Peter Tantsits, vocalist
Praised for his “nimble assurance,” tenor Peter Tantsits has given solo recitals in England, France, Russia and the United States in such venues as the Snape Maltings in Suffolk and the Rachmaninoff Hall in Moscow and recently made his European operatic debut in Charpentier’s Actéon in the 2003 Aldeburgh Festival under Emmanuelle Haïm. Among his diverse operatic credits are included Don Ramiro (Rossini’s La Cenerentola), Kudrjàš (Janá?ek’s Kàt’a Kabanovà), Riccardo (Scarlatti’s Il Trionfo dell’Onore), Ferrando (Mozart’s Così), Gonzalve (Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole), Dr. S (Nyman’s The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat), Martin (Copland’s Tender Land), Tacmas (Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes) and the title role in Mollicone’s Coyote Tales and Rameau’s Platée among others. He also sang the role of Léandre in the premiere of Gounod's Le Médecin Malgré Lui, heard for the first time with recitatives by Satie.
An avid proponent of contemporary music, he has worked with ICE on the premieres of works by composers such as Mikael Karlsson (Supplica à mia madre), Erik Spangler (Fire Lyrics), Paul Schoenfield (Klezmer Rondos, chamber version), and Du Yun (her epic mini-opera Zollé). He frequently performs Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs for a Mad King with ICE, a production that will be featured internationally for the first time in Morelia, Mexico this summer. His additional chamber repertoire includes works by Sofia Gubaidalina, Mauricio Kagel, Wolfgang Rihm, among others. Additionally, he has studied a nd performed all of the major song and chamber repertoire of Benjamin Britten through a joint performance grant from the Theodore Presser Foundation, the Britten-Pears Library, and the Gustav Holst Foundation.
He has been heard this season in a number of oratorios by Bach, Haydn, and Handel. In addition to his appearance on CUNY's Great Music for a Great City series, this past season he appeared at the Tilles Center in the Music at Hillwood series singing works of Beethoven with the Shanghai String Quartet and pianist Caroline Stoessinger. His additional concert repertoire includes such works as Bach Cantatas 55, 80, 182, 189 and Johannes-Passion, Charpentier Magnificat, Nunes-Garcia Requiem and the baroque cantatas of Manuel de Sumaya as well as works by Biber, Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven.
He received his B.M. from the Oberlin Conservatory and completed his M.M. at Yale University last spring.