Stephen Salters
Baritone
Stephen Salters’ passionate and impeccably articulated performances of a wide range of repertoire have won him acclaim throughout Europe, the UK, Asia and the United States . He works regularly with leading conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, James Conlon, Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, Nicholas McGegan, Keith Lockhart, Ivor Bolton, Will Crutchfield, Leonard Slatkin, Hugh Wolff, Bobby McFerrin, Jane Glover, Jeff Tyzik, and Martin Haselboeck.
On the opera stage with over 30 roles, he excels equally in contemporary works and standard repertory. He received superlative praise in the role of the Minotaurin in the world premiere of Philippe Fenelon’s Les Rois for Opera National in Bordeaux. When he created the title role in Elena Ruehr’s Toussaint Beforethe Spirits for Opera Boston, The Boston Globe called his performance “Astounding...Salters is a fearless and exhaustingly honest performer and a thrilling singer.” He has most recently been acclaimed in roles by Mozart (DonGiovanni, Count Almaviva/ Le nozze di Figaro and Guglielmo/ Cosi fan tutte); Donizetti (Malatesta/ Don Pasquale) (Belcore/ L’Elisir d’Amore; Gluck (HighPriest and Hercules/ Alceste); Handel (Melisso/ Alcina and Achilla/ Guilio Cesare);Leoncavallo (Silvio/ I Pagliacci); and as Captain Balstrode in Britten’s Peter Grimes at Tanglewood on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the piece’s American premiere. He just appeared in the 2006-07 season in the critically acclaimed Opera Boston production as Bill in Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.
Some of the season’s greatest highlights included Mr. Salters singing the lead role of Kovalyov in rare performances of Shostakovich’s opera The Nose and sold-out standing ovation concerts in France with Orchestre de la Loire and in Africa and a recital and week-long masterclass in Hawaii. This summer, he will be singing the fantastic role of Paulus in Montreal as well as a new opera called Invisible Cities at Yale University. Next season, he will be singing in Chicago in conjunction with the Ravinia Festival and the dance company Luna Negra, Don Pasquale in Spain, recitals at the Kennedy Center and other locations in the US and Europe including Spain, France and Belgium as well as several world premieres including a world premiere of William Bolcom for Mr. Salters and The Lark String Quartet.
In the last few seasons, Mr. Salters appeared as Dandini in Rossini’s beloved La Cenerentola, with the Joffrey Ballet in Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, at the Kennedy Center for an important event for Veteran’s Day with Tom Brokaw hosting for distinguished government officials and dignitaries singing Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and Hadyn’s Mass in a Time of War and opera aria concerts in the US, Belgium, and other projects in France and Spain including a new program entitled The Black Russian.
Mr. Salters has demonstrated his versatility on the concert stage in such diverse works as Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. In the past couple of seasons alone, he was seen in performances of Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, Copland’s Old American Songs, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Vaughan-Williams’ Sea Symphony, Britten’s War Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, a concert performance of Der Freischutz, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, Zemlinsky’s Symphonic Songs, and the Brahms Requiem as well as Handel’s Messiah. He has appeared with symphonies in Baltimore, Cleveland , Detroit , Houston, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco and with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra , Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the Tokyo Philharmonic. A versatile stylist, he also appears in Pops programs, including with the Boston Pops on their national holiday tour and twice at Bravo! Vail with the Rochester Philharmonic.
A celebrated recitalist, Mr. Salters has thrilled and moved audiences all over the world and is a much sought-after interpreter and advocate of ‘New Music’. His most recent collaborations include a dance/recital program under the combined auspices of Ravinia and the Luna Negra Dance Theatre, featuring the world premiere of a song cycle by Ana Lara; the commission of a cycle by William Bolcom; and another by French composer Pierre Ruscher. He conducts masterclasses and has a residency called "Until Now" for young singers as well. His recordings include a recital CD of French mélodies, German lieder and spirituals with pianist Sheila Kibbe for Cypres, Telarc’s award-winning recording of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride and the dance opera entitled ToussaintBefore the Spirits which was just released on the Arsis label. There will soon be a DVD of Feneon’s Les Rois also available.
Stephen Salters first gained wide attention in 1996, when he took first place in Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth International Competition of Singing; first place in the International Puccini-Licia Albanese Competition; was a Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions National Finalist; and received a George London Foundation Award in memory of Bruce Yarnell. Shortly thereafter, he won the prestigious Walter N. Naumburg Prize and was well on his way to becoming one of the most sought-after singers of his generation.
