ryan alexander, voice
educator | vocalist | activist
who i am
Artist and activist Ryan Alexander performs various repertoires spanning art song to film. A latecomer to music, Ryan spent six years serving as a special education teacher and college administrator for Chicago Public Schools and the DC Jail. His experiences in the classroom directly inform his work, resulting in a desire to create programming that centers the human experience & uplifts marginalized identities.To strengthen his interpretive skills, Ryan attended SongFest in the summer of 2023 as a Young Artist. The emphasis on vulnerability, expressivity, and focus placed on supporting new works inspired Ryan to bring these practices home. In 2024, he co-authored and premiered The Tale of Bea, an original composition by Meg Huskin which explores the life of Ryan’s grandmother as a second generation Jewish immigrant growing up in a segregated Chicago. This piece blends influences of klezmer music, shadow puppetry, and DIY folk art traditions to create an immersive, audio-visual experience.In May of 2024, Ryan originated the role of Dr. Penrose in an off-Broadway industry reading of the Wesley, written by Scott Steidl & Mark Hantoot under the direction of Mary Duncan. Other musical theater performances include: Live Arts Maryland’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Side by Side and a cabaret concert imagined by Amy Burton & John Musto. In film, Ryan made an appearance in Leah Hennessey and Emily Allan’s Illuminati Detectives, which premiered at the Biennale de l’image en Mouvement at the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva, Switzerland.A supporter of contemporary opera, Ryan realized roles in original scenes by Peabody student composers Michael Mills & Victor Cui. Additional experience in opera includes: playing the role of Peter in Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up, singing as a Shepherd in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis, and Assistant Stage Managing/Directing the Peabody Opera Theater’s production of Die Fledermaus.Beyond the arts, Ryan is a passionate advocate for educational access and equity. While managing the college department at the DC Jail, he helped launch programs with Harvard, MIT, Amazon Web Services, the University of the District of Columbia, and more. Ryan’s dream is to create meaningful arts programming for incarcerated individuals. He remains actively engaged at the facility, and in April of 2024 performed a community outreach version of his master’s voice recital for currently incarcerated individuals.Ryan holds a BA in Anthropology from George Mason University, an MSc in Special Education from Dominican University, and an MM in Vocal Performance from the Peabody Institute. He completed Teach For America in the Chicago Region, participated in a semester-long honors exchange program at the University of Oxford’s New College, and acquired advanced German language skills through the Middlebury Language Schools. He is an active member of the Cerberus Ensemble with collaborators Stephanie Baird, Michael Manganiello, and T.J. Callahan, as well as Dualis Ensemble under the direction of Kevin Crouch.
work samples & press
events
recent performances:Dualis Ensemble's Bound by Harmony concert; A choral journey through love, faith, loss, and nature conducted by Kevin Crouch; Grace and St. Peter’s Church in Baltimore, MDLiederabend @ Middlebury College; German for Singers programCondensed interpretation of Die Fledermaus @ Middlebury College; role of Dr. FalkeMiddlebury in Scharbeutz, Germany; additional performances of Die FledermausPride Evensong with Cerberus Ensemble at Saint David's Church, Baltimore, MDWesley musical reading at The Jerry Orbach Theater, New York, NYMM in Voice Degree Recital @ the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, MDSchubert's Wohin? from Die schöne Mullerin performed @ Peabody and the New Classical Lecture Recital, curated by Rebecca Reagan with Xin Wu on pianoPeabody x DC Jail community recital in collaboration with Xin Wu, piano; McKey Monroe, voice; and Andrew Egerstrom, hornGallery of Life: Art Song Reimagined Project @ PeabodyVariety Show @ The Kraine Theater, in collaboration with Sophie Becker, New York, NYBasilio in Middlebury's condensed version of Figaros Hochzeit (The Marriage of Figaro) with performances in Middlebury, VT & Scharbeutz, Germany
get in touch
email: [email protected]