A native of San Antonio, Texas, baritone Jacob Lassetter recently made a triumphant return to the role of Germont in La Traviata with the Music by the Lake summer festival, where he “made Alfredo’s father, Germont, less a caricature of bourgeois stuffiness and more a figure of understandable dignity, even sympathetic."  This signature role also served as his Italian debut at the Teatro Accademico in Castelfranco Veneto.  Critical acclaim followed his recent performances with the Lexington Philharmonic, proclaiming his “ringing clarion call was as true as a trumpet’s” in Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 and that in Orff’s Carmina Burana he “negotiated extreme high ranges with a richness of tone that beggars the imagination.”

This summer also marked Mr. Lassetter’s debut in the title role of Le Nozze di Figaro with the Peninsula Music Festival.  Other roles in his operatic repertoire include the title role in Don Giovanni, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Griswold in The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe, and the title character of Delling in Eric Chasalow’s The Puzzle Master.  He is a former member of the Young Artists Programs of Chautauqua Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Utah Festival Opera. At Utah Festival Opera he covered the title roles of both Rigoletto and Elijah, as well as the role of Marcello in La Bohème.

Equally adept on the concert stage, Mr. Lassetter has been the featured soloist for various symphony organizations performing such works as Orff’s Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9, Handel’s Messiah, Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine and Bach’s St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Christmas and Easter Oratorios and Missa Brevis in F. An active recitalist, in 2008 he made his New York City debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall with his wife, soprano Karen Kanakis.

Mr. Lassetter was recently named a semi-finalist in the Marguerite McCammon Voice Competion.  He is a Regional Finalist in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award Competition, and received the encouragement award from the Southern Ohio District of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.  Mr. Lassetter holds a Bachelor of Music degree, magna cum laude, from Louisiana State University, the Master of Music degree from the University of North Texas, and the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.