Steven Tharp

b i o g r a p h y...........back to roster....up

March 2008

Whether performing Bach or Rorem, Wagner or Donizetti, Steven Tharp convinces critics and audiences alike that the work at hand is his specialty. The Badisches Neueste Nachrichten called him "a lyrical tenor of refined vocal style" whose "lieder had the effect of entering a cozy room….his phrasing radiated thoughtfulness." In the New Yorker, Andrew Porter described his performance in Frank Martin’s Le Vin Herbé as "ideal...strong, free, and forward in tone, verbally sure, lyrical in utterance," and the Newark Star-Ledger noted, "he thrilled all with his blazing high register." Opera News has praised the "bel canto flexibility and sweetness" of his voice. Will Crutchfield in The New York Times wrote: "He can handle the coloratura of Mozart and Rossini (including real trills) at a level that was simply not available from tenors 30 years ago and is still rare."

Mr. Tharp has appeared with most of the major U. S. orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony (under Solti and Barenboim); the New York Philharmonic (Masur); and the Cleveland Orchestra (von Dohnanyi); as well as the Royal Philharmonic and Hong Kong Philharmonic. His repertoire ranges from the great baroque and classical liturgical masterpieces to contemporary works.

Early in his operatic career Mr. Tharp received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council and San Francisco Opera auditions. He has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera and other distinguished companies throughout the United States and Canada and in Europe. His operatic repertoire of over forty roles includes the major tenor parts of Mozart and Handel. He performed in the American premiere of Partenope and the first modern revival of Scipione); Nemorino in L’Elisir d’amore, Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, David in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, the Steersman in Der Fliegende Holländer and Lysander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Mr. Tharp has a special interest in lesser-known operas of the classical and early romantic era, and has taken roles in Haydn’s L’Isola Disabitata and L’Infedelta Delusà, Grétry’s Zémire et Azor, and Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella.

With Will Crutchfield as pianist, Mr. Tharp presented The World of Schubert’s Songs and The World of Heinrich Heine, both multi-evening lieder series, at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. He performed at gala recitals celebrating Schubert’s 200^th birthday at the 92^nd Street Y and Weill Recital Hall, and has appeared in recital at the Newport Chamber Music Festival, the Carmel Bach Festival, Caramoor. He is a frequent guest artist with the New York Festival of Song, most recently in Ned Rorem’s new full-evening song-cycle, Evidence of Things Not Seen.

Steven Tharp sang with the Metropolitan Opera in 2002 in Prokoffiev’s War and Peace and returned shortly for Giordano’s Andrea Chenier and Puccini’s Turandot. Highlights during 2005/06 season include Great Mass in c minor with the Music of Baroque and the Spoleto Festival USA, Messiah and Bach St. Matthew Passion with American Bach Soloists, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Hartford Symphony and Verdi Requiem (Verdi in Terezin) in the Prague Spring Music Festival. Mr. Tharp made his debut with the Nationale Reisopera as Sospiro in Florian Leopold Gassmann’s L'Opera Seria in the Spring of 2005. Based on his success, he was subsequently re-invited the following two seasons to sing Simpleton in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, as Frantz, Pitichinacchio, Andres and Cochenille in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffman and as Edward in Michael Hamel’s Snow White. The summer of 2007 brought his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra both at Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival and Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

He can be heard on Sir Georg Solti’s Grammy award-winning recording of Die Meistersinger for London/Decca and excerpts of La Calisto, from the Glimmerglass Opera, released by BBC Music. His world-premiere recording of the complete songs of Edward MacDowell has recently been issued by Naxos American Classics.

b i o.....o p e r a - r e p e r t o i r e....o r c h e s t r a - r e p e r t o i r e
r e c i t a l - r e p e r t o i r e.... r e v i e w s.

back to roster...up

.

.

.

.

.

o r c h e s t r a - r e p e r t o i r e...........back to roster....up

click here to read Steven Tharp's orchestra repertoire (MS Word)

b i o.....o p e r a - r e p e r t o i r e....o r c h e s t r a - r e p e r t o i r e
r e c i t a l - r e p e r t o i r e.... r e v i e w s.

back to roster...up

.

.

.

.

