Aaron Engebreth, artistic director

Acclaimed for his “exemplary diction and rich baritone voice,” Aaron Engebreth maintains an active solo career in opera, oratorio and recital, and has devoted considerable energy and time to the performance of new music, often collaborating with composers.  He has appeared as guest soloist with groups and venues such as the Tanglewood Music Festival, Ravinia Music Festival, San Diego, Charlotte and Portland Symphony Orchestras, Opera Boston, Terezin Chamber Music Foundation, Monadnock Music Festival and the Portland Chamber Music Festival.  Mr. Engebreth has received significant recognition for his interpretation of early music and is a frequent soloist with many of the country’s finest early-music organizations including the American Bach Soloists, Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Early Music Festival, Miami Bach Society, Boston Baroque, San Francisco Bach Choir, Columbus Bach Ensemble, Boston Camerata, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Musicians of the Old Post Road, Newport Baroque and Boston Cecilia. Aaron also appears regularly with Emmanuel Music, where a thirty-five year tradition of weekly performances of Bach's sacred cantatas continues under the direction of Craig Smith.  He was a national finalist and place-winner in the 2002 American Bach Society/Bethlehem Bach Competition.

This season, Aaron will performRobert Schumann's Myrthen Lieder on the Frederick Historic Piano Collection Concert Series in Massachusetts with fortepianist Gail Olszewski and  Beethoven's 9th Symphony at Boston's Symphony Hall.  In October he will perform on Emmanuel Music's Chamber Music Series in Schumann's Lieder und Gesange, Opus 27 and Liebesfruhling, Opus 37.  Other guest appearances include performances at Dickinson College of Ned Rorem's Evidence of Things Not Seen with the Florestan Recital Project, and repeat performances of Jon Deak's The Passion of Scrooge with the Firebird Ensemble, for which Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe wrote "Aaron Engebreth has turned in one of the most brilliant performances of the season." Additionally, he will debut in the role of Guglielmo in Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte at Harvard University's Sanders Theater, and will give performances in Paris and Boston in the title role of Tristan und Iseult with the Boston Camerata. In February, he will perform solo cantatas by Rameau and Campra with Musicians of the Old Post Road and Britten's Cantata Misericordium and Mozart's Requiem at Mechanics Hall with Music Worcester.  In the Spring he will sing Bach's St. John Passion with Craig Smith and the orchestra of Emmanuel Music and take part in the world premiere staging of Eric Sawyer's opera, Our American Cousin in June of 2008.

Mr. Engebreth began the 2006-07 season with Bach Cantata performances at the White Mountain Bach Festival.  Under the direction of Stephen Stubbs and Paul O'Dette, he was featured in the world-premiere recording of Lully's Thesee in Bremen, Germany.  He returned for a recital in Boston's Jordan Hall performing songs of Daniel Pinkham, and performed Schumann's Myrthen Lieder with Emmanuel Music, as well as repeating his critically acclaimed performances of Jon Deak's The Passion of Scrooge.  Other 06-07 performances included  Music of Leonard Bernstein with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Handel's Apollo and Daphne with Musicians of the Old Post Road, Lukas Foss' The Prarie with the Providence Singers, Jesus in Bach's St. John Passion with Chorus Pro Musica, guest recitals with the Florestan Recital Project at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and a return engagement with the Boston Early Music Festival in their 2007 production of Lully's Psychee.

An avid recitalist, Mr. Engebreth is a co-founder of the Florestan Recital Project, an organization devoted to the song recital.  As part of a three-day festival performing the complete songs of Francis Poulenc in June, 2006, the Boston Globe commented:"Aaron Engebreth put his sunny baritone through snappy paces in the famous Chansons Villageoise.  With Engebreth, pianist Karl Paulnack played with razor-sharp articulation and the speed and spirit of a racehorse crossing the finish line of the Kentucky Derby, first."  Aaron has also performed recitals at Les Concerts de l’hotel Cail of Paris, Harvard University's Fogg Museum, the Liederkranz Recital series of Manhattan, the Center for American Music, in Boulder, Colorado, and WCRB’s Concerts at Copley Square, with Keith Lockhart, conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, at the piano.

Increasingly sought-after as a recording artist, Mr. Engebreth completed five commercial recordings in the 2006-07 season:  two world-premiere recordings of Jean Baptiste Lully's operas Psyche and Thesee with Radio Bremen and the Boston Early Music Festival, John Deak's The Passion of Scrooge with the Firebird Chamber Ensemble, Lukas Foss' oratorio The Prarie with Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Providence Singers, and he created the role of Jack Matthews in the premiere recording of Eric Sawyer's opera Our American Cousin, again with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.  In addition, Mr. Engebreth can be heard as the Policeman in Lukas Foss' opera Griffelkin on Chandos records, and as a soloist in Conrad Susa's Carols and Lullabyes on the Arsis Label.  He will begin a multi-disc project this year recording the Complete Songs of Daniel Pinkham with the Florestan Recital Project on Florestan Records.

While on the music faculty of Tufts University, he was twice awarded faculty development grants to study music of the French baroque in Paris.  Mr. Engebreth has also served on the music faculty of the Boston Conservatory and is an artistic director of the Florestan Recital Project.  He lives with his wife, Katherine and their two daughters, in Portland, Maine, and is on the faculty of the University of Southern Maine.