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 debut at Glyndebourne, in the role of Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia. The season includes concert appearances as the bass soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Columbus Symphony.

The 2025-2026 season includes Cumhur’s role debut as Alidoro in La Cenerentola and Angelotti in Tosca at Wolf Trap Opera. He appeared as a featured soloist at the Festival Napa Valley. Earlier this season, Cumhur sang 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 made his role debut as 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. In Türkiye, he covered Sancho in Don Quixote at the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, performed Schlendrian in Bach’s Coffee Cantata at the Süreyya Opera House. He 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 VII in Anna Bolena, Collatinus in Rape of Lucretia, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Sivgilia, Lorenzo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Pistola in Falstaff, Mephistopheles in Faust, and the title role in Don Pasquale.

Cumhur has been recently recognized as a winner in numerous international competitions, including the Wilhelm Stenhammar Competition, Opera Columbus Cooper-Bing Competition, Meistersinger Competition, The Mary Jacob Singer of the Year Competition, Loren L. Zachary Competition as well as receiving the second prize in Giargiari Belcanto Competition, Mario Lanza Competition, SAS Vocal Competition. He received the first prize in MIOpera Competition and a winner of the 2026 Manetti Shrem Opera Prize.