.

r e c i t a l - r e p e r t o i r e...........back to roster....up

Metropolitan Museum of Art: The World of Schubert's Songs (six recitals)

Metropolitan Museum of Art: The World of Heinrich Heine (two recitals)

Newport Chamber Music Festival (Beethoven, Rossini, Schumann, De Falla,
Tchaikovsky)

Weill Recital Hall (Schubert)

Caramoor Festival (Schumann, Fauré, Rachmaninoff)

New York Festival of Song (Brahms, Rorem, New American Songs)

Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe (Schubert, American Songs)

Moab Music Festival (Rorem: Evidence of Things Not Seen)

Takasaki Arts Festival, Japan (Schubert: Die Schöne Müllerin)

Carmel Bach Festival (Purcell)

Monadnock Festival (Buxtehude, Schubert, Schumann, Vaughan-Williams)

Clarion Concerts (Steffanni, Strozzi, Mozart, Schubert, Italian Songs,
Irving Berlin)

92nd Street Y (Schubertiade)

Provincetown Music (De Gaetano)

Currier Gallery of Art, New Hampshire (Schubert, Schumann)

Bar Harbor Music Festival (Beethoven, Schubert, Vaughan-Williams)

Trinity Church, NY (Berlioz, Duparc, Chausson)

Church of the Ascension, NY (Schumann, Wolf, Britten)

Long Island University, NY (Schubert)

Drury College, Missouri.(Schubert, Fauré, Gershwin)

b i o.....o p e r a - r e p e r t o i r e....o r c h e s t r a - r e p e r t o i r e
r e c i t a l - r e p e r t o i r e.... r e v i e w s.

back to roster...up

.

.

.

.

.

r e v i e w s...........back to roster....up

"A remarkable tenor who sings German lieder like a native" - Peter G. Davis in New York magazine

"He can handle the coloratura of Mozart and Rossini (including real trills) at a level that was simply not available from tenors 30 years ago and is still rare" - Will Crutchfield in The New York Times

"A tenor of a bright, clear voice, appealing style, just suited for classical and early romantic repertory." - Robert Commanday, S.F.Chronicle

"Tharp's voice is spectacular. 'Una furtiva lagrima' brought down the house" - Springfield (Mass) Union News

"Steven Tharp was an ideal Tristan [in Le Vin Herbé] - strong, free, and forward in tone, verbally sure, lyrical in utterance" - Andrew Porter

"The most comforting 'Comfort Ye' imaginable. Tharp's voice has the agility, the quickness, the lyricism and the power to render the music pure, direct and natural. At the end, where another soloist might be glad to have arrived in one piece, Tharp added one more baroque ornament for good measure." - The Augusta Chronicle

"In the title role we were introduced to an excellent young American tenor, Steven Tharp, who spoke almost as winningly as he sang" - Max Loppert in the Financial Times [London]

"A lyrical tenor of refined vocal style . . . faultlessly clear" - Badisches Neueste Nachrichten (Karlsruhe)

"Tharp sang with bel canto flexibility and sweetness" - Opera News

"He thrilled all with his blazing high register" - Newark Star-Ledger

"Tharp was the great discovery. A smoothly beautiful 'Comfort Ye' and effortlessly spectacular 'Ev'ry valley' let the audience know from the start that the music was in good hands" - Philadelphia Main Line Times

"The lieder had the effect of entering a cozy room . . . his phrasing radiated thoughtfulness" - Badisches Neueste Nachrichten

"Tharp's ringing and commanding tones could - and did - mellow to wistful pain and longing" - Richard Binder in The [NH] Telegraph

"Particularly impressive is tenor Steven Tharp as Victor Frankenstein, projecting his words with clarity, excellent tone and strong emotional impact and interacting superbly with the monster." Joseph McLellan in The Washington Post

"There were some strong voices in the cast, most notably Steven Tharp . . . firm but human" Allan Kozinn in The New York Times

"His performance won loud applause and bravos . . . every word was clear" - The Raleigh News and Observer

"Mature Mozart ['Misero! o sogno'] was represented by Steven Tharp in a vigorous, well-supported tenor voice and with dramatic force, especially on top." - The [Danbury] News-Times

"The program . . . featured a particularly stylish contribution from tenor Steven Tharp" - Stephen Wigler in the Baltimore Sun

b i o.....o p e r a - r e p e r t o i r e....o r c h e s t r a - r e p e r t o i r e
r e c i t a l - r e p e r t o i r e.... r e v i e w s.

back to roster...up

.

.

.

.

	---> b i o g r a p h y ---> o p e r a - r e p e r t o i r e ---> o r c h e s t r a - r e p e r t o i r e ---> r e c i t a l - r e p e r t o i r e ---> r e v i e w s ................................................................................. ---> write to Manager
Steven Tharp, tenor...