Christopher Herbert – lyric baritone

Christopher Herbert started the year 2010 with an acclaimed solo recital with Thomas Bagwell in Goldmark Hall at the Mannes College of Music, and in the spring he made his debut with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in the role of Henrik in Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” under the baton of Stephen Lord. Other performances this season included Monteverdi’s “Vespers” with the Saint Thomas Choir and Concert Royale in New York, Houston, Dallas and Nashville, Barber’s “Dover Beach” with the Hyperion String Quartet at the Sembrich Museum’s Concert Series, and in October he will perform Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder” with the Brooklyn Symphony in a new English translation by Glen Roven.

“Christopher Herbert, as Albert’s buddy Sid, took top marks for clarity of text. The baritone also produced a consistently warm sound, phrased colorfully and used his natural theatrical skills to great advantage.” – The Baltimore Sun. This critical praise was garnered for his performances in 2009 as Sid in Britten’s “Albert Herring”, which he performed with Opera Vivente, where he had performed the role of Pluto in Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld” the previous season. In 2009 he also sang the roles of Connie in Ricky Ian Gordon’s “The Grapes of Wrath Suite” at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, Il prigioniero in Mascagni’s “Il piccolo Marat” with Teatro Grattacielo in Avery Fisher Hall and William Williamson in Bolcom’s “A Wedding” at the Music Academy of the West. Other performances included the baritone solos in “Carmina Burana” with the Handel Society of Dartmouth College, song recitals in New York, Vienna and Paris, and a concert with the charitable organization Sing For Hope at the New York Times Center.

Previous seasons have brought Mr. Herbert to many venues throughout the United States. At the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, he performed recitals, opera scenes, and in master classes under the tutelage of such luminaries as Marilyn Horne, Warren Jones, Lotfi Mansouri and Christopher Larkin. Mr. Herbert also appeared at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he performed scenes from “Sweeney Todd” (Anthony), “Merrily We Roll Along” (Frank), and “Evening Primrose” (Charles) in “A Sondheim Celebration” with the Boston Pops conducted by Keith Lockhart at Boston’s Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood’s Koussevitsky Music Shed. Further appearances at Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall included Phoebus in Bach’s Cantata 201: “Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan” under Craig Smith, a song master class with James Levine, a fellowship recital of 20th century Finnish music, and an all-Stravinsky vocal chamber music concert. Mr. Herbert has performed Aeneas in “Dido and Aeneas” with the Mark Morris Dance Group and with the Bronx Opera, where he also sang Guglielmo in Mozart’s “Così fan tutte”. He appeared as Dandy and Barney in “The Ballad of Baby Doe”, as well as in excerpts from “The Magic Flute” (Papageno) and “The Pearlfishers” (Zurga) at Central City Opera. Other engagements have included Njegus in “Die lustige Witwe” with Mobile Opera, the role of the Pilgrim-Monk in Britten’s “Curlew River” with Opéra Rouen at the Japan Society of New York, and the Puritan Leader in Gluck’s “Alceste” (co-production between Opera Boston and Boston Baroque). His Lincoln Center debut was as the baritone soloist in “Farewell to Music” with the Christopher Caines Dance Company.

Mr. Herbert holds a B.A. in Music and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Yale University and an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University.  He won an encouragement award from the Sullivan Foundation in 2007, third prize in the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Competition 2007, was a finalist in the Liederkranz Foundation Competition 2008, and won the Special Merit Award in the Gérard Souzay Competition 2009.