Go to the top

Soloist

Baritone MARCUS DELOACH has been hailed by Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times as "a fine baritone who puts words across with clarity and naturalness." A leading performer of contemporary vocal music today, he has established himself in the areas of opera, concert, and cross-over.

Following his Opera Philadelphia debut as Bill Owens in the East Coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain in 2016, DeLoach received critical acclaim for his creation of the roles of Senator Joseph McCarthy in Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers at Cincinnati Opera and the Minister in Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves at Opera Philadelphia. He reprised both roles for their New York premieres at the PROTOTYPE Festival in 2017 and 2018, and went on to make his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in Fellow Travelers in the spring of 2018.

DeLoach was hailed as “powerfully convincing” in his Opera Ireland (Dublin) debut as Joseph De Rocher in Dead Man Walking in 2007 and made his debut at Seattle Opera as Schaunard in La bohème earlier that same year. In 2009, he received critical acclaim for his debut at Teatro Comunale di Bolzano (Italy) as Jean in Philippe Boesmans’ Julie. As a principal artist of New York City Opera from 2000-2006 he sang the roles of Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Satyr and Cithéron in Platée, Slim in Of Mice and Men, Don Alvaro in Il viaggio a Reims, Schaunard in La bohème, and many others. DeLoach has also appeared in principal roles with American Opera Project, Arizona Opera, Bard Summerscape Festival, Boston Lyric Opera, Central City Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Kentucky Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Nashville Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Syracuse Opera, Tulsa Opera, Utah Opera, Wichita Grand Opera, and others.

He has performed with conductors Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Kristjan Järvi, Steuart Bedford, John Mauceri, Emmanuel Villaume, John DeMain, Vjekoslav Sutej, Gerard Schwartz, Bruno Ferrandis, and George Manahan, and has appeared in concert with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Symphony Orchestra, Die Münchner Philharmoniker, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Musikfest Bremen, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and numerous other American orchestras.

In 1997, DeLoach was unanimously voted the first-place winner of London's inaugural Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. Of his singing, Hilary Finch of The London Times wrote, "A well- groomed voice, a flair for programme shaping, a fervent desire to communicate, and, above all, that elusive fusion of instinct and understanding which sparks a quality of imagination transcending mere accomplishment." He has also appeared regularly in recital with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and The Marilyn Horne Foundation.

With a deep commitment to the creation and promotion of modern opera DeLoach has created principal roles in the world premieres of Spears' Fellow Travelers, Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves, Wiesman's / Hoiby's Darkling, Beeferman's The Rat Land, Drattell's Lilith and Marina: A Captive Spirit, and Schoenfield's The Merchant and the Pauper. DeLoach has also recorded several CDs of modern operatic works including Spears' Fellow Travelers, Scott Wheeler’s The Construction of Boston, and “Scenes from Jewish Operas 2” with Gerard Schwartz and the Seattle Symphony.

In 2004, he joined the acclaimed rock group Trans-Siberian Orchestra for their rock opera Christmas Eve and Other Stories in a national tour, which included Madison Square Garden and the Fleet Center, performing for an estimated audience of a quarter million.

DeLoach holds both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Voice Performance from The Juilliard School and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. He has also attended The Britten-Pears School, New England Conservatory, and The Music Academy of the West. The Opera Index, Albanese- Puccini, Rosa Ponselle, Liederkranz, and George London Foundations, the Young Concert Artists International, The National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, Metropolitan Opera National Council, and The Gaddes Fund have all honored him for his outstanding achievements and artistry.

Recordings


Fellow Travelers by Gregory Spears with Cincinnati Opera and Mark Gibson. Fanfare Cincinnati (2017)

Marcus DeLoach: American Song (2005)

Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots with the American Symphony Orchestra (2010)

Wheeler: The Construction of Boston, Boston Cecilia Chorus & Donald Teeters. Naxos 8.669018 (2008)

Jewish Operas, Vol. 2 Milken Archive, Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz, & Carol Meyer. Naxos 8.559450 (2006)

Marilyn Horne Foundation Presents On Wings Of Song: the 1999-2000 Broadcast Season of its Vocal Recital Series. Marilyn Horne, Stephanie Blythe, David Daniels, et al. The Marilyn Horne Foundation (2001)

Download Soloist Materials

Educator

Marcus DeLoach teaching a student of voice

An active performer of opera and concert works, MARCUS DELOACH serves as Associate Professor of Voice and Opera at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance. His students have been seen and heard frequently in competitive young artist apprentice programs, both national and international, and have found employment in opera companies and Broadway touring productions across the United States. They have also been honored by prestigious national vocal competitions and been awarded vocal scholarships at top music schools across the country.

