Bass-baritone Samuel Weiser begins his third season as a Cafritz Young Artist performing the role of Benoit/Alcindoro in the Cafritz Young Artist performances of La bohème. He is a current student of Neil Shicoff. Samuel graduated cum laude B.S.Ed in Music Education from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and holds his M.M. Vocal Performance from Roosevelt University and an Artist Diploma from Chicago Opera Theater. Recent roles with Washington National Opera includeMarquis d’Obigny in La traviata, Captain in Eugene Onegin, the Jailer in Tosca, 2nd Armored Man in The Magic Flute, and2nd Philistine in Samson et Delilah. Samuel also appeared as Pistola in Act 1 of Falstaff and Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola as part of the “Concert of Comic Masterpieces”. In the fall of 2019, Samuel had the distinct pleasure of performing The Speaker of the Temple in the Cafritz Young Artist performance of The Magic Flute. His prior tenure being with the Chicago Opera Theater as a Young Artist, he performed in much of their 2016/17 season in such roles as Bass 3 in Frank Martin’s Le vin herbé, Ensemble in Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and Ensemble in Phillip Glass’s The Perfect American. Samuel also covered Shakes in the same production of The Fairy Queen and Abraham Lincoln/Undertaker in The Perfect American, part of the American premiere of this Glass work. In the spring of 2018, Samuel portrayed Solomon Weil and George Gissing in the co-production of Elizabeth Cree between Chicago Opera Theater and Opera Philadelphia.