Robert Pomakov Bass

Biography

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Toronto-born Robert Pomakov has won prizes at numerous international competitions (the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium, the Belvedere Competition in Vienna, and the Placido Domingo Operalia Competition). He made his professional debut at the Metropolitan Opera in the role of Monterone and has since performed there in Andrea Chenier (Mathieu), The Marriage of Figaro (Bartolo), Manon (the Innkeeper) and Don Carlo (the Monk). He has been invited to sing at the Houston Grand Opera (Mieczislaw Weinberg’s The Passenger, Monterone, Benoît in La Bohème, and Haly in L’Italiana in Algeri), the Washington Opera (Leporello in Don Giovanni alongside Samuel Ramey), the San Francisco Opera (Monterone), the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto (Hobson in Peter Grimes, and Chamberlain in The Nightingale), the Santa Fe Opera (Monterone, and for the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain), and the Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels (Varlaam in Boris Godounov). During the 2015 / 2016 season, he played Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville at the Metropolitan Opera, Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro in Toronto, the Water Goblin in Rusalka at the Kansas City Opera, and Banco in Macbeth in Saint Louis. This season, he sang the role of Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin at the Frankfurt Opera and Alberich in The Twilight of the Gods in Toronto. Robert Pomakov also performs in concert: Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy at the Ravinia Festival under the baton of James Conlon, Francesca da Rimini and Der Freischütz under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach, Shostakovich’s Symphony N°14 in Toronto, a European tour of Handel’s Apollo e Dafne (recorded on the Naxos label), Schubert’s Fierrabras at the Bard Music Festival, Mahler’s Symphony N° 8 under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Seguin, Mozart’s Requiem with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières, Handel’s Messiah with the Phoenix and North Carolina Symphony orchestras, Verdi’s Requiem with the Calgary Philharmonic, and Lohengrin (King Heinrich) at the Lanaudière Festival under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Seguin, etc.