Liam Bonner

Liam Bonner joined the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir as executive director in January of 2019. He was previously manager, annual giving groups with the Houston Symphony where he merged the mission and vision of the organization with the philanthropic goals of patrons and donors. In his current position, Liam draws on three years of fundraising experience with a major US symphony and a successful ten-year career in performance, having earned his bachelor of fine arts in vocal performance from Carnegie Mellon University and his master of music in voice from the Manhattan School of Music. 

In his former career as an artist, Bonner was praised by Opera News for his “rich, versatile voice” and “beautiful instrument.” Highlights of his performing career included his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2010 as Morales in Carmen and the role of Horatio in Hamlet – which was one of the Metropolitan Opera’s HD broadcasts that same season. He created the role of Lieutenant Audebert in the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, Silent Night, with Minnesota Opera and reprised the role with Opera Philadelphia and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. 

Bonner’s repertoire included many Britten baritone roles including the title role in Billy Budd with LA Opera, directed by Francesca Zambello and conducted by James Conlon, and Ned Keene in a concert version of Peter Grimes with the St. Louis Symphony and performed at Carnegie Hall. He was very much at home in the French repertoire, performing such roles as Pelléas in Debussy’s Pelléas and Mélisande with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles with New Orleans Opera, and the title role of Hamlet with Washington National Opera and conducted by Plácido Domingo. 

Liam enjoyed mostly a stateside career, though notable international engagements included Guglielmo in Così fan tutte with English National Opera in London, Henri de Valois in Chabrier’s Le roi malgré lui with the Wexford Festival Opera in Wexford, Ireland, and The Elder Son in Britten’s The Prodigal Son with Teatro dell’Opera Roma in Rome, Italy. 

Bonner is a former member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, a Filene Young Artist at Wolf Trap Opera, and a Studio and Apprentice Artist at Central City Opera. He is the recipient of a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshanna Foundation, a first-prize winner of the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition, a national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and an award winner from the George London Foundation, the Lotte Lenya Competition, the First International Pavel Lisitsian Baritone Competition in Moscow, Russia, and the Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition.