American baritone, Nmon Ford, opens the 2018/19 season by making his role and house debut as Crown Porgy & Bess in the new production at English National Opera. He travels to Scotland for Bernstein’s Songfest which he sings with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Thomas Dausgard. Returning to the US, Nmon joins Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as Don Pizzaro Fidelio alongside Christine Goerke in the title role and revives the role of Crown at Cincinnati Opera during their summer festival.
Recent highlights include his appearance at Atlanta Symphony in the role of Iago Otello, Kansas City Symphony for Brahms Requiem and in London appearing in Bernstein’s Songfest with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre. At Madison Opera the artist appeared as Riolobo Florencia en el Amazonas.
Nmon Ford returned to the American operatic landscape recently as a baritone of some repute in dramatic repertoire. Appearing as Don Pizzaro at Cincinnati Opera, USA Today said “Equally gripping was the terrific baritone Nmon Ford, who embodied the evil Pizarro with wicked abandon. His anger was palpable as he declared his plan for vengeance, and his presence electrified whenever he was on the stage.” (Janelle Gelfand, July 8, 2016). Nmon continued to Pittsburgh Opera where he sang the role of Jocanaan against Patricia Racette’s Salome and again won exceptional reviews with the press calling him “powerful”, “outstanding”, “striking” and “resonant”. Other engagements include The Creation with Atlanta Symphony at performances of Elijah at Pomona College, Claremont.
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Porgy & Bess, Dutch National Opera
January 2019
Ford, who had sung the role in London, was wholly persuasive as the brutish drunk who kicks off the plot by killing a man over a game of dice. When, on the run from the law, Crown seduces Bess away from Porgy, he was sexy and dangerous. He and Aaron made the stage sizzle.
Opera Today, Jenny Camilleri, 18 January 2019
Porgy & Bess, English National Opera
October 2018
Of the major characters, only Nmon Ford as Bess’s violent lover Crown has the necessary vocal heft and stage presence, and his ability to cow the entire community during the storm scene arouses a genuine thrill of terror.
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 12 October 2018
Nmon Ford’s Crown: as charismatic a psychopath as you’d hope never to meet…
Richard Morrison, The Times, 12 October 2018
When Nmon Ford’s Crown, the bullying braggart who is the murderer, traps Nicole Cabell’s Bess on Kittiwah Island, the moment is deeply disturbing…
David Karlin, Bachtrack, 12 October 2018
Bess’s twin plagues, and twin tempters – the wheedling pusher Sporting Life, and the abusive thug Crown – strutted their stuff in a chilling double dose of what Gershwin probably never called toxic masculinity…Nmon Ford as a horribly charismatic Crown…
Boyd Tonkin, The Arts Desk, 12 October 2018
No such reservations need to be made about Latonia Moore (Serena) nor Nmon Ford (Crown), both of whom easily matched famous past performers of the roles. ...Ford was a virile and exciting villain, rock-steady in a tone and oozing malice and sexual self-confidence.
Opera Magazine, Ditlev Rindom, November 2018
…Nmon Ford's nasty Crown packs a big sexual swagger and threat…’
Robert Thicknesse, Opera Now, November 2018
Bernstein Mass, Mostly Mozart Festival
July 2018
Most notable was baritone Nmon Ford’s easy resonance and lovely, butter phrasing as the Celebrant...
New York Classical Review, George Grella, 18 July 2018
The high baritone Nmon Ford was the eloquent Celebrant...
Financial Times, John Rockwell, 19 July 2018
Nmon Ford was excellent as the Celebrant. His velvety baritone caressed the soft notes at either extreme of his range, but when unleashed it was powerful and penetrating. As an actor, he captured the exultation, anger and frustration of the Celebrant, although he was perhaps most engaging in tee shirt and jeans, young and idealistic. It was the stage of young manhood that Bernstein captured to perfection in so many of his stage works, and Ford embodied it.
Seen and Heard International, Rick Perdian, 21 July 2018
The “celebrant,” baritone Nmon Ford, provided a virtuoso performance of musical and physical prowess, remaining on stage for most of the show’s duration as a priest in growing conflict with his restless flock, desperately seeking a reason to believe.
American Magazine, Kevin McCabe, 20 July 2018
Nmon Ford, in a vocally resplendent, dramatically formidable performance...Ford convincingly traversed an arc from a patient father figure to a panicked captain trying to fend off mutiny. The climactic, fourteen-minute mad scene, after the Celebrant shockingly hurls his sacraments to the floor, is the most precarious part of the score, but Ford pulled it off with dramatic surety and musical intensity—a truly memorable turn.
ZealNYC, Joshua Rosenblum, 20 July 2018
The Celebrant, baritone Nmon Ford, enters down the aisle from the audience as if he wandered in from a hootenanny. He strummed a guitar and sang, "Sing God a simple song....Make it up as you go along," before taking on his religious garb and becoming leader of the congregants around him in the Mass. (The character would dress down again later in the piece.) Ford used his velvety voice to move back and forth easily in meeting the shifting demands of the work.
