Christopher Rodriguez

Christopher Rodriguez, baritone, studied voice with Professor Brigid de Jong, receiving a bachelor's degree from California State University, Fresno. In the last 5 years, he made his operatic debut with Modesto Opera, premiered music as apart of the Fresno State Chamber Singers at the Library of Congress in collaboration with Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, and studied in Sant’angelo in Vado, Italy under Eugene Villanueva in the Young Artist’s Program, Lingua e Canto. He has participated in masterclasses with Dr. Anton Belov, Dr. Vladimir Chernov, Dr. Leneida Crawford, Dr. Robin Fisher and Professor Emerita Helene Joseph Weil amongst others. He has performed opera roles such as The Bonze, Don Alhambra, Dr. Falke, Superintendent Budd, amongst many under the baton of Dr. Thomas Loewenheim, Director of Orchestras and Dr. Anthony Radford, Director of Opera at Fresno State. He sang the baritone solo in Duruflé’s Requiem with the Fresno State Symphony Orchestra and Grand Chorus under Dr. Cari Earnhart in May 2019. He made his professional operatic debut with Modesto Opera singing the role of the Ufficiale in Verdi's "Rigoletto" in October of 2019. In January 2020 he presented a Poster Paper at the Cal-Western NATS conference on “Introducing New Competition Repertoire for Young Baritones: Vocal Writing of Georgy Sviridov.” He plans to direct the Fresno State Opera Theatre in a scenes program after the effects of COVID-19.

​He is a staunch advocate for living composers and has made it his goal to bring their compositions to concert halls all over the country. In 2016 he premiered the role of "Everybody" in Lucinda y las Flores de la Nochebuena by Evan Mack and Joshua McGuire. He revisited and toured the Central Valley with this role in 2019. In 2018 he premiered the art song "Requiem" by South Korean native Joungmin Sur on his undergraduate recital. He premiered the role of Stanton from Dr. Kenneth Froelich's "State of Jefferson" in January 2020. He premiered "So together" by Christian Cruz with text by Juan Felipe Herrera at the Third Annual Fresno State Art Song Festival, which received the Judge's Choice and Audience Choice awards. He plans on premiering "Here, Bullet" a song cycle for Baritone and Piano by Fresno native Kurt Erickson with the Fresno State New Music Ensemble alongside works by fellow graduate student, Clayton Woosley.

Christopher is a vocal coach and piano teacher at the United Conservatory of Music in Fresno, California. He has a studio of over twenty students of mixed age and experience level and prides himself in becoming a better teacher by learning from his students every day.

He is currently pursuing his Master of Arts in Vocal Performance and studying with Dr. Maria Briggs.