his groupies meet in
cyber chatrooms where they rave about the chiseled good looks, the remarkable
artistry, the commanding stage presence, and the baritone charisma of
their
Indeed, Nathan Gunn is today recognized as one of America’s most
exciting young baritones.
Mr. Gunn has been seen in the title role of Thomas’ Hamlet
at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and as Marcello in a concert version
of La Bohème at the Hollywood Bowl. During the 2002-2003
season Mr. Gunn makes his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
as Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos. He also returns to Lyric
Opera of Chicago as Anthony in Sweeney Todd, and to the Opera
Company of Philadelphia as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte.
Next summer he returns to the Glyndebourne Festival.
Last season, Mr. Gunn made his debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago in
the title role of David McVicar’s critically acclaimed new production
of Billy Budd. He also returned to the Théâtre
de la Monnaie as Ramiro in L’heure espagnole, and the
Metropolitan Opera as Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Mr. Gunn’s appearance with the Metropolitan Opera last season
is just one in his continually growing relationship with the Company.
An alumnus of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, he has
sung Guglielmo in the House’s international radio broadcast of
Così fan tutte, Moralès in Carmen, Paris
in Roméo et Juliette, the Novice's Friend in Billy
Budd, Schaunard in La Bohème and Harlekin.
Other recent operatic engagements have included his debuts at La Monnaie
as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, the Houston Grand
Opera as Guglielmo, the Opéra National de Paris as Prince Andrei
in Francesca Zambello’s acclaimed production of Prokofiev’s
War and Peace (which was televised and will be released on
VHS/DVD), and the Seattle Opera as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte.
He has also appeared as Claudio in Béatrice et Bénédict
and Harlekin with the Santa Fe Opera; Guglielmo with the Opera
Company of Philadelphia; Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride
and Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia with the Glimmerglass
Opera; and Guglielmo at the Glyndebourne Festival.
Equally at home on the concert platform, Mr. Gunn will perform Mahler’s
Kindertotenlieder with the Oregon Symphony this season. He
recently sang the same work with the Minnesota Orchestra. He also was
heard in Britten’s War Requiem with Donald Runnicles
and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Mahler’s Das klagende
Lied with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Past
concert engagements have included Handel’s Messiah with
the Minnesota Orchestra, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem
with the Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras, the world premiere
of David del Tredici’s The Spider and the Fly with Kurt
Masur and the New York Philharmonic, the Bach B Minor Mass
with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra and at the Hollywood
Bowl; as well as excerpts from Bernard Hermann’s opera Wuthering
Heights with the Eos Orchestra.
Mr. Gunn forged a strong relationship with the late Robert Shaw. He
twice appeared with him at Carnegie Hall - in his debut there as a soloist
in Brahms’ A German Requiem and in Haydn’s The
Creation. He also joined Maestro Shaw with the Minnesota and Cincinnati
Symphony Orchestras for A German Requiem, and was again chosen
by Maestro Shaw to sing the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah
with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, which served as the
baritone’s European debut. Mr. Gunn’s recordings with Maestro
Shaw include Bartok’s Cantata Profana and the Vaughan
Williams Dona nobis pacem on the Telarc label, which won three
Grammys in 1999 for Best Classical Album, Best Choral Performance and
Best Engineered Classical Recording. Mr. Gunn recently recorded Brahms’
A German Requiem with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the Robert
Shaw English translation for the Telarc label.
Mr. Gunn’s first recital disc, American Anthem, was released
on EMI and includes the works of exciting young American songwriters,
as well as traditional American folk songs. A frequent recitalist, Mr.
Gunn was featured in John Wustman's seven-year series, The Songs of
Franz Schubert, which concluded in 1997 on the 200th anniversary of
the composer’s birth and included performances of Die schöne
Müllerin and Die Winterreise. He has also been presented
in recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Wigmore Hall
in London, Brussels’ Théâtre de la Monnaie, the 92nd
Street Y in New York, Cal Performances at Berkeley, the Philadelphia
Chamber Music Society, and Vanderbilt University. This season he plans
a series of recitals throughout the U.S.
Mr. Gunn received his Bachelor's Degree in Music from the University
of Illinois, where he studied with William Miller and John Wustman.
The winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition in
1994, a 1997 Tucker Foundation Career Grant, the 1996 Marian Anderson
Award, the Pope Foundation Music Award, the Kate Neil Kinley Award,
the 1993 Collegiate MacAllister Award, and the St. Louis Symphony Young
Artist Competition in 1992. He is currently a member of the Advisory
Boards of both the Lotte Lehmann Foundation and the University of Illinois.
