Isaiah Musik-Ayala

With a voice that the New York Times has described as “burly and resonant,” and the San Francisco Classical Voice has called “commanding and compelling,” American bass Isaiah Musik-Ayala has been gaining recognition as a performer to watch in a wide variety of repertoire across the United States.

In the current season, Isaiah returns to Anchorage Opera for all three productions. He will make his role debut as Haly in L’italiana in Algeri, in a co-production with Houston’s Opera in the Heights. He will also reprise his Bonze in Madama Butterfly and sing a variety of repertoire in the company’s immersive pastiche production of Mozart at the Museum at the Anchorage Museum, developed by Artistic Director Ben Robinson.

Highlights of the 2023-2024 season for Isaiah included his début at the Los Angeles Philharmonic as The Groundskeeper in Oliver Leith’s Last Days, a new opera chronicling the life and death of Kurt Cobain, under the baton of Thomas Adès. He also débuted with Anchorage Opera as Baron Douphol in La traviata and returned to Opera San Jose to cover Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia.

Isaiah recently performed Banquo in Heartbeat Opera’s innovative Lady M adaptation of Verdi’s Macbeth, in which Loren Lester of Schmopera praised his performance as, “…potent and formidable… a force to be reckoned with, not only as Banquo, but as an ascendant star in the opera world.”

Other highlights of recent seasons have included Rocco in Fidelio and the Archbishop in The Maid of Orleans at Opera Company of Middlebury; Jochanaan in Salome, Oroveso in Norma, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Ramfis in Aida with West Bay Opera; Alidoro in La Cenerentola with TriCities Opera; Baron Douphol in La traviata with Savannah Voice Festival, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with Hawaii Performing Arts Festival; Commendatore in Don Giovanni with Opera Academy California; Colline in La bohème with New York City Opera, Union Avenue Opera, and Opera San Jose; Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin with Union Avenue Opera; Bonze in Madama Butterfly with North Shore Music Festival, and Escamillo in Carmen with Opera San Luis Obispo.

With Opera San Jose, Isaiah has sung several roles including Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Sacristan in Tosca, Frank in Die Fledermaus, Alexei Karenin in Anna Karenina, and Simone in Gianni Schicchi. He has also covered the French General in Silent Night with OSJ, the King in Aida, Colline in La bohème, and Barbarossa in La battaglia di Legnano at Sarasota Opera.

On the concert platform, Isaiah has sung the bass solos in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Schubert’s Mass No. 6 with Solano Symphony, Haydn’s Nicolai Mass at Montclair Presbyterian Church, and has appeared in recital with The Beverly Hills Recital Series. He was slated to sing Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Glacier Symphony before its cancellation due to COVID-19.

Isaiah is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied with the late Richard Miller.