Ross Hauck
Lyric tenor Ross Hauck is a resident of Maple Valley, Washington, where he lives with his wife Laura, twin boys Daniel and Benjamin, and daughters Lillian Rose and Charlotte Grace. Hailed by the Seattle Times as “almost superhuman in musical effect”, Mr. Hauck maintains a busy and eclectic career, often specializing in sacred oratorio. As a concert artist, Mr. Hauck is a regular soloist in Handel’s Messiah, a work he has sung with the symphonies of Seattle, Kansas City, Baltimore, Portland, and Dallas, among others.
He has recorded the work with Apollos’ Fire (Cleveland Baroque Orchestra), and performed the work with with early music ensembles across the country. He has also sung in pops concerts with the National Symphony, the Omaha Symphony, and the Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival. A frequent performer of early music, Mr. Hauck has sung with the Boston Early Music Festival, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque, Dallas Bach Society, and will make his debut this season with the San Diego Bach Collegium and Early Music Now in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Other highlights of this season include releasing a recording entitled “SugarLoaf Mountain” with Apollo’s Fire(Avie Label), which will be toured across the country in spring of 2017. This season he makes return appearances with PacificMusicworks in Seattle, the Grand Rapids Symphony for the Bach Festival, Modesto Symphony for Beethoven’s 9th, and regional appearances with the Yakima Symphony and the Northwest Sinfionetta. He also reprises his role in composer Lori Laitman’s oratorio “Vedem”, which he recorded(Naxos Label). Another recent debut was with Conspirare in John Muehleisen’s Pieta, which he premiered in 2012 with Choral Arts in Seattle. Also in Seattle, he is a frequent collaborator with Stephen Stubbs and Pacific Musicworks, with whom has been featured as Tamino in Magic Flute, the title role in Jepthe, Tempo in Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo, the title role of William Kentridge’s production of Il ritorno di Ulisse in Patria. Opera credits include multiple performances of the role of Tamino in Magic Flute, Apollo’s Fire in Cleveland, but also with the Atlanta Ballet.
Other roles include Almaviva in Barber of Seville with Sacramento Opera and Tacoma Opera, Frederic in
Pirates of Penzance with Opera Idaho, and Lucano with the Boston Early Music Festival in their production of L’incoronazione di Poppea. Mr. Hauck has also sung roles with Indianapolis Opera, and the Aspen Music Festival. Other highlights of opera work include originating and recording the role of Bonario in the world premiere opera Volpone by American composer John Musto, commissioned by Wolf Trap Opera Company, where he also sang the title role in the North American Premiere of Rameau’s Dardanus, Ernesto in Don Pasquale, and Lippo Fiorentino in Street Scene. He has also collaborated with American composer Libby Larsen singing the title role in her opera Dreaming Blue. On the recital stage, Mr. Hauck has been heard in recital with at Wolf Trap’s discovery series and the Southeastern Festival of Song. He appeared with Steven Blier and the New York Festival of Song in numerous recital performances as well as the company’s 15th anniversary Gala.
Other recitals have been at the Dallas Art Museum, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, The Tanglewood Music Festival, the Monterrey Museum of Art, and the Schubert Club in Minneapolis. Has been the guest recitalist at various Universities and Colleges in the Northwest. This season he will also be heard in concert at the National Gallery in Washington D.C.
Mr. Hauck was a member of the prestigious Filene Center for American Artists at Wolf Trap for two seasons, where he was awarded the Wolf Trap Foundation Grant from the National Park for the performing arts. A recipient of awards from the Macallister Opera Competition, the New York Singing Teachers Association, the NATSAA competition, the Florida Grand Opera competition, Tanglewood Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and other national organizations, he has received rave reviews in many publications including Opera News, the Washington Post, New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Seattle Times. A distinguished alumnus of DePauw University(B.M.), and Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music(M.M. and Artist Diploma), Mr. Hauck is also a cellist and pianist, and began at age 3 with the Suzuki method of music instruction. Because of this life-long exposure to music as a “mother tongue”, Mr. Hauck has developed a reputation as a consummate musician, and he has stepped in frequently to learn new roles and music on short notice. Mr. Hauck is frequently noted for his expressive capabilities in delivering the text of a song. Of his singing, the San Francisco Classical Voice and Opera News commented on, “an elevated and extraordinary range of subtle inflections. The singing was as nuanced as one would expect from a consummate art-song recitalist or bel canto specialist.”
Mr. Hauck is an adjunct professor of voice at Seattle University, and music director at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Issaquah, Washington. Mr. Hauck is the son of music educators, and grew up in the church. As such, 
his true passion is the intersection of fine arts and faith, and he maintains a keen interest in history, culture, theology, and worship.
He is a frequent lecturer and presenter on these subjects, and often provides sacred concerts and creative presentations for ministries, non-profits, or christian colleges. He agrees with Bach’s credo that the highest aim of music is “the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul!”. Put in more modern context, the late poet and songwriter Rich Mullins said that there is “music higher than the songs that I can sing. The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the giver of all good things.”
