Justin Austin, baritone

Praised in Opera News as “a gentle actor and elegant musician” and The Wall Street Journal  for his “mellifluous baritone,” Justin has been performing professionally since age 4. Born in Stuttgart, Germany to professional opera singer parents, he began his singing career as a boy soprano. Justin has most recently performed with the Metropolitan Opera, debuting as Marcellus in “Hamlet” by Brett Dean, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Lincoln Center Theater, the New York Festival of Song, and Carnegie Hall. He performs a wide range of repertoire from Jazz, R&B, and Musical Theatre, to Opera and Oratorio and collaborated with artists such as Aretha Franklin, The Boys Choir of Harlem, Mary J. Blige, Elton John, Lauryn Hill, The Roots, 30 Seconds to Mars, John Cale, Ricky Ian

Possessing a “mighty lyric voice” (New York Times) “with a burly, burnished tone capable of striking nuance and color” (Washington Post), Justin is a Drama Desk Award-nominated baritone named Rising Star of the Year at the 2024 International Opera Awards and is a recipient of the 2024 Marian Anderson Vocal Award. 

This season, Justin joins LA Opera for Roméo et Juliette and Così fan tutte (house debut), Opera Theatre of St. Louis for Ricky Ian Gordon’s This House (world premiere), La Jolla Music Society, The Soraya, Seattle Theatre Group, and the Charleston Gaillard Center for selections of Terence Blanchard’s Champion and Fire Shut Up In My Bones, Stuttgart Philharmonic and Opera for Peace in Stuttgart, Germany, Cecelia Chorus of New York at Carnegie Hall, New York Festival of Song at Kaufman Music Center, Sag Harbor Song Festival, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and Emory & Henry University. 

Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Justin is an alumnus of the Choir Academy of Harlem, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Heidelberg Lied Akademie, and Manhattan School of Music (M.M. and B.M.). justin-austin.com