Peter Tantsits
Peter Tantsits (La Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper, Berliner Philharmoniker, Theater Basel, Baden Baden, Wiener Festwochen, LA Phil, LSO, NY Phil)
Tenor PETER TANTSITS began his training as a violinist and holds degrees from Yale University and the Oberlin Conservatory. A leading vocalist in the international contemporary opera and concert scene, he has recently received high acclaim in Europe, particularly as Michael in Stockhausen’s monumental Donnerstag aus Licht for Theater Basel (awarded the 2016 Opernaufführung des Jahres), the virtuosic title role in Dusapin’s Perelà for Staatstheater Mainz, Andres in Wozzeck for the NTR ZaterdagMatinee at the Concertgebouw, and the award-winning production of Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten at the Bayerische Staatsoper. In addition to modern works he also specializes in the high-tenor repertoire of Rameau, Britten, Stravinsky, Ravel, Janáček, Berg, and Strauss.
Recent engagements include debuts at the Teatro alla Scala, the Bayerische Staatsoper, Theater Basel, Vienna Festwochen, the International Händel-Festspiele, and also with the Mostly Mozart, Glyndebourne, Aldeburgh, Holland, and Beijing international music festivals. He has concertized at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Leipzig Gewandhaus, both the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, Munich Gasteig, Kölner Philharmonie, Kennedy Center, London Barbican, and Vienna Konzerthaus, and with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, the National Symphony, American Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic (notably in the New York premiere of Ligeti’s Le grand macabre), with conductors that include Sir Simon Rattle, Thomas Adès, Kirill Petrenko, Emmanuelle Haïm, Alan Gilbert, Lorin Maazel, Pierre-André Valade, Leonard Slatkin, Kristjan Järvi, Markus Stenz, and Titus Engel. He has worked with many of the leading contemporary music ensembles in the United States and Europe, principally the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), of which he is a founding member. His most recent recordings include David T. Little’s highly acclaimed Dog Days for VIA Records, Marcos Balter’s Æsopica for the Tundra label, and John Worthing in Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest with Thomas Adès and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group for NMC Recordings, which received 2016 Grammy and BBC Music Magazine award nominations.
Season 2016/17 will see his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and a return to the London Symphony Orchestra in a new Peter Sellars staging of Ligeti’s Le grand macabre under Sir Simon Rattle. He also joins Thomas Adès and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the world premiere of Gerald Barry’s newest opera Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, which will then be presented by the Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican in London. He gives the U.S. premieres of both Barry’s Jabberwocky and Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) and the world premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdóttir’s For it will never return for the Mostly Mozart and Resonant Bodies Festivals in New York. Additional engagements this season include his debut at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in Tosca for the Osterfestspiele with Sir Simon Rattle in a new production by Philipp Himmelmann, Scriabin’s Symphony No. 1 in Zagreb with the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony HRT under Tonči Bilić, the role of XuXian in the 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning Madame White Snake in Boston under Lan Shui, Tosca in concert with Rattle at the Berlin Philharmonie, his debut at the National Concert Hall under Thomas Adès with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and additional appearances at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, Essen Philharmonie. In June he will create the role of George’s Méliès in the anticipated new opera Zum Mond und zurück by Andrew Norman also with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle, as well as appear in a new staged version of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in Paris. He will finish the season singing Danilowitch in Meyerbeer’s rarely heard L’étoile du nord for Finland’s West Coast Kokkola. Highlights of engagements for upcoming seasons feature debuts in Antwerp, Paris and Köln in Zimmermann’s Vokal Symphonie with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Nono’ s Canti di vita e d’amore with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the new production of Die Soldaten with La Fura dels Baus for Oper Köln, the US premiere of Norman’s A Trip to the Moon with the LA Philharmonic, and the title role in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s production of Satyagraha for Opera Vlaanderen.