Nicholas Phan
NICHOLAS PHAN
Praised by National Public Radio as ‘an artist who must be heard’, American tenor Nicholas Phan continues to distinguish himself as one of the most compelling tenors appearing on the prestigious concert and opera stages of the world today. An artist with an incredibly diverse repertoire that ranges from Claudio Monteverdi to Nico Muhly and beyond, Phan performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. He is also an avid recitalist and a passionate advocate for art song and vocal chamber music: in 2010, Phan co-founded Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, an organization devoted to promoting this underserved corner of the classical music repertoire, where he serves as Artistic Director.
Highlights of Mr. Phan’s 2017/2018 season include his debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra for Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, and the Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo for Britten’s War Requiem with Marin Alsop; and returns to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Philharmonia Baroque, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony for Schubert’s Mass in E-flat with Riccardo Muti, and the Toronto Symphony for performances as the title role in Bernstein’s Candide. He also will appear in recital at the Herbst Theater with San Francisco Performances, and serves as artistic director of two festivals this season: Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago’s sixth annual Collaborative Works Festival, and as the first singer to be guest Artistic Director of the Laguna Beach Music Festival.
Mr. Phan is a regular guest soloist with many of the leading orchestras in the North America and Europe, including the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque, Boston Baroque, BBC Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, and the Lucerne Symphony. He has also toured extensively throughout the major concert halls of Europe, and appeared with the Oregon Bach, Ravinia, Marlboro, Edinburgh, Rheingau, Saint-Denis, and Tanglewood festivals, as well as the BBC Proms.
An avid proponent of vocal chamber music, he has collaborated with many chamber musicians, including pianists Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Jeremy Denk, Graham Johnson, Roger Vignoles, Myra Huang and Alessio Bax; violinist James Ehnes; guitarist Eliot Fisk; harpist Sivan Magen; and horn players Jennifer Montone, Radovan Vlatkovic and Gail Williams. In recital, he has been presented by Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Boston’s Celebrity Series, and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. He is also currently an artist-in-residence with San Francisco Performances.
Mr. Phan’s many opera credits include appearances with the Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Seattle Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and Frankfurt Opera. His growing repertoire includes the title roles in Bernstein’s Candide, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Fenton in Falstaff, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and Lurcanio in Ariodante.
Phan’s most recent solo album, Gods and Monsters, was released in January 2017. His first three solo albums, A Painted Tale, Still Fall the Rain and Winter Words, made many “best of” lists, including those of the New York Times, New Yorker, Chicago Tribune and Boston Globe. Phan’s growing discography also includes a Grammy-nominated recording of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony, Scarlatti’s La gloria di Primavera with Philharmonia Baroque, Bach’s St. John Passion with Apollo’s Fire, and the world premiere recordings of two orchestral song cycles: The Old Burying Ground by Evan Chambers and Elliott Carter’s A Sunbeam’s Architecture.
