Don Hoffman, bass-baritone, has been praised for his "handsome, suave and confident" presence across repertoire that includes opera, oratorio and new works. A native of New Orleans, he graduated from Amherst College where he was active in numerous choirs, studied vocal performance at Loyola University, and made his professional debut with New Orleans Opera, appearing in more than 20 productions and singing lead roles in Don Giovanni and L'elisir d'amore. While living in Paris, he was a frequent guest soloist with the Paris Choral Society, performing works by Handel, Rossini, Saint-Saëns and Susa and participating in the Festival de Musique Sacrée in Rocamadour.
While based in Los Angeles, he was a featured vocalist with the popular Angel City Chorale and joined that ensemble for the world premiere of a new composition by Grammy Award-winning composer Christopher Tin at Carnegie Hall. A frequent performer on Bay Area stages, he recently sang Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni) for Bayshore Lyric Opera, Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem with the Diablo Valley Orchestra, Colline (La bohème) for Island City Opera, and Sparafucile (Rigoletto) with Pocket Opera. He studies in San Francisco with acclaimed bass Gregory Stapp.
Operatic repertoire includes Escamillo (Carmen), Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia), the Four Villains (Tales of Hoffmann), Comte des Grieux (Manon), Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Oroveso (Norma), Nilakantha (Lakmé), Philip II (Don Carlos), Zaccaria (Nabucco), Nick Shadow (The Rake's Progress), and the Rev. Olin Blitch (Susannah).
Sacred and oratorio repertoire includes Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Haydn's Creation, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis, Rossini's Petite Messe Solenelle and Stabat Mater, Bach's Mass in B Minor, Bruckner's Te Deum, the Oratorio de Noël by Saint-Saëns, and the Requiems of Duruflé, Fauré, Mozart and Verdi.