As a teacher and clinician, he has presented voice science classes at Rice University and Wolf Trap Opera and given master classes at universities and organizations across the country including Ithaca College, University of Colorado Boulder, Simpson College, and many others. DeLoach regularly serves as an adjudicator for groups including the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Classical Singer, and the Seagle Music Colony Emerging Artist program, among others. From 2015-2018, he was president of the NATS: Greater Philadelphia Chapter and was recognized by the national organization with an Emerging Leader Award in 2017. His musical scholarship concentrates on the early vocal works of Ralph Vaughan Williams and his premiere edition of the composer’s Two Vocal Duets is published by Stainer & Bell.

DeLoach has trained in voice with Dr. Stephen King, Edward Zambara, Fred Carama, and Ruth Falcon; in acting with Frank Corsaro, Ted Altschuler, and Elizabeth Browning; and has coached with Graham Johnson, Warren Jones, and Marilyn Horne. He holds a B.M. and M.M. in Voice Performance from The Juilliard School and a D.M.A from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Additionally, he has studied at Music Academy of the West, San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, New England Conservatory, and the Britten-Pears School in England.

As a soloist, DeLoach has appeared with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and many other orchestras. His performances have included collaborations with conductors Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Kristjan Järvi, Gerard Schwartz, and John Mauceri. He has also appeared numerous times with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Marilyn Horne Foundation, and the rock group Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

DeLoach’s international opera career has included performances at Teatro Comunale di Bolzano (Italy), and Opera Ireland. Nationally he has appeared at Seattle Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Arizona Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Tulsa Opera, Bard Summerscape Festival, Central City Opera, Kentucky Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Nashville Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Utah Opera, PROTOTYPE Festival, American Opera Projects, and New York City Opera, where he was a principal artist from 2000-2006.

With a deep commitment to the creation and promotion of contemporary vocal music, DeLoach has premiered numerous modern operas and recorded for Naxos and other labels. His own children’s opera Mooch the Messy (based on the book by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat) has had four productions since its inception in 2010, including performances by Boston Conservatory and Tulsa Opera’s outreach programs.

In 1997 DeLoach was unanimously voted the first-place winner of London's inaugural Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. He has also received honors from Opera Index, Albanese- Puccini, Rosa Ponselle, Liederkranz, and George London foundations, the Young Concert Artists International, The National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, Metropolitan Opera National Council, and The Gaddes Fund.

Publications

Arthur Foxton Ferguson: A Vaughan Williams Singer and Collaborator
The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society Journal, ed. William Hedley, 62
(February 2015): 9-12.

A Guide to Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Two Vocal Duets: A History and Musical Analysis of His First Settings of Walt Whitman
Doctoral Dissertation, Rice University, 2014.

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Two Vocal Duets. ed. Marcus DeLoach
Stainer & Bell, 2017 (premiere edition)

Download Educator Materials

Composer

Marcus DeLoach composing

Marcus DeLoach’s multi-faceted international career as a soloist in opera, musical theater, and popular music inspires a dramatically expressive compositional style that finds its roots in a fusion of the classical tradition and contemporary musical theater vocal idioms.

His first opera, Mooch the Messy, based on the book by acclaimed children’s author Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, was premiered at the Greenwood Music Festival, SC in 2010, with Metropolitan Opera tenor Keith Jameson in the title role. The opera has been subsequently produced by the Boston Conservatory and Tulsa Opera “Opera on Tour” outreach program, where it played to over 30,000 school children.

