Award-winning American tenor John Riesen is making history as the first-ever professional baseball player and opera singer, joining the Banana Ball organization as #17 of the Firefighters. A former pitcher turned internationally acclaimed vocalist, Riesen brings together two extraordinary worlds: professional baseball and opera, in a career defined by spreading joy, bold reinvention, and a passion for entertaining audiences in unexpected ways.
 

Hailed as “every inch the hero in stature and voice” by Classical Voice North America, Riesen has earned acclaim for his “impassioned… and vibrant” voice (Opera Today). His diverse career spans opera, musical theatre, oratorio, studio recording, and concert performance. He has released more than 130 studio recordings, garnering over 10 million streams on Spotify and Apple Music.
 

Riesen is also the Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Emitha LLC, an artist-focused music marketing company that has helped musicians achieve more than 1 billion Spotify streams and 100 million YouTube views. He is an associate producer on the Grammy-nominated project The Impossible Dream and has played a significant role in helping artists navigate the evolving digital music landscape.
 

His international performance career includes appearances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Pacific Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Music Festival, Vegas Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Portland Symphony, Detroit Opera, Shreveport Opera, Pensacola Opera, Nashville Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Chautauqua Opera, and many more.

Riesen gained national recognition on NBC’s America’s Got Talent as a member of finalist group Metaphysic, performing “Nessun Dorma” as the voice of Howie Mandel. Simon Cowell hailed the performance as “the best act of the series.”
 

Now taking the field as a Banana Ball Firefighter, Riesen continues to break boundaries between athletic competition and the performing arts—bringing the power of the operatic voice to the baseball diamond and proving that sometimes the most extraordinary career is the one that takes an unexpected turn.