Other recent opera engagements include his debuts at Opera Philadelphia as Elmiro in Rossini’s Otello, the Canadian Opera Company as Angelotti in Tosca, Wolf Trap Opera as Blitch in Susannah, at Wiener Staatsoper as Second Englishman in Prokofiev’s The Gambler, and the Houston Grand Opera in Laura Kaminsky’s Some Light Emerges. Known particularly for his performances of Escamillo in Carmen, he has performed the role at the Cincinnati Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
As a concert soloist, Mr. Pursell has performed Handel’s Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Samuel in Handel’s Saul with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in Walt Disney Concert Hall, a concert version of Strauss’ Salome with the Fabio Luisi and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and performances of Britten’s War Requiem, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Haydn’s The Creation, Faure’s Requiem, and Pärt’s Passio. His first commercial recording, the world premiere of Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, was released in 2017.
In January 2024, Pursell won Fourth Prize, and “Best Baritone” at the Tenor Viñas International Vocal Competition in Barcelona, Spain. He won 2nd prize in the 2024 Concorso Lirico Internazionale Tebaldi-Gigli-Corelli competition. He placed 3rd in the 2022 Opera Mississippi Vocal Competition, and won 3rd prize in the 2021 James Toland Vocal Arts competition. He is the recipient of the 2019 Igor Gorin Memorial Award, and is a national semi-finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (2016). He was also a quarterfinalist in the 2019 Operalia competition, a Richard F. Gold Career Grant recipient (2018), winner of the Partners for the Arts competition (2018), second award winner of the Jensen Foundation competition (2017), winner of the Theodor Uppman Award from the Sullivan Foundation (2017), and recipient of a Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation (2017).
Mr. Pursell is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and received his Master of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
