Philip Bender
Philip Bender is blessed to be back among friends, new and old, at VLOC. He last appeared as Orpheus in Orpheus and the Underworld and as a somewhat mercurial tenor in Puerto Rico, Mi Amor, both with the In Series. Other recent roles include Styver in Love’s Comedy, a new opera by Rick Davis and Kim Sherman; Candelas/Chester (Viva Zarzuela); Valère (Tartuffe); William Shakespeare in the premiere of The Dark Lady of the Sonnets; Thomas Jefferson (1776), Teacup and Frog (L'enfant et les Sortilege), Sandor Barinkay (Gypsy Baron), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Tamino (The Magic Flute), Tony (Masterclass), Azaël (L’enfant Prodigue), Donald (Gallantry), Alfred (Die Fledermaus) and Frederic (Pirates of Penzance). He has performed with The Washington National Opera, Signature Theater, the National Portrait Gallery players, The Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New Voices, the Forgotten Opera Company, the Washington Savoyards, and the light opera companies of Northern Minnesota and Southern Maryland, among others.