Praised for performances that are ‘powerfully acted and ideally sung’ (PBS Chicago), American baritone Jonathan Michie is garnering acclaim for his exceptional vocal abilities and charismatic stage presence.

In the United States, Jonathan made his debut as a young artist at the Santa Fe Opera in the roles of the Vicar in Britten's Albert Herring and Count Dominik in Strauss' Arabella. He was a member of the renowned Merola Program at the San Francisco Opera, singing his first Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia.

He collaborated with prestigious houses in leading roles: Chicago Opera Theater (creating the title role in The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing); Virginia Opera (creating the role of Richard Loving in Loving v. Virginia); Los Angeles Opera (Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Donald in Billy Budd and The Vicar in Albert Herring); Seattle Opera (Dandini in La Cenerentola); Florida Grand Opera (Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette and Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro); Santa Fe Opera (Prince Paul in La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein). He also joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera, covering Papageno in their production of Die Zauberflöte.

In Europe, Jonathan was a soloist at the Leipzig Opera for over a decade, where he sang the vast majority of the lyric baritone repertoire and earned praise for his linguistic talent. German opera holds a special place: Papageno in Die Zauberflöte; Olivier in Capriccio and Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos by Strauss; Kühleborn in Undine and Rochester in Zum Groß-Admiral by Lortzing; Ottokar in Weber's Der Freischütz; Der Einäugige in Die Frau ohne Schatten and Konrad Nachtigall in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Wagner.

He also shines in Italian works: the title role in Don Giovanni; Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Dandini in La Cenerentola and Don Alvaro in Il viaggio a Reims by Rossini; Belcore in L’elisir d’amore and Malatesta in Don Pasquale by Donizetti; Silvio in Pagliacci by Leoncavallo; Marcello and Schaunard in La bohème, Ping in Turandot and Sonora in La Fanciulla del West by Puccini.

Jonathan's affinity for French opera was affirmed in Leipzig with Valentin in Faust, as well as the stage production of Cinq-Mars by Gounod in the role of Conseiller de Thou, in collaboration with Palazzetto Bru Zane. Roles in English include Sam in Trouble in Tahiti by Bernstein and Ned Keene in Peter Grimes by Britten.

Michie has performed throughout the world: the Rome Opera (Donald in Billy Budd), the Teatro Comunale in Bolzano (Valentin in Faust), the Beijing Festival (Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos) etc. On the concert stage, he has appeared with ensembles such as the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Jerusalem Symphony and Musica Sacra. He has sung numerous Bach motets with the Thomanerchor, under the direction of Thomaskantor Andreas Reize.

He has worked with an impressive list of conductors including James Conlon, Ulf Schirmer, Sir Andrew Davis, Frédéric Chaslin, Jonathan Darlington, Lidiya Yankovskaya, Giedrė Šlekytė, Andrea Sanguineti, Ramón Tebar, etc. Notable stage directors with whom he has collaborated include Stephen Wadsworth, Deborah Warner, Paul Curran, Michiel Dijkema, Katharina Thoma, Balázs Kovalik, Lindy Hume, Renaud Doucet and Rolando Villazón.

For the 2025/26 season, he returns to the Leipzig Opera as a guest artist, debuting the role of Guglielmo in a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. He will debut with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra as the Bass soloist in Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, conducted by Jonathan Darlington. He continues his relationship with the Thomanerchor, singing Bach’s Cantata BWV 127. Further engagements include the title roles in Handel’s Saul with the Hamburg Symphony Choir and Mendelssohn’s Paulus at the St. Nikolai-Kirche zu Elmshorn. He will be the soloist for the 26th annual benefit concert for children’s cancer research in Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, singing Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel with orchestra. He will be a featured soloist for American Lyric Theater’s 20th Anniversary Gala, singing modern operatic excerpts including an aria from Lincoln in the Bardo.

Having trained at the Eastman School of Music, as well as being a member of Actors’ Equity, Jonathan has received distinctions from numerous competitions. In addition to the Robert Schumann Competition, he has been recognized by the Sullivan Foundation, the George London Foundation, the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, and the Liederkranz Foundation, among others. Notably, Jonathan is the youngest first prize winner in the history of the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Competition.