About Chance
Originally from Dallas, Texas, tenor Chance Jonas-O’Toole is an artist committed to engaging audiences through passionate storytelling.
Chance joined the ensemble of Deutsche Oper Berlin for the 23/24 season through the Opera Foundation’s BetterGuards Scholarship, where he was heard in new productions of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena as Sir Hervey, George Benjamin’s Written on Skin as John/Angel 3, and Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame as Chekalinsky, as well as many repertoire productions.
In May 2023, Chance was seen at Pittsburgh Opera for their production of We Shall Not Be Moved as John Little.
He returned to the Merola Opera Program for their 2023 summer season, where he will be playing the Male Chorus/The Rape of Lucretia. During the 2022 Merola season, he performed Monostatos/Die Zauberflöte, as well as scenes of Donizetti and Britten with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.
He received 2nd place in the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition Western Region, and was chosen as a finalist in the Dallas Opera’s Biennial Lone-Star Vocal Competition. In 2022, Chance was chosen as a finalist in the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition.
He was a 2021 Gerdine Young Artist at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Chance closed out 2021 with Liederabend, Op. Senses, a night of new vocal works curated by National Sawdust and Beth Morrison Projects in Brooklyn, New York.
In 2019, Chance made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as the tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy under Andris Nelsons.
In the summers of 2017 and 2018, Chance was a tenor fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he was able to explore his passions for song, chamber music, and new works, working with internationally-renowned artists such as Dawn Upshaw, Stephanie Blythe, and Simon Keenlyside. During those fellowships, he premiered works by Michael Gandolfi and Doug Balliett, and performed in programs of Bach Cantatas under the direction of John Harbison.
Chance is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he received his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Music. While there, he performed multiple roles, including the Prologue/Turn of the Screw, Mercure/Hippolyte et Aricie at Juilliard, Jo the Loiterer/The Mother of Us All at the Met Museum with Met Live Arts, and the First Sailor/Dido and Aeneas on tour with Juilliard 415. Juilliard is also where Chance developed a love for song and concert repertoire, participating in New York Festival of Song, Juilliard Songfest, WQXR’s Midday Masterpieces, and premiering Jonathan Dawe’s Oroborium with the New Juilliard Ensemble in Alice Tully Hall.
Chance is a recipient of the Novick Career Advancement Grant from the Juilliard School, as well as a recipient of the Opera Foundation’s “BetterGuards Scholarship” at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
He is currently based in Berlin.
Photo by Abigel Kralik