Hailed for his “mighty lyric voice” (The New York Times), Drama Desk Award-nominated baritone Justin Austin was named Rising Star of the Year at the 2024 International Opera Awards and is a recipient of the 2024 Marian Anderson Vocal Award. Deemed an “impossibly irresistible” (Bachtrack) “natural performer – a star awaiting a galaxy to form around him” (Washington Post), he has been praised as a “velvet-voiced, intensely charismatic” (The New Yorker) artist who sings with “ravishing beauty” (Opera).

Justin’s 2026-2027 season kicks off with the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s The Galloping Cure at Edinburgh International Festival, a joint presentation between Opera Ventures Productions and Scottish Opera, before he travels to Norrlandsoperan for the opera’s Nordic premiere in Umeå, Sweden, reprising the role of Lucky Mack. He returns to The Metropolitan Opera, appearing as Lt. Gordon in Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night, makes his house debut at Santa Fe Opera as Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and sings the title role in The Barber of Seville at Florida Grant Opera. In concert, Justin debuts with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in his recital Don’t Be Angry! with pianist Howard Watkins; sings Damien Geter’s song cycle COTTON at Kentucky Opera and the Charleston Gaillard Center; and appears in Harlem Renaissance with New York Festival of Song at Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Hall and The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.

Last season, Justin made his house debut at San Francisco Opera in the title role of Il barbiere di Siviglia and joined Houston Grand Opera as Jake in Porgy and Bess. He returned to Washington National Opera to star as Remus in Damien Sneed’s new edition of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha, Carnegie Hall with Damien Sneed and the Orchestra of Tomorrow, La Jolla Music Society for Damien Geter’s COTTON, and New York Festival of Song. He joined Florentine Opera in recital, Opera Laguna for Handel’s Messiah, Arizona Musicfest for Ragtime, MasterVoices at Alice Tully Hall for Faure’s Requiem and the new song cycle SEVEN: A Cycle of Sins, and brought the concert suite of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones to New Orleans Opera, the Harriman-Jewell series, and Notre Dame University.

Favorite highlights of recent seasons include: the world premiere of Damien Geter’s American Apollo (Thomas Eugene McKeller) at Des Moines Metro Opera; the company premiere of Brett Dean's Hamlet at The Metropolitan Opera (house debut), with later returns in Peter Grimes (Ned Keene) and the company’s premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking (Motorcycle Cop); house and role debuts in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones and Champion at Lyric Opera of Chicago; his role debut at Washington National Opera and house debut at LA Opera as Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette; the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s This House (Lindon) at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; conceiving and co-artistic directing My Brother’s Keeper with New York Festival of Song at Kaufman Music Center, which he later co-produced as an album on NYFOS Records; Lynn Nottage and Ricky Ian Gordon’s Intimate Apparel at Lincoln Center Theater, which earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination for playing George Armstrong; as Captain Macheath in the film adaptation of Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera produced by City Lyric Opera; and the world premiere and commercial recording of Jack Perla and Rajiv Joseph’s Shalimar the Clown at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where he created the role of Pyarelel Kaul.

In concert, Justin gave the Marian Anderson Vocal Award Recital at the Kennedy Center as the 2024 recipient. At Carnegie Hall, he sang the title role of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Oratorio Society of New York, and joined the Cecilia Chorus of New York for Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem and Margaret Bonds’ Ballad of the Brown King. He has been featured with the Bayerische Staatsoper, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Stuttgart Philharmonic and Opera for Peace, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Maine, Opera Saratoga, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Washington Performing Arts, Kimmel Center, Strathmore Music Center, Longy School of Music with the Celebrity Series of Boston, La Jolla Music Society, The Soraya, Charleston Gaillard Center, Park Avenue Armory, Copland House, Voices of Ascension, Lyric Fest at 92NY, Mistral Music, Gore Recital Hall at the University of Delaware, Spivey Hall at Clayton State University, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Emory & Henry University, plus the Glimmerglass, Hamburg International, Penn Square, Lakes Area, Moab Music, and Sag Harbor Song Festivals. He has joined IDAGIO for online concerts at the Global Concert Hall.

As a multifaceted musician, Justin enjoys performing a wide range of repertoire, from jazz, R&B, and musical theater to opera and oratorio. He has collaborated, performed, and recorded with multiple groups and artists such as Aretha Franklin, The Boys Choir of Harlem, Mary J. Blige, Elton John, Lauryn Hill, The Roots, 30 Seconds to Mars, John Cale, Ricky Ian Gordon, Kanye West, Avner Finberg, M. Roger Holland, Jack Perla, Peter Andreacchi, and Odeline de la Martinez, plus jazz legends Reggie Workman, Hugh Masekela, and Wynton Marsalis.

Justin strongly believes in utilizing his artistry to benefit music programs, new music projects, and community services worldwide. He works with organizations such as MEND (Meeting Emergency Needs with Dignity), QSAC (Quality Services for the Autism Community), Holt International, and St. Mary’s Children’s Hospital to construct and perform benefit concerts. The proceeds of these projects supply emergent living essentials to those in need.

Justin has received accolades and awards from The Recording Academy, NAACP, George London Foundation, Washington National Opera, Opera Ebony, Gerda Lissner Foundation, Manhattan School of Music, NANM, Choir Academy of Harlem, and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. He is the winner of the St. Louis Theater Circle 2025 Outstanding Achievement in Opera award for his appearance in The Barber of Seville at Opera Theatre of St. Louis and is the recipient of a 2023 Mabel Dorn Reeder Award from Opera Theatre of St. Louis, which goes to “the single artist in each season with the greatest potential to make a significant contribution to the art form of opera.” Justin is under the tutelage and mentorship of Catherine Malfitano.

Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Justin Austin is an alumnus of the Choir Academy of Harlem, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Heidelberg Lied Akademie, and Manhattan School of Music (M.M. and B.M.).