Christopher Dickerson Bass,  recently completed his third year at the Chicago Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. With the Opera Center, Dickerson created the role of Nimrod Baruch in the June 2001 world premiere of Lovers and Friends (Chautauqua Variations) by Lyric’s then-Composer-in-Residence, Michael John LaChiusa. Dickerson studied at Texas Tech University before joining the professional Resident Artist Program of Opera San José. He was particularly successful there in Rossini roles, among them Don Basilio/The Barber of Seville and Selim/The Turk in Italy and as Alidoro in La Cenerentola, with Eugene Opera.

His many other San José credits range from Mozart (Sarastro/The Magic Flute, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni) to French opera (Zuniga/Carmen, Friar Laurence/Roméo et Juliette), Russian repertoire (Prince Gremin/Eugene Onegin), and modern English language works (Candy/Of Mice and Men, Father Trulove/The Rake’s Progress, the Father/world premiere of Craig Bohmler’s The Nutcracker). Dickerson has appeared with Opera Memphis as Ramfis/Aida under the baton of Sherrill Milnes. He also appeared as Il Re/Aida in a concert performance with San José Symphony, and with San Antonio Lyric Opera as Sparafucile/Rigoletto and Alidoro/La Cenerentola.  He appeared with the Lyric Opera of Chicago singing Dottore Grenvil/La Traviata, Tom/Un Ballo in Maschera and Commissioner/Madama Butterfly.

He studied extensively with John Gillas, James Toland and Gianna Rolandi. Mr. Dickerson also recently joined Opera Memphis in April of 2004, to debut the role of John Potts/Corps of Discovery, in a professional premiere opera based on the Lewis and Clark expedition. He recently made his San Francisco Opera debut in Busoni’s Doktor Faust in June of 2004, and will be debuting at Florentine Opera Company, in Milwaukee, in April 2005, with Colline/La Boheme. In July of 2005, Mr. Dickerson will sing Dr. Grenvil/La Traviata and Alessio/La Sonnambula with the Caramoor music festival in New York.  He will also be joining Fort Worth Opera in March, 2005 as Angelotti/Tosca.