Stanford Olsen, tenor
Since winning the 1989 Walter W. Naumburg Award, Stanford Olsen has established himself as one of today’s leading tenors. His busy 2004-2005 season takes him from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to Berlin and Paris, and from Handel’s Messiah to Bernstein’s Candide. A frequent performer at The Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Olsen’s first Met performance came on one hour’s notice as Arturo in I Puritani opposite Dame Joan Sutherland.

Mr. Olsen has performed in many of the the world’s major opera houses including La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg Opera and La Monnaie. In the U.S. he has appeared with San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Opera Company of Philadelphia, among others. His concert repertoire with leading orchestras both here and abroad comprises many works by Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Rossini, Stravinsky and others. In recent seasons he performed and recorded a Grammy-nominated Carmina Burana with Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for Telarc; sang Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra; and the Berlioz Requiem with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Olsen has performed the role of Pirelli in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd in concert with the New York Philharmonic (recorded commercially and telecast live) and the San Francisco Symphony. He performed as Idreno in Rossini’s Semiramide with The Metropolitan Opera under James Conlon, which was telecast and released on home video. Mr. Olsen’s discography includes Carmina Burana with the Montreal Symphony and Charles Dutoit (London/Decca) and Dvorák’s Stabat Mater with Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Telarc).