NICK OPENS BACH COLLEGIUM SAN DIEGO SEASON WITH BACH 52

TENOR NICHOLAS PHAN’s RAVISHING HOMAGE TO THE BAROQUE ARIA

Nicholas Phan with Bach Collegium San Diego, photo: Gary Payne

“…we encounter accomplished, versatile singers such as tenor Nicholas Phan, who gave a stunning concert of solo Baroque vocal music with the Bach Collegium San Diego (BCSD) directed by Ruben Valenzuela this past weekend in Cardiff and at All Souls’ Episcopal Church in Point Loma.

Like the BCSD, Phan’s interpretation of late Baroque music is grounded in the best contemporary understanding of Baroque performance practice.  Phan has performed as soloist with most of the major North American and European orchestras, but he also has performed roles in operas by Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, and Stravinsky with respected companies both here and abroad. In a curious way, Phan has brought the performance of Bach arias back full circle to the early days of the Bach Aria Group, but he does not perform the music of Bach and his contemporaries with the vocal style of Verdi and grand opera the turn of the 20th century.

With the BCSD on Sunday in Point Loma, I heard Phan sing a selection of J.S. Bach arias, the solo cantata Reiner Geist lass doch mein Herz by Bach contemporary Christoph Graupner, and an additional aria by Dietrich Buxtehude. Phan’s elegant phrasing, pellucid German, and resonant vocal sonority combined with the customary panache of BCSD could not have been more rewarding…”