Tenor Nicholas Phan has welcomed 2017 with the January release of Gods & Monsters, his fourth solo album for Avie Records, whilst looking forward to his Wigmore Hall debut on 26 February, which will showcase the album’s wide-ranging programme of German lieder inspired by fairy tales, traversing both familiar and lesser-known works by Schubert, Brahms, Mahler, Beethoven, Schumann, Wolf and Mendelssohn.

For Gods & Monsters, Phan (pronounced pahn) collaborates with his long-time recital partner, pianist Myra Huang, both on the album and the Wigmore stage. The programme, devised by Phan, fulfills the singer’s life-long fascination with fairy tales and fantastical creatures. He explains, “What are songs but stories set to music? Whether they are confessional stories of the self or the telling of any variety of narrative, songs are but musical tales.” As his inspiration, he describes an early experience of performing art songs for school children as an outreach component of the Marilyn Horne Foundation’s National Artist Residencies in Oberlin, Ohio, a pivotal turning point in his approach to performance:

“When one is singing for an audience of five-year-olds, even a two-minute song can feel like an eternity. It was a transformative experience for me, and it revolutionised my approach to performance. No matter the audience, I feel that the same techniques apply. One has to mine every detail and pretend they are telling a tall tale around a campfire. No stone can be left unturned, and every colourful extreme must be brought to life.”

Gods & Monsters is Phan’s fourth solo album for Avie Records. His previous recordings for the label are two celebrated collections of songs by Benjamin Britten and A Painted Tale, a pastiche cycle of early English songs assembled by Phan which garnered a Gramophone “Editor’s Choice.” Phan’s discography also includes the world-premiere recording of Alessandro Scarlatti’s La Gloria di Primavera with Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra on the orchestra’s own label, and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO Resound) which was nominated for a Grammy Award.

In March 2017, AVIE will release J. S. Bach’s St. John Passion with the Cleveland-based baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire in which Phan sings both the Evangelist and the tenor arias. He will revisit the masterwork in performances on 10 – 12 March 2017 with the Cleveland Orchestra and music director Franz Welser Most.

Nicholas Phan’s previous performances in London include Lurcanio in Handel’s Ariodante alongside mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato with Il Complesso Barocco in May 2011 at the Barbican, Bartok’s Cantata Profana with the BBC Symphony and David Robertson at the BBC Proms in August 2010, and the Swan in Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in May 2016, in which “Phan nearly stole the show with his poised, ironic portrayal” (Opera News).

* * * * *

For further information, image or interview requests please contact Melanne Mueller, MusicCo International, +44 (0) 7788 662 461 or +1 917 907 2785, melanne@musiccointernational.com

For further information about Nicholas Phan, please visit http://nicholas-phan.com

NOTES TO EDITORS
Named one of National Public Radio’s “Favorite New Artists of 2011,” American tenor Nicholas Phan is increasingly recognised as an artist of distinction. Praised for his keen intelligence, captivating stage presence and natural musicianship, he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. Also an avid recitalist, in 2010 he co-founded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC) to promote art song and vocal chamber music.

In the 2016-2017 season, Phan (pronounced pahn) returns to the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. He also appears twice with Bach Collegium Japan, and makes both his role debut as the title role in Oedipus Rex with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra at Cal Performances, and his recital debut at the Wigmore Hall. As Artistic Director of Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, he will also curate and perform in the organization's fifth annual Collaborative Works Festival, a vocal chamber music festival held in venues throughout Chicago.

Phan has appeared 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, Atlanta Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Philharmonia Baroque, Boston Baroque, Les Violons du Roy, BBC Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Strasbourg Philharmonic, and the Lucerne Symphony. He has also toured extensively throughout the major concert halls of Europe with Il Complesso Barocco, and appeared with the Oregon Bach, Ravinia, Marlboro, Edinburgh, Rheingau, Saint-Denis, and Tanglewood festivals, as well as the BBC Proms. Among the conductors he has worked with are Marin Alsop, Harry Bicket, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Alan Curtis, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Charles Dutoit, Jane Glover, Manfred Honeck, Bernard Labadie, Louis Langrée, Nicholas McGegan, Zubin Mehta, John Nelson, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Helmuth Rilling, David Robertson, Masaaki Suzuki, Michael Tilson Thomas and Franz Welser-Möst.

An avid proponent of vocal chamber music, he has collaborated with many chamber musicians, including pianists Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Jeremy Denk, Graham Johnson, Myra Huang, Roger Vignoles and Alessio Bax; violinist James Ehnes; guitarist Eliot Fisk; and horn players Jennifer Montone, Radovan Vlatkovic and Gail Williams. In both recital and chamber concerts, he has been presented by Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Atlanta's Spivey Hall, Boston's Celebrity Series, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the University of Chicago and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

Phan's many opera credits include appearances with the Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Chicago Opera Theater, Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and Frankfurt Opera. His growing repertoire includes the title roles in Acis and Galatea and Candide, 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 solo album, A Painted Tale, was named a Gramophone Editor’s Choice and one of the Best Classical Albums of 2015 by the Chicago Tribune. His first two solo albums, Still Falls the Rain and Winter Words, both featuring the music of Benjamin Britten, made many “best of” lists, including those of the New York Times, New Yorker, 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 Nicholas McGegan and Philharmonia Baroque, the opera L’Olimpiade with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, and the world premiere recording of Elliott Carter’s orchestral song cycle, A Sunbeam’s Architecture.

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Sunday, 26 February 2017 – 3:00 pm
Wigmore Hall
36 Wigmore Street
London W1U 2BP
https://wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/nicholas-phan-myra-huang-201702261500

RECORDING INFORMATION
Gods & Monsters
AVIE Records AV 2368
Release date: 20 January 2017
http://www.avie-records.com/releases/gods-monsters/

PROGRAMME
MOUNT OLYMPUS
Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828)
An die Leier
Ganymed
Atys
Der Musensohn

KNIGHTS AND KINGS
Schubert Der Sänger
Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897) Es war ein Markgraf überm Rhein
Gustav Mahler (1860 – 1911)
Rheinlegendchen
Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) Aus Goethe’s Faust

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT
Schubert Der Zwerg
Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) Waldesgespräch
Hugo Wolf (1860 – 1903) Der Feuerreiter
Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847) Hexenlied

FAIRY TALES
Schumann Der Sandman
Wolf
Der Rattenfänger
Elfenlied
Storchenbotschaft

POSTLUDE
Brahms Sandmännchen