Ambrose
Cusick

Ambrose Cusick didn’t start in a conservatory. He started on a small stage with his dad, performing folk, pop, and what they called “#OldGuyRadio.” That origin is still in his voice.

As a male soprano, Ambrose brings an unusual combination to the classical stage: a tone his collaborators describe as “warm” and “sparkling,” shaped equally by Mozart, baroque repertoire, and jazz. He’s drawn to the question of what happens when those worlds actually talk to each other—when a baroque ornament becomes a jazz riff, or jazz phrasing opens up emotional space in a classical phrase.

He studies with Dr. Susan Hochmiller at Gettysburg College, where he’s also a Writing minor. He spent four years as both a performer and intern with the Youth Opera Company of Middlebury, participating in five opera productions, and is perhaps best known for his four-year tenure in the title role of Amahl in Barn Opera’s annual production of Amahl and the Night Visitors.

This coming summer, Ambrose will attend the 2026 Queens Summer Vocal Institute in New York City, performing the role of the Mysterious Man in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods while also serving as cover for La Fée in Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon. Following his time in NYC, he will spend the fall semester continuing his vocal studies abroad in the historic “City of Music,” Vienna, Austria.

He’s also part of a small but growing conversation in opera about what the art form can be, and who it can belong to.