JUNO Award-winning and Grammy-nominated Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins has been hailed by Opera Today as having “a glistening, malleable baritone of exceptional beauty, and the technique to exploit its full range of expressive possibilities from comic bluster to melting beauty.”  

In the 2025–6 season, Joshua Hopkins returns to two of his most acclaimed operatic roles: Mozart’s Papageno at both The Metropolitan Opera and Semperoper Dresden and Rossini’s Figaro at San Francisco Opera. His busy concert season includes several works that are new to the artist; he sings Rachmaninov’s The Bells under Matthias Pintscher with both the Cincinnati Symphony and the Kansas City Symphony, debuts with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra in performances of Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast in Bucharest, and returns to the San Francisco Symphony with longtime collaborator Bernard Labadie in Bach’s Easter  Oratorio. He also returns to the Colorado Symphony in Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem and Haydn’s Mass in Time of War.  

Joshua brings his most personal project, Songs for Murdered Sisters, to two new venues this season, performing the song cycle with the Victoria Symphony in B.C. and University of Michigan’s Philharmonia Orchestra in Ann Arbor. Written by composer Jake Heggie and author Margaret Atwood, Songs for Murdered  Sisters was conceived by Hopkins in remembrance of his sister, Nathalie Warmerdam, to bring awareness to ending intimate partner violence. The critically acclaimed film, directed by James Niebuhr, is available to watch on YouTube, and the JUNO-nominated digital album, released on the Pentatone label, is available on all streaming platforms.  

In the 2024–5 season, Joshua made a series of celebrated debuts and returns in both Europe and North America. At Semperoper Dresden, he debuted as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia and later returned for Papageno in Die Zauberflöte and Maximilian in Bernstein’s Candide. He made a notable debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper, jumping in as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and debuted at Staatsoper Berlin in Bernard Foccroulle and Matthew Jocelyn’s Cassandra. His return to The Metropolitan Opera as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro was highly praised, broadcast worldwide as part of the MET’s Live in HD series, and featured on PBS’s Great Performances. On the concert stage, he brought Songs for Murdered Sisters to a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall and to Marian Anderson Hall with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia  Orchestra for its American orchestral premiere; he also joined Alexander Shelley and the Naples Philharmonic for performances of the work. Joshua returned to Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain for his first Beethoven Symphony No. 9 and joined Manfred Honeck for performances of Haydn’s Mass in Time of War with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Fauré’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony.  

Joshua appears regularly at The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera Company, and The Santa Fe Opera, amongst many others. Latest role debuts include Zurga in Les Pêcheurs de Perles at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris with Les Grandes Voix; the title role of Cavaliere di Belfiore in a new Christopher Alden production of Verdi’s Un giorno di regno at Garsington Opera; Dandini in La Cenerentola and Belcore in L’Elisir d’amore, both at Lyric Opera of Chicago; the title role in Billy Budd with Central City Opera; and Athanaël in a concert version of Massenet’s Thaïs with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis and recorded for Chandos Records, for which he won a JUNO Award.  

Other past highlights include his signature roles of Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at the Glyndebourne Festival, Verbier Festival, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Washington National Opera, and Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon; Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia in house debuts at Opéra de Rouen and Den Norske Opera in Oslo, as well as The Santa Fe Opera, LA Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival in a new production by Francesca Zambello; and Papageno in The Magic Flute at The Metropolitan Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Washington National Opera, Vancouver Opera and the Ravinia Festival with Marin Alsop. As the title role in Don Giovanni, Joshua performed at the Hyogo Performing Arts Centre in Japan under the baton of Yutaka Sado.  

Joshua has developed a reputation for his work in contemporary operas by celebrated American composers, creating leading roles for the World Premieres of new works both in the U.S. and Europe. He created the role of Orpheus in the World Premiere of Matthew Aucoin and Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice for his company debut at LA Opera and reprised the role at The Metropolitan Opera, which included a worldwide simulcast as part of The MET’s Live in HD series. Joshua received his first Grammy nomination in 2023 when the MET’s live recording of Eurydice was nominated for Best Opera Recording. Other created roles have included Niccolò Machiavelli in Mohammed Fairouz and David Ignatius’s The New Prince in his company debut at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and Harry Bailey in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s It’s a Wonderful Life at  Houston Grand Opera and in his debut at San Francisco Opera.  

Mr. Hopkins made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Ping in Turandot in the 2009–10 season, conducted by Andris Nelsons. His notable past engagements have also included Cecil in Sir David McVicar’s new production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda for The Metropolitan Opera, his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Tadeusz in The Passenger in David Pountney’s acclaimed production, and his role debut as the title character in Don Giovanni with Utah Opera. Further highlights include the role of Junior in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place with New York City Opera, Sid in Albert Herring at The Santa Fe Opera under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis, Dr. Falke in a new production of Die Fledermaus at The Santa Fe Opera, Mercutio in Bartlett Sher’s production of Roméo et Juliette with Lyric Opera of Chicago and The Metropolitan Opera, and Valentin in Faust at Houston Grand Opera and Washington National Opera.  

Past concert engagements include performances of Peter Lieberson’s Songs of Love and Sorrow with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Spain and with the Monterey Symphony; his Edinburgh International Festival debut as Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos, released on Linn Records; and Nielsen’s Symphony No. 3 with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Alan Gilbert, released on Dacapo Records. The chamber version of Songs for Murdered Sisters received its live World Premiere with the composer at the piano at Houston’s Rothko Chapel in March 2022, in partnership with Houston Grand Opera, and subsequently received its European premiere at the Trasimeno Festival in Perugia, Italy with pianist Angela Hewitt. In 2023, Joshua gave the live World Premiere of the work's orchestral version with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra under the baton of Alexander Shelley in Ottawa, Toronto, and Kingston.  Additional concert highlights include his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy in performances of Peer Gynt; Haydn’s Creation with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum with the San Francisco Symphony; and Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem with the Houston Symphony under Hans Graf and the Colorado Symphony under Peter Oundjian.  

Profoundly committed to the art of song, Joshua’s first recital disc, Let Beauty Awake, features songs of Barber, Bowles, Glick, and Vaughan Williams on the ATMA Classique label. He has given recitals in Chicago, Montreal, New York, Santa Fe, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, D.C. Highlights of his varied appearances at Carnegie Hall include the World Premiere of Michael Tilson Thomas’ Rilke Songs, Poulenc’s Le bal masqué with the MET Orchestra Chamber Ensemble, and a concert highlighting Benjamin Britten alongside Ian Bostridge and Iestyn Davies. Joshua has collaborated with Julius Drake, Richard Goode, Marc André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt, Graham Johnson, and Warren Jones.  

Most recently, Mr. Hopkins won a JUNO Award for his portrayal of Athanaël with the Toronto Symphony  Orchestra. He was the winner of both the Verbier Festival Academy’s 2008 Prix d’Honneur and the Borletti Buitoni Trust Award in 2006. He was also a prizewinner at the prestigious 2006 ARD Musikwettbewerb in Munich and at the 2005 Operalia Competition held in Madrid. Joshua has received prizes from the George London Foundation, the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation, and won the Sylva Gelber Foundation Award from the Canada Council for the Arts.