Artist Interview: Nicholas Phan, tenor

Nicholas Phan

Nicholas Phan:  I've been exploring Britten's music extensively over the past few years in recital programs, concerts with various orchestras, and my summers at the Marlboro Music Festival,  so when it came to putting this program together, both Myra and I naturally drifted to Britten at first. Winter Words has become a favorite cycle of ours to program on recitals over the past few years, and that eventually led to us programming an entire recital of his music. I was primarily interested in his relationship with Peter Pears and how that manifested itself in their performances — the Michelangelo Sonnets is the first song cycle Britten wrote for Pears, written very early on in their relationship. Winter Words represents a period in their relationship in which they were both somewhat in their artistic prime. The influence of Purcell on Britten's music is quite evident in the Winter Words, so that led us to include the extensive Purcell set at the beginning of the program. Britten wrote many realizations of Purcell songs, and often arranged them into Suites of Songs, much like we have done at the opening of this program.

NP:  I would have to say that my summers at Marlboro are a large part of why I am still a musician. I started going up there after I had finished a few operatic young artist programs and had been out working as a freelance singer for a couple of years. In those first few years of trying to establish myself, running from gig to gig, I lost touch with why it is that I wanted to be a musician in the first place. As much as I love singing opera, I fell in love with singing first and foremost through the song and orchestral vocal repertoire. On top of simply reconnecting me with music for music's sake, my summers at Marlboro really got me back in touch with that part of the repertoire again, and I felt like I rediscovered my artistic soul during my first summer there. Since that first summer, I've been strongly recommitted to doing recitals and maintaining orchestral concert work as a large part of each season. I know many people say this about Marlboro, but I truly feel like I found myself during my time at the Festival.