Colin Balzer (Tenor)
The Canadian lyric tenor, Colin Balzer, received his formal musical training at
the University of British Columbia with David Meek and at the Hochschule fur
Musik Nurnberg / Augsburg with Edith Wiens. He has particpated in master-classes
with such artists as Philip Langridge, Helmut Deutsch, Robert Tear, Elly
Ameling, Brigitte Fassbaender, Rudolph Jansen, and Christoph Pregardien, and
also attended both the Britten-Pears School in Alderburgh and the Franz Schubert
Institut in Baden, Austria. He won prize at the prestigious Holland's
's-Hertogenbosch Competition, as well as prizes in several competitions in
Germany, including the Hugo Wolf Competition in Stuttgart, the 55th ARD
International Music Competition in Munich, and he holds the rare distinction of
earning the First Prize Gold Medal at the Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau
with the highest score in 25 years.
Worked with such conductors as
Helmuth Rilling, Simone Young, Simon Preston, Leopold Hager, Bernard Labadie,
Kenneth Montgomery, Mario Venzago, Yoav Talmi, Gabriel Chmura and Christof
Perick, and performing with such orchestras as the Hungarian National Radio
Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg Symphony, Het
Brabants Orkest, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Scottish Chamber Orchestra,
Munchener Kammerorchester, Les Boreades de Montreal, Tragicomedia, the New
Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis, Oregon and Vancouver Symphonies and
Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, among many others. Particularly esteemed as a
recitalist, he has been welcomed at London's Wigmore Hall (accompanied by Graham
Johnson), the Britten Festival in Aldeburgh, Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln
Center, the Bruges Festival Musica Antiqua in Belgium, the Boston Early Music
Festival, Festival Vancouver, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the
Wratislavia Cantans in Poland, and at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden.
In the 2005-2006 season Colin Balzer appeared with the Het Brabants
Orkest (Cornelius’ Stabat Mater), the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in G.F.
Handel’s Athalia under the direction of Kenneth Montgomery, the Vancouver
Chamber Choir and Victoria Symphony (both for G.F. Handel’s Messiah), sang
Mozart’s Requiem with the Indianapolis and New Jersey Symphony orchestras,
performed J.S. Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann cantatas at Early Music
Vancouver, and in Mozart’s Idomeneo with Leopold Hager conducting the Luxembourg
Symphony. In addition he made important debuts with Bernard Labadie and the New
Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Mario Venzago and the Indianapolis Symphony, both
in the Mozart Requiem. During the summer of 2005 he sang Wolf’s Italienisches
Liederbuch at Finland’s Savonlinna Festival, Acis in G.F. Handel’s Acis and
Galatea at Festival Vancouver, and the role of Gavust in the world-premiere
performances of Johann Mattheson’s Boris Goudenow at the Boston Early Music
Festival (including a performance at Tanglewood).
In the 2006-2007
season Colin Balzer appeared with F. Mendelssohn’s Paulus under Yoav Talmi for
the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, Concerto Palatino (Gabrielli program),
Collegium Musicum Basel (orchestrated Schubert and Copland songs), Hansjorg
Albrecht and the Munchener Bach-Chor (Mozart’s Requiem and Freimauerer Cantata),
Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy (North American tour of Mozart’s Requiem
and Veserae solennes de confessore), Schwabisches Oratorienchor (Schumann’s
Paradies und die Peri), Early Music Vancouver and Les Boreades de Montreal (Bach
cantatas), Ann Arbor Symphony, Calgary Symphony, and the Vancouver Cantata
Singers (G.F. Handel’s Messiah), Klauspeter Seibel and the Quebec Symphony (F.
Mendelssohn’s Paulus), Tafelmusik (J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion (BWV 245) and
G.F. Handel’s Solomon) and a production of Lully’s Psyche at the Boston Early
Music Festival, and a Mozart/Berlioz program for Music Director James Setapen’s
farewell concerts with the Amarillo Symphony.
Following summer 2007
performances of Lully’s Psyche with the Boston Early Music Festival, his
2007-2008 season includes concerts throughout Germany with the Munchener
Bach-Chor; Bach Cantatas with Early Music Vancouver; J.S. Bach’s Christmas
Oratorio (BWV 248) with the Leipziger Barockorchester; G.F. Handel’s Messiah
with Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and the Victoria Symphony; J.S.
Bach’s B Minor Mass (BWV 232) with the Quebec Symphony, and J.S. Bach’s St.
Matthew Passion (BWV 244) on a European tour with Spain’s Al Ayre Espagnol
ensemble. In addition he performs G.F. Handel's Chandos Anthems in France,
Germany and Poland with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble. In
2008-2009 he sang the title role of Monteverdi's Orfeo in Edmonton, Haydn's Die
Schoepfung with Yoav Talmi and the Quebec Symphony; G.F. Handel's Messiah with
the Calgary Philharmonic, the Mozart Requiem with the National Philharmonic and
Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent.
In 2009-2010 he sang parts in Chandos Anthems and Messias by Handel, Die
Jahreszeiten by Haydn, Idomeneo and Mass c-dur by Mozart, Ode to Saint Cecilia
by Purcell and Matthaus-Passion by Bach.
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