Artists

Biography:

Baritone Stephen Salters, a newly-minted tenure-track Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Tennessee, has performed extensively throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, the UK and the USA. He created the title role in Elena Ruehr’s tour de force dance opera Toussaint Before the Spirits for Opera Boston and premiered Ruehr’s Crafting the Bonds about American writer and former slave Hannah Bond. Recent appearances include Wagner’s Rienzi and Walton’s The Bear at Boston’s Odyssey Opera, Philip Glass’s Symphony No.5 at the Kennedy Center and at New York City’s Trinity Church, a historic sesquicentennial vocal recital honoring Harry T. Burleigh at Skidmore College, and Mr. Salter’s debut with the New York Philharmonic, singing in Central Park for over 100,000 spectators.

Other highlights include concerts with the orchestras and symphonies of Baltimore, Belgium, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Frankfurt, Houston, Minnesota, Monte Carlo, Paris, Pittsburgh, Rochester, San Francisco, Tokyo and St. Luke’s and appearances at Tanglewood, Ravinia, Pietrasanta, Vail and other American and European festivals; world premieres of Ysaye Barnwell’s Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem, Daniel Sonenberg’s The Summer King, Philippe Fénelon’s Les Rois; Monteverdi’s Orfeo in Orvieto, Italy; Shostakovich’s The Nose; Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny; Gluck’s Alceste; Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte; Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and L’elisir d’amore; Handel’s Alcina and Giulio Cesare; Rossini’s La Cenerentola; Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci; and Britten’s Peter Grimes at Tanglewood on the 50th anniversary of that work’s US premiere.

Mr. Salters has demonstrated his versatility on the concert stage, from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion through all styles and periods of the traditional repertoire until Mahler’s Symphony No.8 and beyond. A versatile stylist, he has also appeared in pops programs, including with the Boston Pops on their national holiday tour. A celebrated recitalist, Mr. Salters has thrilled and moved audiences all over the world and is a much sought-after interpreter and advocate of new music. He conducts masterclasses and has a residency called Until Now: Discovering Your Life-Force.

Stephen Salters has worked with leading conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, Bobby McFerrin, Nicholas McGegan, Keith Lockhart, Leonard Slatkin, Hugh Wolff, Jane Glover and Julian Wachner. His most recent recordings include Spirit: Are You There? You Are There and several world-premiere performances and recordings including William Bolcom’s Billy in the Darbies (written for Mr. Salters and the Lark String Quartet) and Elena Ruehr’s Toussaint Before the Spirits, Averno and Gospel Cha-Cha.