Voice

Acclaimed for his “exemplary diction and rich baritone voice,” Aaron Engebreth maintains an active solo career in opera, oratorio and recital, and has devoted considerable energy and time to the performance of new music, often collaborating with composers.

Mr. Engebreth has received significant recognition for his interpretation of early music and is a frequent soloist with many of the country’s finest early-music organizations including the American Bach Soloists, Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Early Music Festival, Miami Bach Society, Boston Baroque, San Francisco Bach Choir, Columbus Bach Ensemble, Boston Camerata, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Musicians of the Old Post Road and Boston Cecilia. Mr. Engebreth also sings regularly on the famed cantata series with Emmanuel Music under conductor Craig Smith, and was a national finalist and place-winner in the 2002 American Bach Society/Bethlehem Bach Competition.

Also a committed interpreter of contemporary music, Mr. Engebreth has performed with the Firebird Ensemble, NewGallery Series, Weekends of Chamber Music of New York and Opera Unlimited and he collaborates frequently with composers, including Nicolas Maw, Daniel Pinkham, Lukas Foss, John Deak and recently, with Ned Rorem in preparation of the Boston premiere of his evening-length song cycle, Evidence of Things Not Seen with the Florestan Recital Project. The critically acclaimed performance, noting Mr. Engebreth’s “beauty of voice and eloquence,”(Boston Globe) has had subsequent performances.

Mr. Engebreth has performed extensively as a recitalist and is a co-founder of the Florestan Recital Project, an organization devoted to the song recital. The series, now in its fifth season, has garnered notable acclaim. Amongnumerous venues throughout the country and abroad, Mr. Engebreth has performed in recitals at the Les Concerts de l’hotel Cail of Paris, Liederkranz Recital series of Manhatten, Center for American Music of Boulder, Boston Public Library Performance Series, King’s Chapel Recital Series, the Old South Church of Boston where he performed in an acclaimed performance of the rarely heard AIDS Quilt Songbook and with WCRB’s Concerts at Copley Square, at which he appeared with Keith Lockhart, conductor of the Boston Pops performing works of Richard Rogers with Mr. Lockhart at the piano.

On the operatic stage, Mr. Engebreth has performed a variety of roles ranging from Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro to Schaunard in La boheme. Opera News hailed his recent performance Masetto in Opera Aperta’s Don Giovanni as “consistently strong.” His performance of Sid in the Red House Opera Group’s 2002 performances of Britten’s Albert Herring was described by the Boston Globe as, “nearly perfect in voice, characterization and appearance.”

As a young artist, he appeared in 2003 as a vocal fellow at the Ravinia Music Festival’s Steans Institute for Singers and as a 2000 fellow with the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, where he was featured in its performances of Handel’s Alexander’s Feast and Bach’s Magnificat.

Mr. Engebreth begins this season with solo recitals in Arizona and New Mexico with pianist Robert Mills, the role of Lesbo in Handel’s Agrippina with Boston Baroque, Schumann’s rarely heard Minnespiel with Emmanuel Music and performances at the Harvard University Fogg Museum with the Florestean Recital Project. Later performances this season include appearances with Newport Baroque Orchestra, New England Classical Singers and the premiere of Jonathan Bailey Holland’s opera, Naomi in the Living Room with New Gallery Series.

Mr. Engebreth’s 2004-05 engagements brought performances at the Tanglewood Music Festival as baritone soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis as well as concerts with the San Diego, Charlotte, and Nashua Symphonies, ColumbusBach Ensemble, Andover Chamber Music Series, Boston Camerata, Portland Chamber Music Festival, Commonwealth Opera and Monadnock Music Festival. Return performances included appearances with Opera Boston, New Haven Symphony, Providence Singers, Boston Cecilia, San Francisco Bach Choir, American Bach Soloists and Firebird Ensemble. He can be heard on the recent releases of Conrad Susa’s Carols and Lullabies and Daniel Pinkham’s Cask of Amantillado and Garden Party on Arsis Records, Music of Pavel Haas with the Terezin Chamber Music Foundation and on Lukas Foss’ Griffelkin with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project on the Chandos label.

Mr. Engebreth has served on the music faculty of Brown University and at Tufts University, where he was a two-timerecipient of a faculty development grant to study vocal music of the French Baroque in Paris. He currentlyserves on the voice faculty at the Boston Conservatory. He lives with his wife, Katherine and daughter Daphne, in Portland, Maine.