Alek Shrader
Vocalists
— Tenor
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Manager: Matthew A. Epstein
Management Territory: Worldwide
"Mr. Shrader sang a series of highly demanding bel canto arias, replete with ornate passagework, including ‘Ah! mes amis’ from La Fille du Regiment, with its nine high C’s. High C is Mr. Shrader’s money note, and the audience went wild after his full-voiced final one. Turning to show songs, Mr. Shrader sand a disarmingly sweet account of ‘Maria’ from West Side Story.” —Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times – July 15, 2009
"Alek Shrader - a natural both as a prince and a comic - reveled alike in cantabile and coloratura, crowning his performance with an authoritative 'Cessa di più resistere." —Matthew Gurewitsch, Opernwelt, June 2009
"Tenor Alek Shrader sailed through Almaviva's virtuosic material and made a jovial thing of the various disguises. In Act II, he seized the aria that is normally cut and rendered it a coloratura highlight." —Cleveland, The Plain Dealer, March 2009
About
The brilliant lyric tenor Alek Shrader made his San Francisco Opera mainstage debut this season, replacing an indisposed Ramon Vargas as Nemorino in two performances of L’Elisir d’Amore. A former Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera, he also appeared in Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt, as Arbace in Mozart’s Idomeneo, and as Nemorino in student performances of L’Elisir d’Amore. He also sang the role of Almaviva in Opera Cleveland’s production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia , and returned to Opera Theater of St. Louis for Mozart's Il Re Pastore.
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Highly acclaimed by the press for his recent San Francisco recital, as an artist who is “natural and effortless, so different from just about everybody else”, he will be featured in two ‘On Wings of Song’ recitals in the spring of the 2009/2010 season; at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and also at Santa Monica College for the Performing Arts (Broad Stage). The Marilyn Horne Foundation sponsors both recitals.
Alek Shrader made his European debut in the 2009/2010 season as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at the Grand Theatre de Bordeaux. He will also appear as Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and as Egeo in a new production of Giovanni Simon Mayr’s Medea in Corinto, both at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany. Concert appearances this season include Messiah with the Cleveland Orchestra and Mozart Requiem with the Pittsburgh Symphony and with the St. Louis Symphony.
Alek Shrader made his professional debut as Almaviva in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Opera Theater of St. Louis, where he had spent the previous two summers as a young artist. He has appeared in Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino with the Gotham Chamber Opera, in William Bolcom’s A Wedding at the Music Academy of the West, and participated in Renata Scotto's Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Opera Studio. Shrader’s roles in previous seasons have included the title role in Le Comte Ory, Fenton in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Tony in Bernstein’s West Side Story, and Ramiro in Rossini's La Cenerentola.
Shrader is the recipient of a Sarah Tucker grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation and a winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
