American baritone Ronald Ulen made his professional stage debut with the National Opera Company as Guglielmo in Mozarts "Cosi fan tutte". With the NOC he sang the leading baritone roles in hundreds of performances throughout the United States, including Malatesta in "Don Pasquale", Figaro in "Il Barbiere di Siviglia", Count Eberbach in "Der Wildschütz", Ford in "The Merry Wives of Windsor", Belcore in “L’Elisir D’Amore and Marcello in "La Boheme".
After making his European debut at the Zürich Opera, Mr. Ulen concentrated his career in Europe, singing the title roles in Verdi´s "Falstaff", Tschaikowky´s "Eugen Onegin", Bartok´s "Bluebeards Castle", Zar Peter I. in Lortzing´s "Zar und Zimmermann" as well as Sharpless in Puccini´s "Madame Butterfly" and Tarquinius in Britten´s "The Rape of Lucretia".
His career has taken him to opera and concert stages in Berlin, Augsburg, Chattanooga, Chicago, Coburg, Düsseldorf, San Antonio, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Kiel, Kansas City, Leipzig, Mannheim, Miami, Vienna, Rome, Zürich, New York, Washington, D.C., Paris, Bamberg, and Chicago, among many others.
Included in the over 90 roles that he has sung on the stage are Germont in Verdi´s "La Traviata", Conte Almaviva in "Le Nozze di Figaro", Valentin in "Faust" und the Forester in "The Cunning Little Vixen", "Il Trovatore" as Conte di Luna, Figaro in Paisiello’s "Il Barbiere di Siviglia", Ottokar in "Der Freischütz" and Renato in "Un Ballo in Maschera". In addition he has sung the four villains in "The Tales of Hoffmann", the title role in Wagner’s Fliegende Holländer, and Miller in "Luisa Miller".
He has been heard as soloist in Brahms "Requiem", in Orffs "Carmina Burana", Händels "Messiah", Mendelssohns "Elijah" and Beethovens 9th Symphony to name just a few as well as being in demand as a recitalist. He has enjoyed great success as Nabucco in Verdi’s opera of the same name. Other notable roles have included Musiklehrer in “Ariadne auf Naxos”, Nardo in “La Finta Giardinieri”, Amonasro in “Aida”, Enrico in “Lucia di Lammermoor”, Ford in “Falstaff” and Don Carlo in “La Forza del Destino”.
Mr. Ulen is Professor of Voice at the Texas State University School of Music in San Marcos and continues to maintain an active schedule in opera, concert and recital. Performances scheduled in 2011 will take him to El Paso, Chattanooga, San Antonio, Germany and Italy.