THE NEW YORK TIMES

“…This ‘Messiah’ offered as rewarding a quartet of soloists as you are likely to hear this holiday season. The appealing tenor Nicholas Phan set the mood for the evening in the recitative ‘Comfort ye, my people,’ performed with melting sound and beguiling sincerity, and the rousing aria ‘Ev’ry valley shall be exalted.’..”

San Francisco Performances has just announced their 2022 Salon Series, which will take place in early 2022. Nick curates and performs in this season's set of salon recitals, which take place over the course of four Thursday evenings in the Education Studio at the War Memorial Veterans Building…

“…Phan proved an ideal advocate for this piece. Of course, he was aided by Wainwright’s utterly natural text settings. But the singer’s ability to evince the bittersweet essence of each song was remarkable, as was his effortless projection in the exposed, upper register moments…”.

– Boston Classical Review

“Following a return to live, in-person performances this past summer, celebrated tenor Nicholas Phan begins the 2021-22 season with both live and virtual chamber performances focusing on themes of immigration and migration. Highlighting his exploration of these themes is a tour of the United States with the string quartet Brooklyn Rider for performances of Nico Muhly’s new song cycle, Stranger, and the tenth Collaborative Works Festival of the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC)…”

“…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…”

Despite her tragically early death at the age of 25, Vítezsláva Kaprálová left a portfolio of more than 50 works of the highest craftsmanship and inspiration. Nick appears on a new recording of her orchestral music, which was recorded at the Kaprálová Festival at the University of Michigan back in 2015.

Nick was the inaugural guest on Asian Musical Voices of America’s new online discussion series, SPEAKEASY, where he chatted with AMVA founders Hyeyung Sol Yoon and April Sun about his experiences as a bi-racial, LGBT opera singer of Asian descent.

Click to see the interview!

Watch Nick’s 2019 performance in the title role of Handel’s ‘Jephtha’ with Boston Baroque!

“In this production he sang with great beauty and tenderness; his Jephtha starts off as a noble commander and morphed into a memorable portrait of spiritual disintegration — his fatal vow and bravado end up destroying his world.”

– The Arts Fuse

This week's episode of WQXR’s Carnegie Hall Live features a 2012 recording of Bach’s St John Passion performed by the the choir La Chapelle de Quebec with Canadian ensemble Les Violons du Roy, conducted by founder Bernard Labadie.

Nick appeared on WFMT’s Listening to Singers with OIiver Camacho for an interview and a survey of some of his recordings as part of the show’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month programming:

Of Greek and Chinese heritage, Nicholas Phan is one of the few male Asian singers to have broken through the world of classical music as a performer and recording artist. The Grammy-nominated tenor joins Oliver to talk about identity, championing art song, and to remember countertenor Brian Asawa.

“As the year draws to a close, tenor Nicholas Phan continues to win accolades for his most recent recording, Clairières, an homage to composers Lili and Nadia Boulanger. As well as being featured on the New York Times’ list of Best Classical Music Tracks of 2020, the album has been nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award in the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album category, for which the final round of voting ends on January 4. This marks the second Grammy nomination for Phan and his regular collaborator, pianist Myra Huang, who were previously nominated in 2017 for their Romantic collection Gods & Monsters. The tenor remains the first and only Asian singer to be nominated in the history of the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album category, which has been awarded since 1959.”

On December 6, 2020 at 8pm Central, WFMT will re-broadcast Nick’s 2018 performance of G.F. Handel’s Messiah with the Chicago Symphony, conducted by Matthew Halls.

CLAIRIÈRES NOMINATED FOR GRAMMY AWARD FOR BEST CLASSICAL VOCAL SOLO ALBUM

Nicholas Phan has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album category for his recording Clairières: Songs by Lili & Nadia Boulanger.

This is the second Grammy nomination for Nicholas Phan and his regular collaborator, pianist Myra Huang. The duo were nominated in 2017 for Gods & Monsters, an exploration of great Austrian and German Romantic composers’ meditations on deities and other fantastical creatures. Phan was also previously nominated for his participation in the 2010 recording of Igor Stravinsky's Pulcinella with conductor Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

“…there was something ineffably satisfying in hearing Phan return to an earlier repertory. Phan’s intrinsically plangent timbre was beautifully showcased in this music, as was his singular gift in straightforward expressivity…Those who doubt the power of music as a panacea in challenging times would have been convinced here; Women of the Baroque easily demonstrated why CAIC has emerged as one of the classiest vocal performance options in the city.”

- Opera News

During his appointment at Pacific will speak about his own experiences as an Asian American singer managing the biases of the classical and operatic worlds. He will also coach Pacific’s student singers in virtual masterclasses and lessons, and speak about the ways in which his own commitment to artistic citizenship informs his career.

Boulanger has a distinctive style – she always does something you’re not quite expecting…Phan has an absolutely gorgeous floating sound…Huang is so responsive to Boulanger’s harmonic twists and turns…Very well programmed – an enjoyable listen all the way through…Rewarding and rich recital”. - BBC Radio 3 Record Review

Nicholas Phan joins pianist-composer Jake Heggie for 'Time - Meditation for the Moment,' a themed recital spanning four and half centuries of music, with songs by Bernstein, Lili and Nadia Boulanger, Britten, Chausson, Dowland, Fauré, Finzi, Ives, Ned Rorem, Howard Swanson, Vaughan Williams and Heggie himself.

PBS ‘Articulate’ profiles Nick and his collaboration with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society for the Emerging Voices Project

“Tenor Nicholas Phan was unquestionably the afternoon’s star. From the moment he took the New World Center’s stage, Phan exhibited authoritative command of diverse vocal offerings, an engaging personality and a voice that seemed born to sing French opera and song.” - South Florida Classical Review

“Phan’s wonderfully poised and precise singing matches it perfectly...It’s hard to imagine these Boulanger songs could have more convincing advocacy.“ - The Guardian