Cumhur Görgün
Praised for his “luscious bass sound that feels so rare,’’ bass Cumhur Görgün is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) in Philadelphia and a 2025 top prize winner of the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples International Voice Competition.
Cumhur begins the 2026-2027 season with his European house debut at Glyndebourne, in the role of Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia. The season includes his role debut as Ferrando in Il Trovatore wıth New Orleans Opera, house debut as Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Naples, and concert appearances as the bass soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Columbus Symphony.
The 2025-2026 season included Cumhur’s role debut as Alidoro in La Cenerentola and Angelotti in Tosca at Wolf Trap Opera. He appeared as a featured soloist at Festival Napa Valley. Earlier this season, Cumhur performed the title role in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at AVA. On the concert stage, he joined the Columbus Symphony for Mozart’s Requiem and Symphony in C for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony as the bass soloist.
The 2024-2025 season included Cumhur’s role debut as Banquo in Macbeth at Teatro Nuovo. He covered Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Glyndebourne Festival. Elsewhere, Cumhur bowed as a soloist at Festival Under the Stars with Opera Naples, as well as Festival of the Arts Boca. He also performed the role of Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust at AVA.
Originally from Türkiye, Görgün studied at Istanbul University before pursuing further studies at the Rodolfo Celletti Belcanto Academy in Italy and the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. In Türkiye, he covered Sancho in Don Quixote at the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, sang Schlendrian in Bach’s Coffee Cantata at the Süreyya Opera House, and was featured as a soloist with the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and at the İdil Biret Music Festival.
His opera roles at the Academy of Vocal Arts have included the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Enrico in Anna Bolena, Collatinus in The
Rape of Lucretia, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Lorenzo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Pistola in Falstaff, Mephistopheles in Faust, and the title role in Don Pasquale. Cumhur has recently been recognized in numerous international competitions, including the Wilhelm Stenhammar Competition, Opera Columbus Cooper-Bing Competition, Meistersinger Competition, Mary Jacob Singer of the Year Competition, Loren L. Zachary Competitio. He received second prize in the Giargiari Belcanto Competition, Mario Lanza Competition, SAS Vocal Competition and the first prize in MIOpera Competition. He was also a recipient of the 2026 Manetti Shrem Opera Prize.