John Duykers
Captain

John Duykers made his professional operatic debut with Seattle Opera in 1966. Since then he has appeared with many of the leading opera companies of the world including The Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Netherlands Opera, the Grand Theatre of Geneva, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Frankfurt Opera, Opera de Marseille, Canadian Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, San Diego Opera and the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

He is particularly well known for his performances of contemporary music, having sung in 96 contemporary operas including 61 world premieres. Among these, in 1987 he created the role of Mao Tse Tung in John Adams' Nixon in China which was premiered with Houston Grand Opera and he has performed throughout the world. Nixon in China was telecast over PBS' "Great Performances" winning an Emmy and recorded for Nonesuch, winning a Grammy.

Philip Glass has written three roles for Duykers including The Visitor (In The Penal Colony) and the role of the Older Galileo in Galileo Galilei by Philip Glass and Mary Zimmerman, at the Goodman Theater in Chicago and on the Next Wave Series at BAM. He recently performed The Narrator in the premiere Lou Harrison’s Young Caesar with the Ensemble Paralelle at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Independently produced new works include The Tyrant by Paul Dresher and Jim Lewis, with the Seattle Chamber Players, the American Music Theatre Festival in Philadelphia and Cleveland Opera, and Mordake, a new solo work written for him by Erling Wold, which premiered at the San Francisco International Arts Festival. 

He returned to Santa Fe Opera this past summer to perform in Britten’s Billy Budd, and in February of 2009 he performed in the premiere of The Dawn Makers, a new opera by Allen Shearer. Duykers is also well known as an educator. He started an opera training program at California Institute of the Arts, and taught private voice and opera at Frost School of Music at the University of Miami (Florida). From 1979-81 he was chairman of the Classical Music Program at the Cornish College of the Arts. He has presented Master Classes at various Institutions around the country and has been a member of the faculty of Ann Baltz’ OperaWorks (CSU Northridge), a summer program for emerging performing artists.

Recordings include Chairman Mao in John Adams’ Nixon in China, Callin’ Home Coyote by Janice Giteck, Perilous Chapel, Rapunzel and Scenes from Cavafy by Lou Harrison, Mordake by Erling Wold and several works by Paul Dresher.