Voice Masterclass with Brian Thorsett, tenor

This masterclass for Stanford voice students is free and open to the public.

Brian Thorsett has been hailed as “a strikingly gifted tenor, with a deeply moving, unblemished voice” (sfmusicjournal.com), excelling in opera, oratorio, and recital across the world. Since taking to the operatic stage, he has been seen and heard in over 100 diverse operatic roles, ranging from Monteverdi to Britten, back to Rameau and ahead again to works composed specifically for his talents.

Closely associated with expanding the vocal-chamber genre, he has been involved in premieres and commissions of Ian Venables, Peter Josheff, David Conte, Shinji Eshima, Scott Gendel, Gordon Getty, Michel Bosc, Noah Luna, Laurence Lowe, Brian Holmes, Eric Choate, Eric Davis, Michael Scherperel, Robert Conrad, and Nicholas Carlozzi. His voice has been featured in film and commercials, being the artist for Soundiron studio's Voice of Rapture: The Tenor. He also makes many concert appearances with SF Opera & Ballet Principal horn Kevin Rivard. Their interpretations of Britten's Serenade and Cancticle III have been called “impressive, captivating, transporting” (repeatperformances.org), “lifted to greatness” (sfcv.org), “arresting, fervent and eerie” (nffo.org), and “so striking it managed to efface the original recording... a great rendition, sad and poetic” (sfciviccenter.blogspot.org). Other projects include working with Theatre Comique, which specializes in historically informed performances of early Broadway music. Brian's first solo album was released in 2016, featuring works of Frank Tours, Idabelle Firestone, Guy d'Hardelot, and their contemporaries arranged for salon orchestra. 

He is a graduate of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, Glimmerglass Opera’s Young American Artist program, American Bach Soloists' Academy, and the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme at Aldeburgh, England; additionally, he spent two summers at the Music Academy of the West. Brian is currently Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech and previously served on faculty at Santa Clara University and University of California at Berkeley.