Jay Gardner

• soloist in Carnegie Hall Premier of Sing For The Cure, the Second Jew in Salome with both the Dallas Opera and the Dallas Symphony. Favorite roles include Judge Danforth in The Crucible, CAnio in Pagliacci and the Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd.

Critics have described Jay Gardner as giving “a truly standout performance (Opera News), having a “bright, bold lyric tenor” (Dallas Morning News), possessing “a clarion tenor deployed with rare taste” (Dallas Morning News) and “displaying great comic timing with one of the best voices on the stage.” (Theaterjones). Jay has earned a reputation as a versatile singing actor, equally at home in opera, musical theater and cabaret. 

Favorite roles include Judge Danforth in The Crucible with Rimrock Opera, Canio in Pagliacci with Kansas Concert Opera, The Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd with St. Petersburg Opera and Sam Polk in Susannah and Romeo in Romeo et Juliette, both with the Marjorie Lawrence Opera Theatre. Jay's work with The Dallas Opera includes the Second Jew in Salome, Parpignol in La Boheme and the Prince of Persia in Turandot. 

On the concert stage, Jay has performed as a soloist in the Carnegie Hall Premier of Sing For The Cure commissioned by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and appeared as a soloist in Mahler's Das Lied Von Der Erde with the University of North Texas Chamber Orchestra. In addition, he has been heard as a soloist in Haydn’s Paukenmesse with the Schola Cantorum of Texas and in Mozart’s Requiem with the Turtle Creek Chorale in performance at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas. Most recently, Jay was heard as the Second Jew in concert performances of Richard Strauss’ Salome with The Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Musical theater roles include Charlie Dalrymple in Brigadoon, the Adult Authority Figure in Spring Awakening, Herr Schultz in Cabaret and the voice of Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. Jay also appeared at the Crested Butte Music Festival as a featured artist in The Best of Broadway and Bernstein On Broadway. 

An accomplished cabaret artist, Jay has performed Coward and Cole in Words and Music at Sammons Cabaret and Holidazed: Alternative Songs For Christmas as a fundraising event for the North Texas Food Bank. In 2014 he was a Cabaret Fellow at the prestigious Eugene O’Neill Theater Center'’s Cabaret and Performance Conference in and regularly attends the St. Louis Cabaret Conference. As Artistic Director of Front Line Cabaret, Jay brings the intimate art of cabaret to small venues throughout North Texas.