This fall, tenor Nicholas Phan released his debut solo CD - Winter Words, on the Avie (AV 2238) label - to unanimous critical acclaim. The recording, an exploration of two of Benjamin Britten's most iconic song cycles written for Peter Pears, includes his Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, his setting of Thomas Hardy's Winter Words, and six of Britten's beloved folk song arrangements. Singing works strongly identified with a long line of British tenors, the American tenor has been embraced by the UK press.  The Sunday Telegraph praised his "top performance" performance of Winter Words, and BBC Music considered it "atmospherically evoked alongside the best." "The voice is graceful, mellifluous and durable, but behind it lie sharp intelligence, poetic insight and a confident individuality, allowing him a deeply personal response to the Hardy cycle Winter Words," raved The Sunday Times of London. "In the Seven Sonnets, Phan is equally at ease with the demands of the bel canto devises. The six folk-song settings here are exquisitely artful."

In the U.S., Alex Ross named Winter Words one of the "Best Classical Music Recordings of 2011" in The New Yorker, and a "CD of the Week" on his widely read blog The Rest is Noise. The recording was also chosen by Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times for its annual "Holiday Gift Guide." "Britten's song cycle 'Winter Words' is inexplicably neglected," Tommasini writes. "These bleakly beautiful, sometimes satirical and stunning settings of eight Thomas Hardy poems prove ideal for Nicholas Phan, the sweet-voiced young tenor, sensitively accompanied by Myra Huang." Opera News notes that "Phan's inflections display the same penetrating intelligence evident in his program note; he provides a clean line, with the tone alternately airy and firmly etched, as musical and verbal demands dictate."

Recording and performing the music of Benjamin Britten has been a voyage of discovery for Phan. "I have been exploring Britten's music extensively over the past few years in recital programs and concerts with various orchestras. I have also devoted much of my summers at the Marlboro Music Festival to learning and coaching Britten, so when it came to programming our first recording together, both Myra and I naturally drifted to his music," he explains. "Winter Words has become a favorite cycle of ours to program on recitals over the past few years, and that eventually led to us programming an entire recital of his music. I was primarily interested in his relationship with Peter Pears and how that manifested itself in their performances - the Michelangelo Sonnets is the first song cycle Britten wrote for Pears, written very early on in their relationship. Winter Words represents a period in their relationship in which they were both somewhat in their artistic prime."

Alongside the two song cycles featured on Winter Words are settings of Britten's love letters to the British Isles; six folk songs, including "The Last Rose of Summer" and "The Salley Gardens." "What wins this disc its five stars is the spacious, deeply moving delivery of my favorite among all the folksong settings, 'The Last Rose of Summer'," proclaims BBCMusic. Opera News agrees: "A particular highlight, with subtle, telling work from Phan and Huang both, is 'The Last Rose of Summer'."

Phan returns to the studio in early 2012 to record a second volume of Britten's vocal works for Avie, which will be released to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the composer's birth. The second volume includes Britten's seldom-heard work The Heart of the Matter, composed for tenor, narrator and piano. The album also explores the composer's output for tenor and harp, which was composed after Britten lost the physical ability to accompany Peter Pears at the piano. The brilliant Israeli harpist Sivan Magen joins Nicholas Phan and pianist Myra Huang for Avie's second volume of Britten's songs for tenor.