In 2016, DeLoach was commissioned by Music Director Elizabeth Braden to write “Look Up Into the Heavens,” an anthem for choir and organ, for the Chancel Choir of Wallingford Presbyterian Church of Wallingford, PA. The group subsequently commissioned him to write another anthem “The Lord is My Shepherd” in 2019, which was featured in Opera Philadelphia’s 2021 Digital Channel original film Organ Stops. His first sacred choral work, an a cappella anthem “The Prayer of St. Francis”, was commissioned in 2013 by the Director of Music Ministries Steve Newberry for the St. John’s Chorale of The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX.

While a student at Rice University, DeLoach wrote and produced Three Capstan Shanties, folk- song arrangements for three solo voices and harmonium. Additionally, in cooperation with The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, DeLoach wrote new chamber orchestra arrangements for baritone of four of the composer’s most popular songs “Mack the Knife,” “September Song,” “Tchaikowsky,” and “Johnny’s Song.”

In 2016, DeLoach completed a song cycle Four Robinson Songs for baritone and piano and based on the poetry of Weldon Kees, which was premiered by baritone Keith Phares in 2022. His other classical songs include settings of the poetry of Derek Walcott, E. E. Cummings, Robert Bly, and James de Priest.

As part of a 2021 Vice Provost for the Arts grant from Temple University, he completed Five Poems of Robert Bly and "Billy in the Darbies" which were premiered in Philadelphia in 2022 by baritone Andrew Garland. Also, in 2022 were premieres of Images for tenor and string quartet, written for Hayden Smith and based on poetry of William Cullen Bryant, and Three Last Songs ("Leith Hill," "A Perfectly Practical Ender," and "It's Still a Wonderful World"), cabaret-style settings for which he wrote the music and lyrics.

Other operatic projects have included authoring the libretto for Jeff Grace’s one-act opera The Train Ride for American Opera Projects and serving as stage director for the world premiere of Mark Volker’s opera The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for the Young Opera Company of New England.

DeLoach holds a B.M. and M.M. in Voice Performance from The Juilliard School and a D.M.A. from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music where he studied composition with Dr. Karim Al-Zand. Current compositional projects include another song set of Robert Bly texts, a new arrangement of his setting of "The Lord is my Shepherd" for choir, piano, and violin, and an original opera.

Current for 2023

The Lord Is My Shepherd

Philadelphia: MCDE Music Publishing
2019
For SATB and organ or SATB, violin, and piano, commissioned by Music Director Elizabeth Braden for the Chancel Choir of the Wallingford Presbyterian Church. Running time: 4.5 min. No sound file available.

Look Up Into the Heavens

Philadelphia: MCDE Music Publishing
2017
For SSATB and organ, commissioned by Music Director Elizabeth Braden for the Chancel Choir of the Wallingford Presbyterian Church. Running time: 7 min. No sound file available.

Four Robinson Songs

1. Robinson
2. Robinson At Home
3. Aspects of Robinson
4. Relating to Robinson

Philadelphia: MCDE Music Publishing
2015
Song cycle for baritone and piano based on the poetry of Weldon Kees, by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Running time: 22 min.

Dakota Land

Philadelphia: MCDE Music Publishing
2015
Folk-song arrangement for tenor, piano, and chorus, ad. lib. Running time: 5 min.) No sound file available.

The Prayer of St. Francis

Houston: MCDE Music Publishing
2013
For a cappella choral anthem for SSAATTBB, commissioned by the Director of Music Ministries Steve Newberry for the St. John’s Chorale of The Church of St. John the Divine. Running time: 4 min.

Auf Flügeln des Gesanges

Houston: MCDE Music Publishing
2013
Arrangement of Mendelssohn’s Lied for soloists, choir, violin, and piano. Running time: 3.5 min.

Christmas Camel
Houston: MCDE Music Publishing
2013
Parody for singer, rock band, and choir. Running time: 4 min. Watch! >

Four Kurt Weill Popular Songs

1. Mack the Knife
2. September Song
3. Tschaikowsky (and Other Russians)
4. Johnny’s Song

Houston: unpublished
2012
Arrangement for baritone and chamber orchestra, by permission of the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music and Schott, Inc. Running time: 12 min. No sound files available.

Three Capstan Shanties

1. The Drunken Sailor
2. Shenandoah
3. Can’t You Dance the Polka

Houston: MCDE Music Publishing
2011
Folk-song arrangements for solo trio or male chorus [TBB] and harmonium. Running time: 12 min.

