Dr. Steven Rickards, countertenor
Steven Rickards has received international acclaim as one of
America's finest countertenors. His appearances for the 1998-99
season include performances throughout the USA and Spain with Paul
Hillier and the Theatre of Voices; Handel's Messiah with
the Portland Baroque Orchestra and the Indianapolis Chamber
Orchestra; Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Miami Bach
Society; Bach's Mass in B Minor with the Barum Bach Choir in Oslo,
Norway; J.S. Bach's Cantatas 102 and 104 with the Dayton Bach
Society, and the American premiere performance of Michael Nyman's
Self-Laudatory Hymn of Inanna and Her Omnipotence with the
Netherlands Wind Ensemble in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.
Dr. Rickards has become well known for his interpretations of
the music of J.S. Bach. His frequent appearances with Joshua Rifkin
and the Bach Ensemble include performances of the Magnificat at
Grant Park in Chicago and numerous performances of Bach's Mass in B
Minor including those in Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival,
the Festival of Perth in Australia, and the Tage Alter Musik in
Regensburg, Germany. He also performed Bach's St. Matthew Passion
with Mr. Rifkin at the Royal Albert Hall in London, a Promenade
concert recorded by the BBC. Other performances of Bach's works
include the Mass in A with Vocalisten Frankfurt in Germany and
performances of the Christmas Oratorio with the Winchester
Cathedral Choir in Brazil, a live broadcast of the work for
National Public Radio with the Smithsonian Chamber Players. In 1997
he performed the St. John Passion with the Regensburger Domspatzen
in Berlin and Munich, Germany.
Dr. Rickards is also is frequently heard singing the works of
G.F. Handel. He appeared in the Boston Early Music Festival's
production of Teseo in 1985. He also participated in several
Handelian productions with Concert Royal including
Alessandro at Alice Tully Hall and Terpsichore in
the role of Apollo with performances in New York, Dallas and Puerto
Rico. He performed Balshazzar with Cleveland's Apollo's Fire,
Samson with the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and Solomon with the Miami
Bach Society. He also sang in productions of Partenope
with Opera Omaha and Siroe at Merkin Hall in New York.
Rickards has become well known for his creative interpretation of
Handel's Messiah which he has performed with leading
baroque orchestras including Toronto's Tafelmusik, Boston's Handel
and Haydn Society, Cleveland's Apollo's Fire, and the Portland
Baroque Orchestra. Other performances of the oratorio include
performances with modern orchestras in many major American cities
as well a performance at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London.
Highlights of the past few seasons include several
twentieth-century premiere performances of baroque works, including
Matthew Locke's Psyche in London with the English Opera
Society, conducted by Philip Pickett; J.A. Hasse's L'Olimpiade
in Dresden with the Stuttgart Kammerchor; and the American
premiere of Mondonville's De Profundis at Harvard
University. He celebrated his Australian debut in the Brisbane
Biennial Festival with New York's Ensemble for Early Music,
performing the medieval Daniel and the Lions to sell-out
crowds and rave reviews. He has also appeared with the Seattle
Baroque Orchestra, Chicago's Music of the Baroque, Basically Bach
and His Majesty's Clerkes, the Waverly Consort, Chanticleer,
Capriole, the American Bach Soloists, The Gabrieli Consort, the New
London Consort, The King's Noyse, Ensemble Ouabache, the Opera
Company of Philadelphia, and the symphony orchestras of St. Louis,
Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh. He has sung at Carnegie Hall with the
Oratorio Society of New York and in France as a soloist with The
Festival Singers under the direction of Robert Shaw.
Dr. Rickards's interest in contemporary music has inspired
composers to write works for him. He created the role of Trinculo
in the premiere of John Eaton's opera The Tempest at the
Santa Fe Opera in 1985. Since then he has premiered works by Alan
Ridout and Allyson Applebaum. In October 1993 Dr. Rickards
performed the world premiere of Ladislav Kubik's Der Weg,
an homage to Franz Kafka, at the Academy of Music in Prague.
With lutenist Dorothy Linell, Dr. Rickards has toured
extensively throughout the United States and Central America giving
concerts and master classes on Elizabethan song. They have been
artists in residence at the University of California Santa Barbara
and the University of Costa Rica. In the summer of 1989 they
performed at the National Association of Teachers of Singing's
national convention in Los Angeles. In September 1991 they made
their debut in the Wratislawia Cantans Festival in Wroclaw, Poland,
and have also performed in festivals in Denmark and England. Their
second solo album, Songs of Thomas Campian, is soon to be
released on the Naxos label.
Dr. Rickards has now completed several recordings: Bach's
Cantatas 106 and 131 with Joshua Rifkin for Decca Records, Bach's
St. John Passion for the Smithsonian Institution, Handel's
opera Siroe for Newport Classic, Handel's Messiah
with Apollo's Fire for Onda, Bach's Cantatas 8 and 156 and the Mass
in B Minor with the American Bach Soloists for Koch, the Buxtehude
Project Vol. 1 Sacred Cantatas for PGM, a recording of music by
Henry Purcell and Benjamin Britten with the Indianapolis Children's
Choir for VAI, the Berlin Mass of Arvo Pärt with the
Theatre of Voices directed by Paul Hillier for Harmonia Mundi, and
an album of John Dowland songs entitled Flow My Tears and Other
Lute Songs for Naxos.
Dr. Rickards is the first countertenor to receive a master of
music degree in vocal performance from Indiana University; he also
received the performer's certificate in 1979. In 1981 Rickards
received a Fulbright-Hayes Scholarship and a Rotary International
Grant for continued studies at the Guildhall School of Music and
Drama in London. He also studied in Aldeburgh with Sir Peter Pears
and Robert Spencer. He completed his doctorate at Florida State
University. Dr. Rickards also teaches at the University of
Indianapolis, where he is the director of the Vocal Arts Institute.
As a member of the faculty of Butler University he teaches singing
and serves as the vocal consultant to the Indianapolis Children's
Choir. This summer he will serve on the faculty of the Summer Music
International Summer School at Ardingly College in England.
(317) 940-6048
srickard@butler.edu