Download Charles Blandy, tenor - Washington Plaza Baptist Church

Charles Blandy, tenor
Charles Blandy is a versatile lyric tenor, equally at home in Mozart and Bach as in the
most challenging contemporary music. He was praised by Opera News and the Boston
Globe for his performance as Francis Flute in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at
Tanglewood, and appeared in the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar at
Tanglewood, starring Dawn Upshaw and conducted by Robert Spano. He later reprised
the role at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. At Emmanuel Music in Boston, he
has sung Tamino in Alice Goodman’s English translation of The Magic Flute, conducted
by Craig Smith, and next year will sing the role of Lurcanio in Handel’s Ariodante.
Other opera roles include Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and
Macheath in The Beggar’s Opera. He made his company debut with Opera Boston
recently, appearing in Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne and Glück’s Alceste.
Mr. Blandy was a finalist in the 2005 Oratorio Society of New York solo competition,
singing in Weill Recital Hall in New York City. Recent concert appearances include
Handel’s Messiah with the Charlotte Symphony and Handel Choir of Baltimore. He is
often a soloist with the Cantata Singers in Boston, with whom he appeared in Bach’s
St. John Passion, under guest conductor John Harbison. With them he has also sung in
Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Other
notable performances include Britten’s St. Nicolas, conducted by Raymond Leppard,
Britten’s Cantata Misericordium, also with the Charlotte Symphony, and Handel’s
Israel in Egypt and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, with Emmanuel Music under conductor
Craig Smith.
He is adept in contemporary music: On four days notice he took over a tricky tenor
part in Berio’s Sinfonia under conductor Robert Spano at Tanglewood. His performance
of Jorge Liderman’s Song of Songs with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players
(now a Bridge Records CD) was called “sterling” by the San Francisco Chronicle. This
year he will give the US premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s song cycle for voice and
strings Die Liebenden with Chameleon Arts Ensemble. A CD of songs by American
composer Arthur Berger on the Arsis label is forthcoming.
Mr. Blandy possesses a wide repertoire in art song. He has sung works of Daniel
Pinkham, Francis Poulenc, and Arthur Honegger with the Florestan Recital Project,
and this year will perform songs of Schumann with Emmanuel Music.
He teaches in Harvard University’s Holden Voice Program and at Tufts University. In
2003 and 2004, he was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he was
awarded the Grace B. Jackson prize. He received his Master’s Degree from Indiana
University, where he studied voice with Alan Bennett and Lieder with Leonard
Hokanson, and has studied at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, England. In
Chicago he studied with Ronald Combs and Winifred Brown. He is a native of Troy, NY,
and graduated from Oberlin College with a BA in religion.