Mooch the Messy:
An Opera for Children
New York: MCDE Music Publishing
2008
Based on the book by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat. For tenor, baritone, and child with piano or chamber ensemble accompaniment. Running time: 25 min. More MOOCH this way . . . ! >
Mooch the Messy promo banner


Download Composer Materials

Schedule

Performances in the 2022/23 Season

CONCERT

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

Oct. 15, 2022
the road goes on ahead: the music of Marcus DeLoach - an evening of Marcus' own original vocal compositions performed by w. Charles Abramovic, Elizabeth Braden, Andrew Garland, Sophia Hunt, Grant Loehnig, Keith Phares, Hayden Smith, and students and faculty. Works on texts by Robert Bly, Derek Walcott, Weldon Kees, and E.E. Cummings, including several premieres, will be presented in Rock Hall Auditorium
+Tickets & Info
CONSIDERING MATTHEW
SHEPHERD

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

Nov. 16, 2022
Marcus appears as baritone soloist in excerpts of Craig Hella Johnson's epic work Considering Matthew Shepherd w. Temple University Choirs in the Temple Performing Arts Center (TPAC), Dustin Cates, cond.
+Tickets & Info
RECITAL

MANCHESTER UMC

Nov. 20, 2022
The Joy of Music Concert Series presents an Evening of Music for Voice and Piano on Sunday, November 21 at 7 p.m. Marcus will shares his love of art song, opera, and musical theatre in an recital with pianist Grant Loehnig.
+Tickets & Info
CARMINA BURANA

GREENWICH CHORAL SOCIETY

Feb. 25, 2023
Marcus appears as baritone soloist in Carmina Burana for his debut with the Greenwich Choral Society, Paul F. Mueller, cond.
+Tickets & Info
RECITAL

WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

May 13, 2023
Marcus and Grant Loehnig will perform a concert of American art song including the world premiere of Charles Halka's new song cycle Somewhere in Italy.
+Tickets & Info
MASTERCLASS

WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

May 15, 2023
Marcus will work with current WWU voice students in repertoire from concert and opera.
+Tickets & Info
EVERYTHING'S OK AT THE OK CORRAL

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

February 17, 2023
Students of Marcus and special guest performers will present a recital of solos and ensembles inspired by the American West, including a world premiere song set by composer Charles Shadle.
+Tickets & Info
CONCERT

KIMMEL CULTURAL CAMPUS

February 25, 2023
Members of the Opera Philadelphia Chorus conducted by Liz Braden will present the Philadelphia premiere of Marcus' grand anthem "Look Up into the Heavens" with organist Jeffrey DeVault playing the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ in Verizon Hall. admission is free
+Tickets & Info
CONCERT

YORK SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

May 20, 2023
Marcus returns for the Orchestra’s 2022-2023 season finale “Puccini and Pictures” where he will be the baritone soloist for Giacomo Puccini’s Messa di Gloria with the York Symphony Chorus led by conductor Lawrence Golan.
+Tickets & Info
Schedule additions and announcements are always forthcoming. Please check back.

2021/22 SCHEDULE ARCHIVE
2020/21 SCHEDULE ARCHIVE
2018/19 SCHEDULE ARCHIVE
2017/18 SCHEDULE ARCHIVE
2016/17 SCHEDULE ARCHIVE

Media Galleries

Contact

Website by The Doyle Treatment

Photographer credits:
American Opera Projects, Dave Bazemore,
Stephanie Berger, Andrew Bogard, Nataie & Larry Green, Philip Groshong, Bill Heuberger, Laura Kaye, Mark N. Kiryluk, Frank Lascher, Rosaril Lynch,
Kelly & Massa, Mark McCall, Pat Redmond, Carol Rosegg, Steve Summy, Duane Tinkey, Franco Tutino, Todd Rosenberg and Ted Washington.

Marcus' Social Circles

Subscribe to Marcus' soloist and music publishing YouTube channels, view his profile on Temple University, visit his IMDb listing, or listen to his compositions on SoundCloud via the icons below.

Contact Marcus Personally