Professional Materials

Resume

Headshot

Cullen Gandy is an Atlanta-born lyric tenor who has been hailed for his unique musicality and commanding voice. He has enjoyed success singing in the great American operatic and concert venues, and among the superlative artists of this generation. Critics laud Cullen as possessing a "...sweet-voiced tenor" (NY Times) and a "...strong and confident sound, with elements of sophistication" (Atlanta Journal Constitution). Cullen was a 2012 Metropoltian Opera National Council regional finalist in the competitive New York/Eastern Region.

Cullen was lauded as "flawless" in his 2014 Los Angeles Opera debut as Young Messenger in A Streetcar Named Desire; singing opposite Renée Fleming. Kicking off the 2014/2015 season, Cullen moves on to make his Virginia Opera debut as Ralph Rackstraw in their production of The HMS Pinafore; where he will also be featured as Gastone in La Traviata, 3rd Jew in Salome, and covering Pirelli in Sweeney Todd.

He is excited to be returning as a second year apprentice singer to The Santa Fe Opera in the summer of 2015, where he will be performing the role of 3rd Jew in Strauss' Salome.

Recently, on the opera stage, Cullen has sung and studied such roles as: Young Messenger (A Streetcar Named Desire) with Los Angeles Opera; Fritz (La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein) and scenes as Fenton (Falstaff) with The Santa Fe Opera; Vladimir Lensky (Eugene Onegin) with Des Moines Metro Opera; Ixion and Orfée (La Descente d'Orfee aux Enfers), Jupiter/Ein Weiser/Charlie/Der Prinz (Baden Baden 1927) with Gotham Chamber Opera in New York City; Edoardo Milfort (Il Cambiale di Matrimonio), Gherardo (Gianni Schicchi), Artemidore (Armide), Christoph - The Evangelist (Kommilitonen!), Gonzalve/Torquemada (L'heure Espagnole), and Soldato I/Lucano (L'incoronazione di Poppea) as a part of the Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus institute for Vocal Arts. He sang Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) with Harrower Opera Workshop in 2008 in conjunction with Georgia State Opera Theater. While working toward a bachelors degree at Georgia State, Cullen sang Candide (Candide), Nahaniel/Franz/Cochinille (Les Contes d'Hoffman), and Steve (A Streetcar Named Desire).

An avid recitalist and active in the concert/oratorio realm, Cullen has been privileged with many auspicious debuts. Under the baton of Kent Tritle (Musica Sacra NY) he was featured as the tenor soloist, in the Winter of 2011, in Handel's inimitable Messiah; which was his debut upon the stage of the Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall. The next year he returned to that stage to make his debut with Mark Shapiro and the Cecilia Chorus of New York as the tenor soloist in Peter Mennin's A Christmas Story. In April of 2011, he made his Alice Tully Hall solo debut with Riverside Choral Society in Bach Mass in B Minor. Well-adept at concert/oratorio repertory, he has performed many other works, including: Mozart Requiem, Mozart Missa Solemnes de Confessore, Bach Cantata BWV 140, Fauré Requiem, Saint-Saens Christmas Oratorio; with such acclaimed troupes as Elysium Chamber Choir and Orchestra and the ensemble of Amir Zaheri. Cullen has also championed the song repertory, notably those of Schubert; singing multiple recitals centered around the cycles Die Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise. Not sufficing simply with German lied, he has also studied and performed the songs of: Vincenzo Bellini, Francesco Paolo Tosti, Gabriel Fauré, Ned Rorem, Henry Purcell, Mikail Glinka, Totò de Curtis, Hugo Wolf, Pierre Dupont, and Émile Paladilhe, to name a few.

Cullen also maintains a portfolio as an amateur poet, having studied the form and style of poetry from an early age. In his studies he has, principally, emulated and analysed the works of William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Philip Levine, Maya Angelou, and Pabo Neruda. Of note are his sonnets and freeform pieces molded from some of his greatest influences in Shakespeare, Dunne, and Cummings, respectively.