Nicholas Isherwood is a Franco-American

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

singer, who specialises in contemporary and

baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Classical music, Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance music, Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Class ...

. Notable roles include "Lucifer" in the world premieres of Stockhausen’s '' Montag'', '' Dienstag'', and '' Freitag'' from '' Licht'' at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...

and the Leipzig Opera, and in '' Donnerstag aus Licht'' at

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

Life and career

Isherwood has worked with Joel Cohen, William Christie, Peter Eötvös,

Paul McCreesh Paul McCreesh (born 24 May 1960) is an English conductor. Paul McCreesh is the founder and artistic director of the Gabrieli Consort & Players. With them he has performed in major concert halls and festivals across the world. He has been the ...

, Nicholas McGegan,

Kent Nagano Kent George Nagano (born November 22, 1951) is an American conductor and opera administrator. Since 2015, he has been ''Generalmusikdirektor'' (GMD) of the Hamburg State Opera (until 2025). Early life and education Nagano was born in Berkeley, ...

Zubin Mehta Zubin Mehta (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. He is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and conductor :wikt:emeritus, emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mehta's father ...

and

Gennady Rozhdestvensky Gennady Nikolayevich Rozhdestvensky, CBE (; 4 May 1931 – 16 June 2018) was a Soviet and Russian conductor, pianist, composer, and pedagogue. Biography Gennady Rozhdestvensky was born in Moscow. His parents were the noted conductor and pedagog ...

as well as composers Sylvano Bussotti,

Elliott Carter Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer who was one of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century. He combined elements of European modernism and American " ...

George Crumb George Henry Crumb Jr. (24 October 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an American composer of avant-garde contemporary classical music. Early in his life he rejected the widespread modernist usage of serialism, developing a highly personal musical ...

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...

, Mauricio Kagel, György Kurtág,

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...

, Giacinto Scelsi,

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

, and Iannis Xenakis in venues such as La Scala, Covent Garden, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées,

Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival () is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer, for five weeks starting in late July, in Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's operas are a focus of ...

Concertgebouw Concertgebouw may refer to one of the following concert halls: * Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands * Concertgebouw, Bruges, Belgium * Concertgebouw de Vereeniging, Netherlands {{disambiguation Buildings and structures disambiguation pages ...

Berlin Staatsoper The Staatsoper Unter den Linden ( State Opera under the Lime Trees), also known as the Berlin State Opera (), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte (locality), historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was bui ...

, Vienna Konzerthaus, Tanglewood). Beside the Stockhausen works mentioned above, his other

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

tic roles include: "Antinoo" in Monteverdi’s '' Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria'' with Boston Baroque; "Claudio" in

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel ( ; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti. Born in Halle, Germany, H ...

’s '' Agrippina'' with Nicholas McGegan; "Satiro" in Rossi’s ''Orfeo'' and "Pan" in Marais’ '' Alcyone'' with Les Arts Florissants; "Joas" in Porpora's ''Il Gedeone'' with Martin Haselböck; "Frère Léon" in Messiaen's '' Saint François d’Assise'' in the last composer supervised production; "Der Tod" in the two productions of Viktor Ullmann’s '' Der Kaiser von Atlantis'' with the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and 2e2m, "Roméo" in Black Madea Dusapin’s ''Roméo et Juliette'' at the Avignon Festival; "Lear" in Toshio Hosokawa’s '' Vision of Lear'' for the Munich Biennale; "Il Testimone" in Sylvano Bussotti’s ''Tieste'' at the Rome Opera, and "Micromégas" in Paul Mefano's ''Micromégas''. Recent performances include the role of the doctor in Francesco Filidei's " L'Inondation" at the Opéra de Rennes and the Opéra de Nantes (fall, 2019). In addition to singing, Isherwood has had an extremely active pedagogical career. He has been engaged as professor (or assistant professor) of vocal music and/or music theater (opera) at institutions in France, Germany, and the United States, including the

IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of Avant-garde music, avant garde and Electroacoustic ...

Summer Academy, Stockhausen-Kurse (Kürten, Germany),

State University of New York The State University of New York (SUNY ) is a system of Public education, public colleges and universities in the New York (state), State of New York. It is one of the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, larges ...

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

, Ecole Normale de Musique (Paris),

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

, and the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

(2008–2011). From 2015 to 2018, he was a professor of voice at the CNSMD de Lyon, and he has been professor of voice at the Conservatoire de Montbéliard since 2019. He has presented masterclasses, workshops, and lectures at the Salzburg Mozarteum; Iannis Xenakis Summer Courses (Paris); Conservatoire de Reims; Paris Conservatoire (CNSMP),

California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degree programs, 122 m ...

;

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

;

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

;

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

;

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

;

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

;

; ARIAM (Paris); Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi (Milan); Institute of the Living Voice (Berlin); Troyes Conservatoire; Mexico City University; Normal University of Taiwan; at CCMIX (Paris); IRCAM (Paris); USC; Cal State LA; Cal State Riverside; Cal State Fullerton; Harvard University. Among his publications, ''The Techniques of Singing'' describes the techniques needed to perform contemporary vocal music.Isherwood, Nicholas (2012) ''The Techniques of Singing'', Bärenreiter

Discography

With Steve Lacy *'' Clangs'' (hat ART, 1993) * Voxnova (Valérie Chouanière, soprano; Isabelle Soccoja, mezzo-soprano; Thierry Fouré, tenor; Nicholas Isherwood, bass-baritone). ''In the Sky I Am Walking: Songs of the Native Americans''. CD sound disc. Mode 68. New York: Mode Records, 1998. Nine pieces of Native-American music, plus

's '' Indianerlieder'', and Pascal Dusapin's ''Red Rock'' and "Après" from the opera ''Roméo et Juliette''. * Karlheinz Stockhausen: ''Capricorn'', for bass voice and electronic music. Nicholas Isherwood, bass. Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 59 (with ''Rechter Augenbrauentanz'' for clarinets, bass clarinets, percussionist, synthesizer player). * Karlheinz Stockhausen: '' Havona, für Bass und elektronische Musik: 14. Stunde aus Klang'' (and electronic music alone, for rehearsals). Nicholas Isherwood, bass. Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 92. Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag, 2009.

References

External links

Nicholas Isherwood's homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Isherwood, Nicholas American operatic basses Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American male opera singers 21st-century American male opera singers American performers of early music