Nicholas Phan

Described by The Boston Globe as “one of the world’s most remarkable singers,” American tenor Nicholas Phan is increasingly recognised as an artist of distinction. With an incredibly diverse repertoire that spans nearly 500 years of music, he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. An avid recitalist and a passionate advocate for art song and vocal chamber music, in 2010 Phan co-founded Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, an organisation devoted to promoting this underserved repertoire.

A celebrated recording artist, Phan’s most recent album, Stranger: Works for Tenor by Nico Muhly, was released to critical acclaim in the summer of 2022. His album, Clairières, a recording of songs by Lili and Nadia Boulanger, was nominated for the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. His album, Gods and Monsters, was nominated for the same award in 2017 and made him the first singer of Asian-descent to be nominated in the history of the category, which has been awarded by the Recording Academy since 1959. 

Sought after as a curator and programmer, in addition to his work as artistic director of CAIC, Phan has also created programmes for broadcast on WFMT and WQXR, and served as guest curator for projects with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Merola Opera, and San Francisco Performances, where he served as the vocal artist-in-residence from 2014-18. Phan’s programmes often examine themes of identity, highlight unfairly underrepresented voices from history, and strive to underline the relevance of music from all periods to the currents of the present day.