Biography

Nicholas Phan performs with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. Also an avid recitalist, he co-founded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC) in 2010, and regularly curates their annual Collaborative Works Festival.

This season Mr. Phan returned to the New York Philharmonic as the Evangelist in Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion and to the Dallas Symphony for Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise. He has also appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, London Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque, and Philharmonia Orchestra, among many other ensembles. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in June 2009.

A celebrated recording artist, Mr. Phan’s most recent album, Stranger: Works for Tenor by Nico Muhly, was released to critical acclaim in the summer of 2022. His album Clairières, with songs by Lili and Nadia Boulanger, was nominated for a Grammy Award, as was Gods and Monsters. Mr. Phan’s growing discography also includes Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette with Michael Tilson Thomas and the SF Symphony, a Grammy-nominated recording of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony, and Scarlatti’s La gloria di primavera and Handel’s Joseph and his Brethren with Philharmonia Baroque.

Mr. Phan’s many opera appearances include the Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Chicago Opera Theater, Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and Frankfurt Opera. His repertoire includes the title roles in Bernstein’s Candide, Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex, and Handel’s Acis and Galatea, as well as Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff, Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni.

June 2023