Renowned Performer Nicholas Isherwood Joins UB Faculty

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- International critics have called Nicholas Isherwood the uncontested darling of contemporary musicians and one of the greatest interpreters of new music in the world today.

The world-renowned performer joined the UB faculty in January as an assistant professor of singing and musical theater, teaching voice and running the Music Theatre Workshop -- formerly known as the Opera Workshop. He also has taught and lectured at the Salzburg Mozarteum, Paris Conservatoire and at the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique Musique, more commonly known as IRCAM, in Paris.

As a performer, Isherwood has a deep and extensive history in music and theater, performing everything from romantic to baroque, medieval to 20th-century music in cities throughout France, Germany and Italy with such famous conductors as Joel Cohen, William Christie, Nicholas McGegan, Kent Nagano and Gabriele Ferro.

Isherwood has made 30 CDs. The most recent, a recording of Paul Mefano's "Dragonbass," was just released.

This season, he will perform a piece by Betsy Jolas with Michael Stern and the Saarlaendischer Rundfunk orchestra, work with composers George Crumb at the WDR in Germany and Mauricio Kagel in Paris, sing with the orchestra of Santa Cecelia in Rome, and perform at the Torino and Rome operas, as well as at the Theatre Gerard Philippe in Paris.

Isherwood began his professional career as a soprano soloist at age 12 after having sung in the children's chorus at the Paris Opera.

He pursued a bachelor's degree in French literature at Oberlin College, where he also studied acting. He then sang with Richard Miller at the Oberlin Conservatory, where he received a bachelor's degree in music. He later earned the equivalent of a master's degree in musicology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris and has trained privately in Italy under the voice instruction of Sara Sforni Corti and Roberto Benaglio.

A Watson Fellowship took Isherwood to Europe in 1981, where his career as a performer has flourished.

It was in 1983 that he met the man he calls "the most famous living composer" -- Karlheinz Stockhausen -- who Isherwood says gave him his first big break into opera.

"I made my operatic debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, performing the role of Lucifer in (Stockhausen's) opera, 'Donnerstag aus Licht,'" he says, and has worked with Stockhausen ever since. Isherwood notes he has performed all of Stockhausen's works for bass voice in concerts around the world, as well as in the world premieres of Stockhausen's operas "Montag aus Licht," "Dienstag aus Licht" and "Freitag aus Licht."

Isherwood also is founder of VOXNOVA, a vocal ensemble devoted to contemporary music. The ensemble, he says, "gives me the opportunity to have control over all aspects of a performance -- choice of singers, program, staging, lighting…as well as to perform works for (the) solo voice and chamber music." His ensemble has performed at major festivals around the globe and has produced several CDs, the most recent of which is a collection of works by Luigi Nono that will be released in the spring.

This past summer, Isherwood and two of his students, Lisa Biamonte and Lorena Guillen, traveled to Kurten, Germany, where they participated in the Stockhausen Kursen -- run by Stockhausen -- to prepare for a performance of the German composer's work, "In the sky I am walking…Indian Songs," scheduled for April in the UB Center for the Arts. This coming summer, those same students and several others are scheduled to return to Stockhausen Kursen.

He also has worked with jazz legend Steve Lacy for the past five years, the pair performing most recently together at the Venice Biennale and in Paris, with plans to record together in the near future. Their collaboration has afforded Isherwood the opportunity to put his musical prowess to work in a Western New York venue.

Lacy introduced Isherwood to Mark Goldman, owner of the Calumet Arts Cafe in downtown Buffalo. That introduction has produced the first in a series of musical collaborations between the UB Department of Music and the Calumet -- something that Isherwood says will become an annual occurrence.

He says he became involved in the project with the Calumet "to bring UB back to (downtown) Buffalo and help the students get a real, paying gig in front of a real audience."

The first collaboration in October featured Guillen performing tangos with Alejandro Rutty and Tito Castro. Upcoming events will include Jon Nelson's Eclectic Band, The Royal Pitches, Standards -- which will be sung by Biamonte and Molly Gasbarrini, another UB student -- and a tribute -- with big-band accompaniment -- to jazz legend Al Hibbler, sung by Isherwood himself.