Artistic C0-Directors Bios
American Vanguard Festival Guest Artists Bios
Paul Sperry, tenor
Paul Sperry is recognized as one of today's outstanding interpreters of American music. Although he is equally at home in a repertoire that extends from Monteverdi opera and the Bach Passions to Britten's Nocturne and hundreds of songs in more than a dozen languages, he brings to American music a conviction and an enthusiasm that has brought it to life for countless listeners.
Many of today's leading composers have written works specially for him; Sperry has world premieres of works by more than thirty Americans to his credit. He premiered Leonard Bernstein's Dybbuk Suite with the composer conducting the New York Philharmonic, Jacob Druckman's "Animus IV" for the opening of the Centre Georges Pompidou at Beaubourg in Paris in 1977, and Paul Sperry and Bernard RandsBernard Rands' Pulitzer Prize winning Canti del Sole with the New York Philharmonic in l983 under Zubin Mehta. Other composers whose works he has premiered include Robert Beaser, William Bolcom, Daniel Brewbaker, Tom Cipullo, Nathan Currier, Daron Hagen, Richard Hundley, William Kraft, Harold Meltzer, John Musto, Stephen Paulus, Russell Platt, Robert Rodriguez, Larry Alan Smith, Louise Talma, Francis Thorne, Nicholas Thorne, Dan Welcher, Richard Wilson and Charles Wuorinen.
Because he is a passionate advocate for American music, Sperry has tried to insure that many of the wonderful works he has unearthed will be easily available to others. To that end, he has compiled and edited several volumes of American songs, both anthologies and single composer collections for G. Schirmer, Peer-Southern, Boosey & Hawkes, Carl Fischer and Dover Publications. His collection American Encores was released by Oxford University Press in October, 2002. In 1989 he became the first non-composer to be elected president of the American Music Center, a national organization which provides information all over the world about American composers and their music. He held that position for three years and served as Chairman of the Board of the American Composers Orchestra, the only orchestra in the world devoted to the performance of American Music for seven years.