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Peter Tantsits

Georges Méliès

About this Artist

Tenor PETER TANTSITS began his training as a violinist and holds degrees from Yale University and the Oberlin Conservatory. A leading vocalist in the international contemporary opera and concert scene, he has recently received high acclaim in Europe, particularly as Michael in Stockhausen’s monumental Donnerstag aus Licht for Theater Basel (awarded the 2016 Opernaufführung des Jahres), the virtuosic title role in Dusapin’s Perelà for Staatstheater Mainz, Andres in Wozzeck for the NTR ZaterdagMatinee at the Concertgebouw, and the award-winning production of Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten at the Bayerische Staatsoper. In addition to modern works he also specializes in the high-tenor repertoire of Rameau, Britten, Stravinsky, Ravel, Janáček, Berg, and Strauss.

Recent engagements include debuts at the Teatro alla Scala, the Bayerische Staatsoper, Vienna Festwochen, and International Händel-Festspiele, and also with the Glyndebourne, Aldeburgh, Holland, and Beijing international music festivals. He has concertized at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Leipzig Gewandhaus, both the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, Munich Gasteig, Kölner Philharmonie, Kennedy Center, London Barbican, and Vienna Konzerthaus, and with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, the National Symphony, American Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic (notably in the New York premiere of Ligeti’s Le grand macabre), with conductors that include Thomas Adès, Kirill Petrenko, Emmanuelle Haïm, Alan Gilbert, Lorin Maazel, Pierre-André Valade, Leonard Slatkin, Kristjan Järvi, Markus Stenz, and Titus Engel. He has worked with many of the leading contemporary music ensembles in the United States and Europe, principally the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), of which he is a founding member. His most recent recordings include David T. Little’s highly acclaimed Dog Days for VIA Records, Marcos Balter’s Æsopica for the Tundra label, and John Worthing in Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest with Thomas Adès and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group for NMC Recordings, which received 2016 Grammy and BBC Music Magazine award nominations.

Season 2016/17 will see his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and a return to the London Symphony Orchestra in a new Peter Sellars staging of Ligeti’s Le grand macabre under Sir Simon Rattle. He also joins Thomas Adès and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the world premiere of Gerald Barry’s newest opera Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, which will then be presented by the Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican in London. He gives the U.S. premieres of both Barry’s Jabberwocky and Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) and the world premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdóttir’s For it will never return for the Mostly Mozart and Resonant Bodies Festivals in New York. Additional engagements this season include his debut at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in Tosca for the Osterfestspiele with Sir Simon Rattle in a new production by Bartlett Scher, Scriabin’s Symphony No. 1 in Zagreb with the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony HRT under Tonči Bilić, the role of XuXian in the 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning Madame White Snake in Boston under Lan Shui, Tosca in concert with Rattle at the Berlin Philharmonie, and additional appearances at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, Essen Philharmonie, and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. He will finish the season singing Danilowitch in Meyerbeer’s rarely heard L’étoile du nord for Finland’s West Coast Kokkola Opera in Maria Sid’s production under Sakari Oramo, also presented at the Helsinki Music Centre.