TOMMY WAZELLE

Tommy plays the role of “Pig” in the PBS animated children’s series, Peg + Cat, created by Billy Aronson and Jennifer Oxley.

Tommy is the tenor soloist in the Dvorak Requiem, performed with the choir and orchestra of Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan.

Tommy vocal directs the Dwight School’s production of Stephen Schwartz’s Broadway musical, Pippin.

Tommy will perform the role of Daniel in Randall Eng’s new opera Henry’s Wife with Opera Index, Manhattan School of Music and American Opera Projects.

Tommy sings solos and duets as a special guest in Operamission’s Kurt Weill Uncovered at Manhattan’s Gershwin Hotel.

Tommy performs as tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah with NYC’s Astoria Symphony.

Tommy is featured in The Best of Broadway, a show that spans one hundred years of Broadway’s greatest moments, produced by Jacksonville Lyric Opera.

TOMMY WAZELLE is an actor and classically trained singer who commands a broad range of musical styles. His strong, clear tenor combined with a solid technique, diverse musical background, and a little heart and soul allow him to flourish in opera and legit and contemporary Broadway, including rock, jazz, and gospel. He has performed across the United States and around the world with operas and orchestras, in Broadway and theatre productions, and on television and radio, acting and singing music spanning from Mozart to Stevie Wonder.

He began performing at a very young age, and his theatre debut included community theatre productions of The Music Man and the title role in the musical Oliver! In college, he sang and played trumpet in award-winning jazz and funk bands while earning degrees in trumpet and music composition. From there, he received a Masters in voice and taught ear-training classes at the University of Arkansas. He studied with the legendary opera conductor, Sarah Caldwell, and went on to complete an apprenticeship at Des Moines Metro Opera and a studio artist position at Tulsa Opera, gaining additional training at the prestigious International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv. In NYC, Tommy studied voice with Mignon Dunn of the Metropolitan Opera and acting with Anthony Abeson of the Actor’s Studio. The Metropolitan Opera National Council, the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the Gerda Lissner Foundation, among others, have recognized him.

Tommy has performed with Israeli Opera (Cosí fan tutte), Tulsa Opera (Eugene Onegin, Don Pasquale, I Pagliacci, Faust, Ariadne auf Naxos, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Little Prince), Des Moines Metro Opera (Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Gloriana, Lucia di Lammermoor), Nevada Opera (Pirates of Penzance), New York’s Center for Contemporary Opera (The Secret Agent), American Opera Projects (Paul’s Case, Séance on a Wet Afternoon, Henry’s Wife), American Lyric Theatre (The Hunger Art), Houston’s Opera in the Heights (Die Fledermaus), Union Avenue Opera of St. Louis (Die lustige Witwe, O Pioneers!), three Isreali premieres at Tel Aviv’s International Vocal Arts Institute (Tenderland, The Crucible, Der Zwerg), and performances with the New York Philharmonic (Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Kurt Masur, Tosca with Lorin Maazel), Los Angeles Philharmonic (The Tristan Project with Esa-Pekka Salonen), Little Orchestra Society of New York (Airborne Symphonies with Sigourney Weaver), Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (Yuletide Celebration and Sandi Patty on Broadway with Sandi Patty), New York’s American Symphony Orchestra (Babi Yar and The Destruction of Jerusalem with Leon Botstein), The New York Symphony Society (Haydn Mass, Bach Christmas Oratorio), Israeli Camery Orchestra (IVAI Opera Gala with Paul Nadler), Israel’s Haifa Orchestra (Cosí fan tutte), New Jersey’s Westfield Symphony Orchestra (Guys and Dolls of Broadway), and at Carnegie Hall (Christmas Extravaganza with Dino Kartsonakis).

A proud member of the Actor’s Equity Association, Tommy has performed leading roles in productions of Showboat, The Who’s Tommy, South Pacific, Ragtime, Phantom, Titanic, Assassins, The Rothschilds, A Grand Night for Singing, Babes in Toyland, and Clue: The Musical. He created the role of a young man afflicted with multiple personality disorder in the premiere of a play called Little Boy Blue, and has starred as Ed Carmichael in Kaufman and Hart’s classic comedy You can’t take it with you! and as Sam Hendrix in the crime thriller Wait Until Dark.

Recently, Tommy recorded the voice of “Pig” in the PBS animated children’s series, Peg + Cat, created by Billy Aronson and Jennifer Oxley. He was featured in a commercial for DoubleShot Coffee Company entitled DoubleShot Coffee: Stimulations, and in a commercial for Tulsa Opera playing a cowboy on American Idol. In addition, Tommy can be heard as co-lead vocalist on the Hart/Wazelle recording label with the funk band Brother Groove: Dickson Street and West, as well as providing vocal support on Yisabel: Another Heaven with Universal Music Korea. He was heard on National Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, and on St. Louis Classic Radio’s World Broadcast Premiere of O Pioneers!. As a headlining artist on the Italian cruise ship Costa Atlantica, he developed shows featuring his diverse talents in Broadway, pop, jazz and opera. He also tours and sings in concerts with his wife, soprano Ann Hoyt Wazelle, in venues across North America.

Tommy maintains a private vocal studio where he teaches classical vocal technique as it applies to singing opera, Broadway, jazz and pop. He also teaches voice at The Dwight School, served as Vocal Director for the Dwight School Theatre, and is on the faculty of the 92nd Y School of Music where he teaches private voice, ear training, and a sixteen-bar auditions class.

In his spare time, he enjoys playing basketball and the trumpet, watching Yankees baseball games, attending Kurt Elling jazz concerts, and working in the music ministry of his church on Sundays. He lives with his wife and their new baby boy on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.