LUKE ELMER, countertenor, was born and raised in Flower Mound, Texas, and is so excited for his first season with Chanticleer. Luke earned his undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance from Brigham Young University. After moving to California and earning his master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Luke made his operatic debut at Long Beach Opera, performing the title role in Handel’s Giustino. The following year, he taught voice, piano, and theater at the Spindrift School of the Performing Arts in Pacifica and sang for the San Francisco Archdiocese as part of the Archbishop’s Schola. He was honored to be an Apprentice Artist at The Santa Fe Opera during their 2023 season, where he performed the role of the Third Pastor in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. He spent a brief year in New York, singing regularly with the Saint Bartholomew’s Choir, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Choir, and Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys. Prior to joining Chanticleer, he was one of the 2024 Gerdine Young Artists at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where he covered Tolomeo in Handel’s Julius Caesar and Cardinal 1 in Philip Glass’s Galileo Galilei. Luke is a proud uncle to five nephews, a doting cat dad, and a major consumer of ramen. He is so grateful to his family for their tireless support and to his grandmother Dorothy Peterson Elmer Woolf, Connie Riska, Matt Quinlan, and Robin Tercero Montgomery for teaching him to love music.
Luke Elmer holds The Ning G. Mercer Chair for the Preservation of the Chanticleer Legacy, given by Ning and Stephen Mercer.