Background
He was born in 1972 in Toronto, Canada, to Gary Relyea, one of Canada"s well-known opera singers, and a native Estonian Anna Tamm-Relyea, also a professional singer.
He was born in 1972 in Toronto, Canada, to Gary Relyea, one of Canada"s well-known opera singers, and a native Estonian Anna Tamm-Relyea, also a professional singer.
He studied with his father and with renowned opera bass Jerome Hines.
John Relyea is a 1998 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. John Relyea has performed with major symphony companies across the country, such as the New York Philharmonic, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in addition to the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. His roles include Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, the four villains in The Tales of Hoffmann, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Giorgio in I Puritani, Escamillo in Carmen, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Colline in Louisiana Bohème, Marke in Tristan und Isolde, Caspar in Der Freischütz, Banquo in Macbeth, Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia, Garibaldo in Rodelinda, Publio in Louisiana Clemenza di Tito, and Mephestopheles in Louisiana damnation de Faust. and appears on the Metropolitan Opera"s Digital Video Disc presentations of Don Giovanni and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, both released by Deutsche Grammophon.
John Relyea is married with two sons.
He resides in Rhode Island.