JOE STROPPEL, lyric tenor, was born and raised in Glen Cove, NY. His father, Frederick Stroppel, is a playwright, screenwriter and opera enthusiast, and his mother, Liz, is an early childhood music educator. His late grandmother, Betty Kash, was a cabaret singer & theatre director in New York City.

 

Joe was making loud noises fresh out of the womb, but he started taking voice lessons at the age of twelve. His first major theatrical experience was a regional teen production of Les Misérables - in which he played the lead role of Jean Valjean - and he's been performing ever since.

 

Joe currently lives on Long Island, and he freelances in and around New York City. He is a classically-trained singer, but he enjoys bringing his experience in opera and oratorio to genres such as Broadway and popular song.

 

Joe spent over three years of his undergrad at Hunter College as an assistant to accomplished conductor Michael Sheetz. Joe is a two-time Emile Anders award winner for vocal excellence in Dr. Sheetz's collegiate ensembles, and he was a 2024 winner of the Hunter Symphony Orchestra's Aria Competition. Joe has also worked as a choral scholar and section leader at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Sea Cliff, NY. 

 

Joe's solo work in oratorio includes performances of Bach’s Magnificat, Actus Tragicus, and Weinachtsoratorium, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Requiem, Vivaldi’s Magnificat and Brahms’ Neue Liebeslieder. He sang the tragic title role in Carissimi’s Jephte, and performed with the American Opera Project in the world premiere of Precipice. In May 2024, Joe portrayed the villainous Brahmasura in Mohini - another world premiere - during the Hunter College Pocket Opera festival. That summer, Joe traveled to the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia in Mexico, where he sang Remendado in Bizet’s Carmen.

 

In summer 2025, Joe sang the title role of Orpheus in Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld at Queens College, and he covered the role of Tobias in Opera Maine's production of Sweeney Todd. That December, he sang his first Evangelist (Weinachtsoratorium, parts I, II & VI, J.S. Bach) with the New York Chamber Players Orchestra in Brooklyn. Joe returned to Opera Maine in 2026, singing in the chorus of Gounod’s Romèo et Juliette. 

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Joe's first experience performing in an off-Broadway venue was his appearance in a rare revival of Rodgers & Hart's By Jupiter at the Vineyard Theatre in NYC. Subsequent musical theatre credits include Shuttleworth in The Beautiful & Damned (an original musical based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel) as well as Miss Trunchbull in a production of Matilda: The Musical at the Jeanne Rimsky Theater in Port Washington.

 

Joe has performed in LI-based Sunrise Theatre Company's touring Educational Theatre troupe, where he portrayed Santa Claus in a stage version of Rankin-Bass's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Chiron in The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, and King Cullen in an original telling of Cinderella (book, lyrics & music by Brian Sweeney). He also took part in their Spring 2026 mainstage - The Prom - in which he played Kevin.

 

In early 2026, Joe worked with lyricist Brooke DiSpirito and composer Joe Brauch, a songwriting team from the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, on a musical project they developed in the class. He would continue working with Joe Brauch on another show - Over The Hill - a 15-minute musical with book & lyrics by Meira Marom. The work was recently featured in the Making It Happen festival in NYC, it progressed to the final round.

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Joe's first appearance in concert was at the Penguin Rep Theatre gala (Stony Point, NY) in 2018. Notable credits since then include a rendition of the National Anthem at the 2024 Manhattan State of the Borough (in front of notable NY politicians such as Mark Levine and Alvin Bragg), the Hunter College Symphony Orchestra's Spring 2025 gala, and numerous performances with Long Island's Northwinds Symphonic Band.

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Joe's solo act, available for booking around Long Island & NYC, explores his interest in musical theatre with an emphasis on Golden Age Broadway and early to mid-20th century popular music. Songs of the Golden Age made its public debut at the North Shore Historical Museum in 2023, and has since played at libraries and senior centers around Long Island.

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Joe's Christmas Cabaret has been performed every year since 2023 at the Greenhouse Café in Brooklyn and Jeanine's American Bistro in Glen Cove. It features standards, holiday hymns, and carols.

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Reach out to jstropjoe@aol.com for inquiries!