Daniel Laverriere, a baritone from Arundel, Maine, is a second year graduate student at Temple University. This season, Daniel returns to his home state to cover Schaunard in La Bohème with Opera Maine and the Portland Symphony Orchestra, a first time collaboration to celebrate the PSO’s 85th Anniversary season. He will present his graduate degree recital in collaboration with pianist Kim Barroso. Daniel will also perform Masetto in Don Giovanni with both Music On Site Inc. and Temple Opera Theater and attend Spoleto Festival USA as a Vocal Fellow. He is a current student of Dr. Marcus DeLoach.

In 2024, Laverriere was named winner of the Ellen Chickering Young Artist Award and presented a recital in Falmouth, ME in May of 2024. He spent the summer performing at Quisisana Resort, performing Frank in Die Fledermaus, the Notary in Don Pasquale, and as a featured soloist in weekly aria concerts. Daniel performed the role of Le Roi and covered Pandolfe in Cendrillon with Temple Opera Theater in November.

Before his move to Philadelphia, Laverriere performed frequently throughout New England. He was selected as a participant in FUSE: Collaborations in Song with Boston Singers’ Resource and Catalyst New Music. Teams of composers, poets, and singers were grouped based on shared interests for a world premiere song cycle. Composed by Keane Southard with poetry by Kendra Preston Leonard, Felling: A Song Cycle for Baritone and Piano was premiered by Daniel with pianist Brendon Shapiro in March 2023. The cycle features three historical and recent accounts of deforestation throughout North America.

Laverriere was named winner of the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra Collegiate Vocal Competition in 2023 and performed as a soloist in Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht. With the Portland Symphony Orchestra, he sang Pontifex in Bach’s Matthäuspassion. As an undergraduate, Daniel performed frequently as a soloist with the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra, including H. Leslie Adams’ Nightsongs, Schubert’s Magnificat, and Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor.

Laverriere earned his B.M. in Vocal Performance and B.M. in Music Education from The University of Southern Maine, studying with renowned soprano Dr. Malinda Haslett. At USM, he performed as Pictordu in Viardot’s Cendrillon, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and Falke in Die Fledermaus. He was named a winner of the Osher School of Music Honors’ Recital in 2022, as well as first place winner of the Maine NATS competition.

In 2022, Laverriere was selected as an Emerging Artist at Seagle Festival in Schroon Lake, NY. He spent two summers at Seagle, performing notable roles in opera and musical theater. Credits include Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette, Prince Dauntless in Once Upon a Mattress, Senator McCarthy/Estonian Frank/Interrogator in Fellow Travelers, Papa Bear in the touring children’s opera, The Three Bears, Ensemble in Hello, Dolly.

Laverriere’s emerging performance career is paired with a passion for arts education and administration. During his undergraduate studies as an education major, Daniel introduced choral students throughout Maine to opera through choral arrangements of arias and crash course lessons built into the curriculum. He also helped reinstate Opera Maine’s Opera for All outreach program, led by Dr. Malinda Haslett. Daniel is the Assistant Producer of Temple Opera Theater, handling social media, managing student workers, rehearsal scheduling, and various other production duties.