Mexican-American baritone Schyler Vargas is establishing himself as a versatile young talent, bringing interdisciplinary performances to the operatic, theatrical, and concert stage. Noted as a “distinguished” (Washington Classical Review) and “powerful baritone,” (Washington Post) his recent work in the dramatic song cycle UNKNOWN by Shawn Okpebholo and commissioned by UrbanArias has been featured on PBS News Hour and NPR, among other publications. 

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In the current and most recent season, Schyler has enjoyed a wide variety of projects at the intersection of opera and musical theatre. He was seen as Mercurio (La Calisto) and Inspector Kildare (Elizabeth Cree) with The Glimmerglass Festival, El payador (María de Buenos Aires) with Opera Montana, Guido (Nine) with Short North Stage in Columbus, Swing (Barrett, Charles, Fleet, Farrell) in Titanic with Marriott Theatre in the round, and as a 2025 Lotte Lenya Competition finalist and 2025 American Traditions Competition finalist. This summer, he debuts with Central City Opera as Sir Harry (Once Upon a Mattress) and covering Lieutenant Roberto Gonzales in The Knock. The future season includes performances as Slim in Of Mice and Men at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Ensemble in Carmina Burana with Grant Park Music Festival, and in recital with Art Song Chicago.

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Schyler was recently seen as Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus) with Pacific Opera Project, Maximilian (Candide) with Wichita Grand Opera, and in concert with Holy City Arts & Lyric Opera. He also returned to Carnegie Hall with MasterVoices, performing Connie/Ragged Man in The Grapes of Wrath alongside Nathan Gunn and Margaret Latimore. In competition, he was a semifinalist in the 2024 Lotte Lenya Competition. He enjoyed a residency and recital performances with Blackburn College and was recently heard as the baritone soloist in Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs with St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church. Schyler was proud to give the world premiere performance of a song cycle by Laura Jobin-Acosta with Holy City Arts & Lyric Opera.

Concluding the 2022-2023 season, Schyler made his Carnegie Hall debut as Strephon in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe with MasterVoices, conducted and directed by Ted Sperling and performing alongside Christine Ebersole, Santino Fontana, Phillip Boykin, and Jason Danieley, among others. As an Artist-in-Residence with the Arizona Opera, he performed throughout the season as: Homecoming Soldier in The Falling and the Rising, Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos, Rolf in The Sound of Music, and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte. In the spring of 2022, Schyler made his Holy City Arts & Lyric Opera debut as Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods and returned to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Morales in Carmen. Previously, he has been seen in mainstage roles at The Atlanta Opera, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Glimmerglass Festival, Dayton Opera, and the Château de Versailles Spectacles in France. Schyler’s notable roles include Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro by W. A. Mozart, Gabriel von Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus by Richard Strauss, Maximilian in Candide, and Riff, Diesel, and Chino in West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein with original Jerome Robbins choreography, and Frank Schultz in Show Boat by Jerome Kern, among others. On the concert stage, Schyler has performed as the baritone soloist for Vaughn William’s Five Mystical Songs, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle, Schubert’s Mass in Ab, and Mark Hayes’ Requiem. 

 

An award winning performer, Schyler has seen success in competitions with notable awards including: 1st place in Tri-Cities Opera’s Vocal Competition, two time winner of the Rocky Mountain District in the Laffont Competition with the Metropolitan Opera, 2nd place and Audience Favorite in the Harold Haugh Light Opera Competition, 2nd place at the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Aria Competition, and two time District Winner in the Dorothy Lincoln-Smith Voice Competition. 

Prioritizing new music in his career, Schyler has proudly worked on various commissions for new operas and song cycles with the Houston Grand Opera, Cincinnati Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Schyler received his Master of Music degree from the renowned University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and his Bachelor of Music with a minor in Business Administration from Colorado State University.