Baritone Joshua R. Wentz has had the privilege of singing nationally and internationally in nine countries and many states throughout the US.  He has worked with Cleveland Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Opera Carolina, Dayton Opera (Ohio), Harrower Opera, Festival Internaccional d’Opera Americas, Rome Festival Opera, Darmstadt Festspiel, and various other venues.  Recent engagements included Lindorf/Crespel in Tales of Hoffmann and Baron Zeta in The Merry Widow, both in São Paolo, Brazil with the Festival Internacional de Opera Americas. In 2013, Wentz debuted the role of Sam in the world premiere of Bambino by Richard Maltz.  He performed Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro and Pistola in Falstaff with the Rome Festival Orchestra in Rome, Italy, and Papageno in Die Zauberflote in Darmstadt, Germany. Favorite roles include Giovanni, Figaro, Top in Copland’s The Tender Land, and Pangloss in Bernstein’s Candide.

​

In addition to opera, Wentz has sung many oratorio and musical theater roles at various levels throughout the United States. Most recently, he has begun his orchestra conducting career with the SBOCES Orchestra in Wyoming, debuting large-scale works such as Handel’s Messiah. As a musicologist, Wentz’s published research on American Opera, and in particular, Carlisle Floyd, is becoming one of the leading sources in the world on Floyd’s works of the 1960s. “Dr. J” teaches theory, music history, voice, piano, and choir at Los Angeles Mission College and applied voice at Pierce College. He serves as the Director of Music at Santa Clarita United Methodist Church and Production Manager of Landmark Opera in Los Angeles. Wentz holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of South Carolina.