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AARON
ENGEBRETH

Baritone

AARON ENGEBRETH enjoys a varied solo career in opera, oratorio, recital and devotes considerable energy to the performance of established music and contemporary premieres, frequently collaborating with many of today’s preeminent composers.  In the U.S., he has been featured as a guest soloist on stages from Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and Boston’s Symphony Hall, to international appearances from Sapporo Japan’s Kitara Hall to Le Theatre de la Ville in Paris and the AmBul festival of Sofia, Bulgaria.   He has been a guest of the Tanglewood, Ravinia, Rockport and Monadnock Music Festivals as well as many of the country’s fine symphony orchestras, among them Portland, Virginia, San Diego, Charlotte and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.  

 

Recent appearances include concerts and commercial recordings with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Lexington, Bangor and Boston Landmarks’ Symphony Orchestras, Vancouver International Song Institute, St. Louis Art Museum and the Firebird Ensemble.  Last year’s concert season featured his New York City Opera debut as monodrama soloist in Argento’s A Waterbird Talk, a Bernstein Centenary recital In collaboration with Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, as well as performances with Le Central de Lyon (France), Concert de l’Hostel Dieu, Rutter’s Messe des enfants with Écully Musical, Bunthorne in Patience with Odyssey Opera, Boston Camerata, and recitals in Lyon, Paris and San Francisco.

 

Mr. Engebreth’s work with award-winning composer and conductor Lukas Foss cultivated a passion for premiering new works:  he has since collaborated with composers John Harbison, Libby Larsen, Thea Musgrave, Ned Rorem and Daniel Pinkham, among many others.  Also recognized for his interpretation of early music, he is a frequent soloist with many of the finest organizations including American Bach Soloists, Handel and Haydn Society, Miami Bach Society, Boston Baroque, Boston Camerata and Santa Fe Pro Musica.  He was a regular soloist with Emmanuel Music for six seasons, joining a longtime tradition of performances of Bach’s cantatas under the direction of the late Craig Smith.

 

Nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Operatic Recording for his work with the Boston Early Music Festival and Radio Bremen (Thésée and Psyché, by Lully), he is in high demand as a recording artist.  In 2016 he produced and recorded the first complete catalogue of The Complete Songs of Virgil Thomson with Florestan Recital Project and New World Records, which is garnering international acclaim.  Other releases include the world premiere of Six Early Songs of Samuel Barber and Larsen’s The Peculiar Case of Dr. H. H. Holmes, both for Florestan Records; Jon Deak’s The Passion of Scrooge with the Firebird Ensemble; The Complete Songs of Daniel Pinkham with Florestan Recital Project, the first volume of which was named one of the five best contemporary music releases of the year by NPR and American Public Media.  With Gil Rose and BMOP and Odyssey Opera,  Mr. Engebreth is featured on numerous recordings, among them Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts and Argento’s A Waterbird Talk.

 

This season he performs Broadway Revues both in France and the U.S, a return to Odyssey Opera in Boston, solo appearances with the Columbus (GA) Symphony and the Bangor Symphony, concerts with Boston’s Coro Allegro, a world premiere musical with Snowlion Repertory Theatre, as well as solo recitals in Buffalo, NY, Portland and Paris.  He also sings the role of Dr. Pangloss in Candide with Boston's Chorus Pro Musica.

Reviews
“It’s no secret that Aaron Engebreth is one of the finest young singers in Boston.”                                                                                                          - Boston Herald
 
“He sounds like a young Thomas Hampson.” 
                                                             
- Fanfare Magazine
"Versatile, sensitive baritone [Aaron] Engebreth seems constantly attuned to the heart of each song."
                                                                                       - Opera News
 
"Baritone Aaron Engebreth sang the actual words of Jesus.  His voice was a powerful baritone, which flowed easily and under beautiful control."
                                                                     - Buffalo Post Journal

 
"Engebreth captured, with deep emotional feeling, a wide range of nuances, from dreamlike phrasing to vibrant intensity.  With animated voice, to solemn expression, to robust delivery, he deliberated each piece for maximum effect."
                                                                     - Times Herald-Record
“The cast was immaculate...  Aaron Engebreth is a powerful General Kitab.”  [In Wuorinen's  Haroun and the Sea of Stories]                                                                                                                                      - Gramophone
Media
Compilation 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKakChLo8pw
Orff (Carmina Burana)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBRhc9z_aRQ
Sullivan:  (as Bunthorne in Patience)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AygrH5Z1c
Rorem (Evidence of Things Not Seen)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXq6HsP2E7Y
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