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Baritone Morgan Pearse is a versatile figure, singing everything from obscure 18th century opera and oratorio to standard repertory to 20th century works. He is equally at home on the operatic stage and in concert music. Often performing works by Handel, Pearse has worked with the Academy of Ancient Music and other groups. He has made several recordings, including one of Charles Villiers Stanford's Te Deum and Elegiac Ode with the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales in 2024.

Pearse was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1988. His background is Australian and Danish. He identifies as Australian/Kiwi and has made multiple appearances in New Zealand. Pearse attended Sydney University and the Sydney Conservatorium, earning a bachelor's degree. He went on to the Royal College of Music International Opera School in London from 2011 to 2013, earning a master's degree. Pearse moved to the U.S. to join the Young Artists' Program at the Houston Grand Opera in 2014 and 2015. He earned several major prizes, including the gold medal at the Royal Overseas League Music Competition in 2013 and the Cesti Competition in 2016. In the latter year, he made his recording debut, appearing on the Lyrita label in Bernard van Dieren's "Chinese" Symphony.

Pearse has appeared at major opera houses in repertory oriented toward Baroque music but not excluding works from other periods. He has appeared at Germany's Karlsruhe Händelfestspiele in several less-performed Handel works, such as the opera Tolomeo (as Araspe) and the oratorio Theodora (as Valens). Pearse has taken the title roles in several Mozart operas at such venues as the Opernhaus Zürich, the New Zealand Opera, and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. At the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, he performed the title role in Britten's Billy Budd.

In concert music, Pearse has appeared in such prestigious venues as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, and the Sydney Opera House. He has collaborated with such groups as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, King's College Choir, Cambridge, and the Academy of Ancient Music; with the latter, he has recorded Handel's Brockes-Passion and Jan Ladislav Dussek's rarely heard Messe solemnelle. Pearse was heard on a pair of diverse albums in 2024, a recording of Johann Sigismund Kusser's Baroque opera Adonis on the CPO label and one of choral works by Charles Villiers Stanford on Lyrita. ~ James Manheim