Jacob Stafford Hanes was born and raised in Arlington, Texas. He attended Austin College, where he was a standout in the Austin College Opera Program, a captain of football team, and earned a BA in Music, Economics, and Business Administration He is a graduate of DePaul University where he earned his MM in Vocal Performance. He is also an alumni of the prestigious Castleton Festival Vocal Immersion Program to work under Paul Groves and Michelle DeYoung. Mr. Hanes is currently a Resident Artist at the world’s premier opera training program the Academy of Vocal Arts.

In his ‘23/24 season, Mr. Hanes was featured in the roles of Frank Maurrant in Weill’s “Street Scene” and Prophet/King in Muhly’s “Dark Sisters” with DePaul Opera Theatre and W.P. Inman in Higdon’s “Cold Mountain” at the Seagle Festival. While at the Seagle Festival he workshopped Evan Mack and Evan Campbell’s monodrama for baritone “American Sputnik” singing the role of Van Cliburn. During his first year at AVA, Hanes performed both Valentin in “Faust” and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. He also is making his Princeton Festival Debut as Sciarrone/Jailer in Tosca.

Other notable appearances on the stage have been at the Seagle Festival where he was featured as Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm in “A Little Night Music”, and Lazar Wolf in “Fiddler on the Roof”. He has also been seen as Mr. Gedge in Albert Herring, Guglielmo in Depaul Opera Theatre’s production of Così fan tutte In the concert repertoire, Hanes has been featured as a soloist in the Manna Magnificat, Bach 131, and Bach 150. In competition, Hanes placed as a finalist in the Dallas Opera’s Texas Biennial Lone Star Vocal Competition and a Semi-Finalist in the Meistersinger Competition.