Butler Studio artist alumnus Cory McGee was the second prize winner in HGO’s 2020 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. This season for HGO, he performs as Second Knight in Parsifal and as Imperial Commissioner in Madame Butterfly. Elsewhere in 2023-24, McGee performs the role of Pietro in Simon Boccanegra with Opera Philadelphia, Colline in La bohème with Chattanooga Symphony and Orchestra, as a bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Santa Fe Symphony, and as Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dreamwith Atlanta Opera. HGO roles for 2022-23 included Doctor Grenvil in La traviata, Johann in Werther, Jailer in Tosca, and Fifth Jew in Salome. During the 2021-22 HGO season, he performed the role of Billy in The Snowy Day, and during the 2020-21 HGO Digital season he appeared in The Making of The Snowy Day, an Opera for All, and in Giving Voice. In summer 2019, he joined Santa Fe Opera as an apprentice artist, portraying the role of the Gardener in Ruder’s The Thirteenth Child. He returned to Santa Fe in summer 2021 as an apprentice artist, performing the role of Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and recently debuted the role of Colline in La bohème at Detroit Opera. In summer 2022, he sang the role of Caspar in Der Freischütz with Wolf Trap Opera, where he returned in 2023 to perform the title role in Don Giovanni. He completed his Master of Music degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.