About this Artist

Countertenor PAUL FLIGHT made his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut in John Adam's oratorio El Niño in December, and has sung the work for the Norwegian State Opera (Oslo), the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and at the Ravinia Festival (Chicago). His recent portrayal of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhnaten in the Oakland Opera production of Philip Glass' Akhnaten received glowing reviews from the San Francisco Chronicle. A strong proponent of new music, Flight has performed new works by Mexican composer Mario Lavista at the 31st Festival Internacional Cervantino and by Cuban-American composer Aurelio de la Vega at the Library of Congress. In 2002, he sang the US premiere of Stephen Hartke's Tituli with eighth blackbird in Chicago, and he gave the first performance of Ballad of the Drowned Solitude by Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov in 1989.

Flight's interpretations of 18th-century operatic and concert repertoire have also been critically acclaimed: he has sung the title role in Handel's Solomon for the Sacramento Early Music Society, the role of Montezuma in Karl Heinrich Graun's Montezuma and Dardano in Handel's Amadigi di Gaula. He recently performed the Stabat Mater of Vivaldi for the Sacramento Baroque Soloists and has been a soloist for American Bach Soloists and The San Francisco Bach Choir. Flight sings in many outstanding professional ensembles including Theatre of Voices, The New York Collegium, Aguavá New Music Studio, Piffaro, The Waverly Consort, The Folger Consort, Pomerium Musices, and The Concord Ensemble, an award-winning male sextet. Also an active conductor, he recently directed the operas Savitri by Gustav Holst and Les malheurs d'Orphée by Darius Milhaud at Mills College. Flight is in his sixth season as principal conductor for the Madison (WI) Early Music Festival and has directed the choral programs at the University of California, Berkeley and at Smith College (MA). He has recorded for the Dorian, Harmonia Mundi, and Glissando labels.