Baritone Daniel Billings is a gifted young singer who is quickly establishing himself as an artist of increasing consequence. Possessing a very fine, rich and ample baritone, he has been described as having "…a robust, fluent varitone and commanding stage presence…." A graduate of the distinguished Ryan Opera Center of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, he has performed on the stages of prominent companies in the US and abroad including Fort Worth Opera Festival, Central City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera (Merola Opera Program), Pittsburgh Opera, Opera North Carolina, Wolf Trap Opera Company, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Teatro Lirico di Cagliari in Italy. Mr. Billings adds the Bielefeld Theater in Bielefeld, Germany to his growing list of performance venues in the season. In concert and recital he has sung at Carnegie Hall with the Netherlands Student Orchestra and the New York Pops Orchestra, and he has also performed at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. A native New Yorker, Mr. Billings began his singing career as a young boy performing with the world renowned Boy's Choir of Harlem.

The 2010-11 Season and 2011-2012 Seasons bring significant mainstage roles for Mr. Billings in his company debut with the distinguished German opera house, the Bielefeld Theater. Mr. Billings sings Figaro (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) in a role debut, reprises Silvio in I Pagliacci, debuts the role of Thoas in Iphigenie et Tauride and undertakes The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland - the first opera of Korean composer Unsuk Chin, who co-wrote the English libretto with the pre-eminent Asian-American playwright David Henry Hwang. Mr. Billings returns to Bielefeld in the 2011-2012 Season to debut the role of Don Giovanni, reprise Silvio (I Pagliacci), and make additional role debuts as Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Ned Keene (Peter Grimes), and Marullo in Verdi’s Rigoletto.

The 2009-2010 Season proved to be a very full season for Mr. Billings. Having just completed two seasons with the Ryan Opera Center, he made two important company debuts: Teatro Lirico di Cagliari in Italy and Opera Company of North Carolina, and he returned to Wolf Trap Opera Company. Roles for which he received high marks in the season included Schaunard (La bohème), Monterone (Rigoletto) a reprise of Starveling (A Midsummer Night's Dream), a role he originally performed with The Juilliard Opera Center, and Allazim in Mozart's unfinished opera Zaide.

The Lyric Opera of Chicago figured prominently in the 2008-2009 and 2007-2008 seasons for Mr. Billings. As a member of the Ryan Opera Center he enjoyed mainstage performances singing the roles of Fiorello (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Lawyer Frazier (Porgy and Bess), the dramatically central Melot in Tristan und Isolde, and Silvio (I Pagliacci) which he performed on the mainstage for a student matinee. Mr. Billings added key roles in cover assignments comprising Brétigny (Manon), Zurga (Les Pêcheurs de Perles), Marchese (La Traviata), and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. Mr. Billings also enjoyed noteworthy performances with the Fort Worth Opera Festival in the period singing the roles of Belize, Mr. Lies, and Homeless Person in the company's widely acclaimed production of Peter Eötvös's Angels in America. Mr. Billings also made his Wolf Trap Opera Company debut in the period singing Giove in Il Ritorno d'Ulisses in Patria and Marcello in La bohème, in addition to recitals with Steven Blier and Michael Baitzer.

Mr. Billings has had the privilege of participating in several exceptional young artist programs where he added numerous roles to his repertoire - in addition to the Ryan Opera Center. Following his graduation from The Juilliard School, he trained and performed with Central City Opera, The Juilliard Opera Center, Pittsburgh Opera Center, Santa Fe Opera, and the Merola Program of the San Francisco Opera Center.

Mr. Billings was a 2006 national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and Eleanor McCollum Competition. He was also a General Division winner of the 2006 Liederkranz Vocal Awards. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Boston University and a Master's degree from The Juilliard School.

"Baritone Daniel Billings as Amida was thoroughly convincing, too, maintaining appealing timbre to the highest reaches of his part."
Mark Kanny, Pittsburgh Tribune