Valentine Umeh is a Nigerian Tenor based in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a final year undergraduate student at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studies voice and opera under the renowned soprano Jane Eaglen. Valentine made his role debut as Basilio and Don Curzio in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory and also in the chorus with the Chautauqua Opera Company for the orchestra reading and first public performance of Missy Mazzolli’s new opera Lincoln in the Bardo.

At the New England Conservatory of Music, Valentine has appeared in scenes and full opera productions with the undergraduate opera studio and graduate school respectively, performing operas like Die Fledermaus, Le Nozze di Figaro, L’elixir d’amore. Valentine sang the title role in Handel’s Opera Serse with the Undergraduate Opera Studio. He has performed in a concert series titled “Song and Verse” curated by Cameron Stowe and Brett Hodgdon respectively. Valentine has collaborated with artist Jonathan Gonzalez alongside the Tufts University Art Galleries in partnership with the African Meeting House in a production called A Suite for Minor Meeting.

Valentine is a second year member of the Shared Voices Cohort of the Denyce Graves Foundation. He has been featured in numerous concerts with the foundation such as Behind the Curtain with the Metropolitan Opera and across the United States. Early this year, he was invited by the National Opera Association to honour Denyce Graves in Boston, Massachusetts. This summer, Valentine was part of the In-Focus residency at Wethersfield with the Foundation. This residency was targeted towards a technical and musical development with renowned teachers such as Deb Birnbaum, Gina Lapinski and Kristen Kemp.

This season, Valentine will be performing with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the premier of World premiere of Creation by Osvaldo Golijov. He will be performing again with Collaborative pianist Brett Hodgdon in Song and Verse in concert series ,and will be playing the role of Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte with the undergraduate opera studio in the spring.