Steve Bryant has performed a broad range of early and modern music as a countertenor, mezzo soprano and haute contre. He has made a specialty of performing music written for castrati, having performed the title role in a concert version of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and in a solo drama Voice of an Angel: A Castrato Remembers. Mr. Bryant was featured soloist with both the Choral Arts Northwest and the Pacific Northwest Chamber Chorus in Bernstein’s Choruses from The Lark. As music director of Sweet Corn Productions, he has produced and directed numerous concerts of early music featuring original instruments, and staged the Britten Festival in San Francisco. Mr. Bryant studied with former MGM contract opera artist Maria Greco, who, with Gigli, shared the highly reputed Rosati as a teacher.

Singing sample of Steve Bryant in an excerpt from Nachtelle by Schubert: Nachtelle.wav                Nachtelle.mp3 Sound samples © 2001, Steve Bryant Please do not distribute or copy to any Web site.

Repertoire

A wide range of works composed for countertenor, male alto, haute-contre, soprano falsettist, alto castrati, and high tenor. Emphasis on appropriate performance practice, including gestural elements.

Performance Highlights

Opera and Music Drama

• Solo guest role in King Arthur, Cornish School of the Arts, Seattle.

• Voice of an Angel: A Castrato Remembers by Demian. A one-man show depicting the life of an 18th-centry castrato through dramatic scenes and arias composed for castrati. Music by Mozart, Glück and Haydn. Won Directors Festival “Best of the Week,” Seattle. March 1986

• Orféo in a concert version of Glück’s Orféo ed Euridice, Old First Concerts, San Francisco.

• Pastore in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo under Philip Brett and Nunzio in Landi’s Il Sant’Alessio under Alan Curtis at the University of California (Berkeley), and appearances in medieval music dramas, Athens, Georgia.

• Featured soloist in Bernstein’s Choruses from the The Lark (multi-movement work with chamber chorus). Presented by Choral Arts Northwest. Gethsemane Lutheran Church, Seattle; Mary Baker Russell Music Center, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma. October 1995

• Featured soloist in The Lark. Presented by the Pacific Northwest Chamber Chorus in Basically Bernstein. University Temple Church, Seattle. May & June 1997

• Israelite Man in Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus with Seattle Pro Musica.

• Alto Soloist in Haydn’s Mass in D, Masterworks Chorale, Berkeley and Palo Alto.

• Alto soloist in Bach Cantata 106 with Max von Egmond and Josquin Des Prés works with Jantina Noorman, Castle Hill Music Festival. Ipswich, Massachusetts.

• Solo and duets with Anders Marshall in a presentation of Baroque Marian Music featuring Scarlatti’s Salve Regina in A minor, Vivaldi’s and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. An Early Music Guild/Sweet Corn Production, with Jane Harty, organ; Kim Zabelle and Olga Gussow, violins; Stephen Creswell, viola; and Claire Garabedian, violoncello. Seattle. November 1999.

• The Arts West 1997-98 Concert Series Schubertiade presented 3 Men and a Soprano — the voices of Steve Bryant, Linda Strandberg, Vernon Nicodemus, Andrew Childs with pianist Jane Harty. The Seattle Symphony Chamber Players were also on the program. Seattle. October 1997

• ArtsWest presented Poetry in Song featuring 3 Men and a Soprano — the voices of Steve Bryant, Linda Strandberg, Vernon Nicodemus, Andrew Childs with pianists Jane Harty and Tatiana Keylin. Poems set to music by Haydn, Britten, Brahms, Schostakovich and Rossini. Saint John the Baptist Church, Seattle. November 1996

• The Early Music Guild of Seattle presented 3 CounterTenors Celebrate Purcell. Directed by Steve Bryant. Countertenors Steve Bryant, David Stutz and Dean Seuss perform John Blow’s masterful Ode on the Death of Henry Purcell and songs, duets and trios of Purcell in honor of the tricentenary of Purcell’s death. Seattle Baroque Orchestra Artistic Director Byron Schenkman accompanies with an ensemble of Baroque instruments. Central Lutheran Church, Seattle. November 1995

• Sweet Corn Concert Series directed by Steve Bryant. Classical and popular tunes featured the voices of Steve Bryant, Ed Christian, Brad Curtis, Yvonne DeCoursey, Demian, Randi Ravitts, with keyboard by Steve Bryant and Howard Hoyt. First Christian Church, Seattle. Monthly series from February to April 1986.

• Steve Bryant directed the music for the marionette opera Scaredy-Kate and the Monsters -or- How to Pay the Rent by Demian. Music by Josef Haydn. Featured the singing voices of Gregg Carder, Demian, Betty Gaskill, Peter Kechley, Charles Sherwood and Kay Shirey. Instrumentalists included Steve Bryant, Doug Hjelm, Fred Inman, Peggy Monroe and James West. February 1986

• Soloist in the The Art of the Castrati. Britten’s duet and trio canticles performed in The Britten Festival (founded by Mr. Bryant) at Old First Church. San Francisco.

• Director and soloist for Baroque Music for Voices, a series of eight concerts accompanied by original instruments. Monteverdi, Purcell, Bach, Handel, Blow, 17th-century Italian composers.

• Soloist for three concerts for male trio (ATB). Couperin motets, English madrigals, early English motets.

• Guest soloist in broadcast (over KPFA) performance of Schubert’s Nachthelle with the University Chorus at University of California, Berkeley, under Philip Brett.

• Soloist with professional men and boys choir at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.

• Soloist for many performances at churches at All Saints, San Francisco, and St. Thomas, Medina, Wash.

• Soloist in King Arthur by Henry Purcell. Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle. March 1996

• Soloist in Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos Shoreline Community College. Washington. October 1995

• Soloist in Come Ye Sons of Art by Henry Percell. University of Washington’s University Chorus and Orchestra. Meany Hall, Seattle. March 1986

• Commissioned with Demian to write music and lyrics for the children’s play Davy Jones Locker. Co-created instrumental audio tape for performances. World Mother Goose, Seattle. March 1986

• A Concert for Children, directed and sung by Steve Bryant. Medina Church, Belleview, Washington.

• Motets of Couperin and Purcell. San Francisco

• Love Songs in the 18th Century Manner. San Francisco

• As director of Baroque Music for Voices in San Francisco, Steve Bryant presented a concert series featuring 17th and 18th century music with original instruments. Spotlighted was the music of François Couperin, John Dunstable, John Blow, Henry Purcell, Baroque church music, 18th Century Italian Chamber Music, German sacred Christmas music and the music of the castrati.

• Numerous sessions with Maria Greco, who shared with Gigli the teacher Rosati.
• Early music vocal coaching from Andrea von Ramm and Max van Egmond.
• Eighteenth-century acting and gesture with Dene Barnett.
• Ensemble coaching with Alan Curtis, Philip Brett, and John Fenstermaker.