize in the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition in 2002. He was a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in both 2000 and 2001, and received Canada Council Grants for Professional Musicians in 2006 and 2008.