John Aler was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1949. He studied with Rilla Mervine and Raymond McGuire at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., with Oren Brown at the American Opera Center at The Juilliard School in New York (1972–76), with Marlene Malas, and at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood. In 1977 he made his opera debut as Ernesto in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at the American Opera Center, and he won two first prizes at the Concours International de Chant in Paris. He has earned a reputation as one of the world’s finest lyric tenors. He has often appeared with such ensembles as the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston and Chicago symphonies, the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the London Sinfonietta. His stage appearances include Covent Garden; the Deutsche Oper of Berlin; the Vienna, Hamburg, and Bavarian state operas; the Salzburg Festival; and the Geneva, Madrid, Lyon, and Brussels operas. Aler has recorded extensively, to great acclaim.
