“…Phan was the program’s anchor, shining each time he took the stage. Even some of the greatest opera singers have had limited success in the art-song repertoire…To be successful, a singer does not so much perform art songs as enter into and inhabit these miniature worlds, serving more as a musical storyteller than an actor. Phan is the epitome of such an interpreter…”

Over the coming season, Grammy-nominated tenor Nicholas Phan – “one of the world’s most remarkable singers” (Boston Globe) – balances opera, concert and recital performances with curatorial and educational activities. On the curatorial front, he launches his season…

“‘The Song of Chicago’ proved, once again, that CAIC is no pedestrian programmer. As tenor and Artistic Director Nicholas Phan made clear during his interstitial comments, this ‘Song of Chicago’ had not just a chorus but a well-researched thesis, arguing that Chicago was uniquely nurturing to composers in the 20th century. Its conservatories educated, if not always warmly welcomed, more Black musicians than peer institutions, and during the same period, the city’s pro-labor leftist movements gave refuge to artists who might have been forced to the fringes elsewhere — like Sandburg and his alliances with composers Ruth Crawford Seeger and Ernst Bacon.”

“Two-time Grammy nominated tenor Nicholas Phan is “one of the world’s most remarkable singers” (Boston Globe), and the coming season showcases his artistry in music ranging from masterworks of the Classical and Baroque to new song cycles composed expressly for his voice. He returns to the New York Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden for Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (March 23–25); joins Boston Baroque..”

“…The Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC) — the city’s prized art-song outfit — is back with an in-person festival, and it’s managed to outdo itself yet again on the programming front…”