Education
MM, New England Conservatory of Music
BMEd, Indiana University
BM, Indiana University
Wayne Rivera has distinguished himself on the operatic stage and in the concert hall both in the United States and abroad. He holds Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and Bachelor of Music Education degrees from Indiana University and a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He studied voice with international opera legends Charles Kullman, Margaret Harshaw and Alfredo Kraus. A finalist in both the Metropolitan Opera and the Chicago Lyric Opera auditions, he toured twenty-six countries as a member of the Metropolitan Opera Studio and has performed as a soloist with most of the major United States symphonies, as well as the New York City, Boston, and Hartford Ballets. He has sung leading roles in the opera houses of Aachen, Germany; Luzern, Switzerland; and L'Opera de Lyon in France. He has recorded for Sudfunken Schallplatten in Germany and Radio-Televisione Italiana in Italy. Opera performances in the United States include leading roles with Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Academy of Music, Connecticut Opera, Connecticut Concert Opera, Connecticut Bel Canto Opera, Associate Artists Opera, Opera Theater of West Virginia, Utica Opera, South Florida Opera, Providence Opera, Commonwealth Opera, Friends of French Opera, The Wolf Trap Company, Boston Chorus Pro Musica, Handel & Haydn Society, Santa Fe Opera, and Goldovsky Opera Theater. He has worked with many important conductors, including Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Serge Baudo, Ken Russell, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Boris Goldovsky, Sarah Caldwell, and Daniel Pinkham. He performed the role of "Pilpatoe" in Heinrich Graun's Montezuma and the first tenor solos in Rossini's Messa di Gloria in their American premiers. He also sang the world premier of Daniel Pinkham's Watchers of Water , a piece written for him by Mr. Pinkham. Mr Rivera has sung as tenor soloist at the Washington Cathedral in Washington D.C., Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, King's Chapel in Boston, Saint Bartholomew's Church in New York City, Asylum Hill Congregational Church and Saint Joseph's Cathedral in Hartford and is presently Soloist in Residence at The First Church of Christ in Glastonbury.
Mr. Rivera was Visiting Professor of Voice and Opera at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT for 17 years. In addition to students of classical voice and opera, he has taught classical vocal technique to students who excelled in different vocal styles including Lin-Manuel Miranda and Javier Colon. Mr. Rivera was one of the three founders of Connecticut Concert Opera (CCO) as well as its Artistic Director for 14 years before it metaphosed into Opera Connecticut. He was Artistic Director of Concert Opera of San Miguel de Allende (COSMA) and summers take him to Mexico, where he is Master Teacher and Lecturer at the prestigious Estudio para el Bel Canto in Cuerna Varca.