Broadway World, Richard Sasanow, 19 July 2018
Calm and collected, Nmon Ford, as the Celebrant, made a sweet sound...
NY Times, Zachary Woolfe, 18 July 2018
Baritone Nmon Ford sang the Celebrant as if he’d been humming the role since kindergarten, his clear, supple voice streaked with that Bernstein specialty, existential doubt.
Vulture, Justin Davidson, 19 July 2018
Florencia en el Amazonas, Madison Opera
April 2018
Similarly Ford, as Riolobo, very nearly steals the show with his poetic Act I plea to the river spirits not to drown the ship. Ford’s strength and sly smile draw the eye, even when he’s quietly watching from above.
The Cap Times, Lindsay Christians, 28 April 2018
Nmon Ford as Riolobo, had a rich baritone voice and an impressive physicality. His transformation at the end of the first act into a feather-clad river spirit was hypnotic.
The Well-Tempered Ear, Jacob Stockinger, 1 May 2018
Brahms Requiem, Kansas City Symphony
November 2017
Nmon Ford, baritone, took great command of the stage during his featured moments, singing with a direct authority that was hypnotizing. His physical portrayal of the text was subtle and welcome in this performance, treated like an operatic role rather than that within a more strict concert setting.
KC Metropolis, Anthony Rodgers , 9 November 2017
Otello, Atlanta Symphony
October 2017
The real vocal stand out of the evening was baritone Nmon Ford (no relation), who played the manipulative ensign Iago. Having won several major performance awards, he has built an international reputation in opera houses and concert halls alike. He has an exquisitely clear and controlled voice, and has a very strong stage presence. He knows how to angle his body, dart his eyes, or sit with rigid posture to convey the subtlest of emotions. His vocal skills, in addition to his elegant presentation, made his Iago both charming and treacherous. Ford has been a guest soloist with the ASO many times, and this was a particularly memorable performance in this challenging concert-opera setting.
Bachtrack, Robert E. Ford, 9 October 2017
Ensign Iago is sizzlingly sung as a truly evil villain by baritone Nmon Ford...Ford is familiar to ASO audiences through multiple performances and recordings with the orchestra.
ArtsATL, Mark Gresham, 10 October 2017
Fidelio, Cincinnati Opera
July 2016
The impressive bass Nmon Ford was the villainous Pizarro…
Rafael de Acha, Seen and Heard International, July 9 2016
Nmon Ford’s Opera Repertoire
| BERLIOZ | Samson et Dalila (Le grand prêtre) |
|---|---|
| BIZET | Carmen (Escamillo) |
| BLOCH | Macbeth (Macbeth) |
| CATÁN | Florencia en el Amazonas (Riolobo) |
| GIORDANO | Andrea Chénier (Carlo Gérard) |
| GRUENBERG | The Emperor Jones (Brutus Jones) |
| LEONCAVALLO | I pagliacci (Tonio) |
| MASCAGNI | Cavalleria Rusticana (Alfio) |
| MASSENET | Hérodiade (Hérode) |
| MOZART | Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni) |
| PUCCINI | Tosca (Scarpia) |
| STRAUSS, R. | Die Liebe der Danae (Jupiter) |
| VERDI | Aïda (Amonasro) |
| WAGNER | Lohengrin (Telramund) |
Nmon Ford’s Concert Repertoire
| ADAMS | El Niño |
|---|---|
| BACH, J.S. | Cantata no.205 |
| BEETHOVEN | Symphony 9 |
| BERLIOZ | L'enfance du Christ |
| BLOCH | Sacred Service |
| BOLCOM | Songs of Innocence and of Experience |
| BRAHMS | Ein deutsches Requiem |
| BRITTEN | War Requiem |
| DEBUSSY | L'enfant prodigue |
| DELIUS | Sea Drift |
| DE FALLA | Sietes cançiones populares Españolas |
| ELGAR | The Dream of Gerontius |
| ELLINGTON | Sacred Songs |
| FAURÉ | Requiem |
| HANDEL | Judas Maccabeus |
| HAYDN | Creation |
| HIGDON | Dooryard Bloom |
| LESHNOFF | Zohar |
| MAHLER | Das Lied von der Erde |
| MENDELSSOHN | Elijah |
| MOZART | Concert Aria, "Mentre ti lascio, o flglia" |
| ORFF | Carmina Burana |
| RACHMANINOV | The Bells |
| RAVEL | Don Quichotte à Dulcinée |
| THEOFANIDIS | Creation/Creator |
| VAUGHAN WILLIAMS | Five Mystical Songs |
| VILLA-LOBOS | Symphony 10, "Amerindia" |
| WALTON | Belshazzar's Feast |
