26
February
2023
St. Matthew Passion
Soloist
Colorado Bach Ensemble
Cherry Hills Village, CO
Gene Stenger
Deemed an “impressive tenor” (The New York Times) who sings with “sweet vibrancy” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer) Gene Stenger is a Bach specialist who is also heralded for his performances of oratorios by Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Mozart. He regularly performs with leading ensembles and interpreters of early music while continuing to expand his repertoire to include music of the 20th and 21st centuries.
In the 2024-25 season, Stenger sings as tenor soloist with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Bach Ensemble, Washington Bach Consort, and the Charlottesville Symphony in Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and Mozart’s Requiem.
Stenger’s recent engagements as soloist have included performances of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Bach’s Magnificat with the Providence Singers, Handel’s Messiah with the Helena Symphony, Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity New York, Mozart’s Requiem with the Bach Society of St. Louis, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with TENET Vocal Artists, Handel’s Judas Maccabeus with the Harvard Baroque Orchestra and the world premiere of Arnold Rosner’s The Chronicle of Nine with Odyssey Opera. His virtual projects have included a production of Messiah produced by Classical Arizona PBS with the GRAMMY® nominated True Concord Voices & Orchestra, a reimagined staged production of Bach’s St. John Passion with The Thirteen Chamber Choir, and OperaTune Productions’ “Hope Resurrected: A 3-part Classical Easter Concert Series Experience” broadcast live on WMNR Radio in Connecticut.
Stenger was the tenor soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion under the baton of Helmuth Rilling with the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, which included an international tour in Germany and South America, and was featured in a 2013 documentary about Rilling entitled Ein Leben mit Bach (A Life with Bach). Stenger has also been heard with the Bach Akademie Charlotte, Oregon Bach Festival, Bach Collegium at St. Peter’s New York, American Classical Orchestra, Voices of Ascension, the Northeast Pennsylvania Bach Festival, Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society and the Clarion Music Society.
In 2024, Stenger joined Resonance Works to portray the role of Rodrigo in of Rossini’s La donna del lago, for which he was lauded by The Pittsburgh Tattler as “Particularly stunning…with a vibrant and powerful voice and a charismatic stage presence.” He has previously performed the roles of Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, Damon in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Tonio in La fille du Régiment, King Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, El Remendado in Carmen, Paolino in Il matrimonio segreto, Peter Quint in Turn of the Screw, the roles of Pirelli and The Beadle in Sweeney Todd, Marco Palmieri in The Gondoliers, Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, and the title roles of Pygmalion and Albert Herring.
Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Gene holds degrees from Yale University’s School of Music, and Institute of Sacred Music, Colorado State University, and Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music. Recent discography credits include tenor soloist in Schmelzer’s Le Memorie Dolorose with TENET Vocal Artists and ACRONYM, and tenor soloist on Yale Schola Cantorum’s album Fauré Requiem and other sacred music led by David Hill and released on Hyperion Records. In 2017, Gene was a Virginia Best Adams Vocal Fellow with the Carmel Bach Festival, and was a prize winner in the annual Handel Aria Competition. He currently resides in New Haven, CT, where he serves as instructor of voice at Yale University.
Current & Upcoming Performances
Upcoming Performance Schedule Coming Soon
Past Performances
24
February
2023
St. Matthew Passion
Soloist
Colorado Bach Ensemble
Cherry Hills Village, CO
18
December
2022
Handel's Messiah
Soloist
Colorado Bach Ensemble
Cherry Hills Village, CO
17
December
2022
Handel's Messiah
Soloist
Colorado Bach Ensemble
Cherry Hills Village, CO
7
December
2022
Handel's Messiah
Soloist
Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra
Madison, WI
5
December
2022
Handel's Messiah
Soloist
Helena Symphony Orchestra
Helena, MT
15
November
2022
Mozart & Britten Program
Soloist
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH
22
May
2022
Haydn's Creation
Soloist
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH
15
May
2022
Bach's Mass in B Minior
Soloist
The Bach Society of St. Louis
St. Louis, Mo
1
April
2022
Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Soloist
Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Norfolk, VA
5
March
2022
Bach's Magnificat
Soloist
Providence Singers
Providence, RI
17
December
2021
Handel's Messiah
Soloist
New Haven Symphony Orchestra
New Haven, CT
16
December
2021
Handel's Messiah
Soloist
New Haven Symphony Orchestra
New Haven, CT
8
December
2021
Handel's Messiah
Soloist
Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra
Madison, WI
“The Chronicle of Nine” with Odyssey Opera
“Saturday’s performance featured a stellar cast of singers. As the minstrel, Gene Stenger sang with clarion tenor and a storyteller’s grace.” -The Boston Classical Review, Feb 2020
“The rest of the cast offered strong performances as well, with David Salsbery Fry as the Earl of Pembroke and William Hite as Henry Grey, and Gene Stenger as the show’s framing device minstrel standing out amongst the rest of the cast.” –Schmopera, Feb 2020
CD Review of Johann Heinrich Schmelzer’s “Le Memorie Dolorose” with TENET Vocal Artists & ACRONYM
“The recording is luminous. The singers of TENET Vocal Artists, both solo and tutti, exude a sense of refined pathos and rhetorical gesture apropos for the work’s original intimate courtly setting. The instrumentalists of ACRONYM more than match them in emotiveness; the continuo is warm, resonant, and supportive, the full ensemble beautifully unified. The enthusiasm and sense of attack in the plucked strings, counterbalanced by the sweet melodic lines of the upper voices, and the full ensemble’s commitment to the different moods of each section, show the first interpolated sonata to be a real hidden gem.
In the pop-music world, a supergroup is a musical ensemble made up of artists well known for their other solo or ensemble work. Although named separately here, both TENET and ACRONYM are stars in early music. Both ensembles have consistently received the highest praise for both their engaging live performances and recordings, which have included everything from warhorses such as the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 to premiere recordings of works by Biber, Valentini, and now, Schmelzer. This album is TENET’s sixth recording, ACRONYM’s ninth, but their first together, and the combination is nothing short of “super.” A highly recommended album, and may we hope that these two ensembles join forces again.”-Early Music America, June 2019
Bach’s “Magnificat” with Bach Akademie Charlotte
“Overall, performances at the more intimate Christ Church by sopranos Sarah Yanovitch and MaryRuth Lown, mezzo-sopranos Liz Eschen and Kimberly Sizer Leeds, tenors Patrick Muehleise and Gene Stenger, and baritone Jason Steigerwalt had equaled or surpassed those I’ve heard on recordings conducted by Helmuth Rilling, John Eliot Gardiner, and Masaaki Suzuki.” –Classical Voice America, June 2019
Bach’s “Christ lag in Todesbanden” with The Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival
“The one true cantata, Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 4, ended the evening. The lower voiced soloists were the standouts. Tenor Gene Stenger was forthright and intense in the third verse.” –Cleveland Classical, April 2019
Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” with TENET Vocal Artists
“The radiant-voiced Jolle Greenleaf, the artistic director of Tenet, shared soprano arias with the elegant Laura Heimes. The countertenor Doug Dodson and the mezzo-soprano Virginia Warnken Kelsey shared the alto arias. Jason McStoots and Gene Stenger were the impressive tenors.” –The New York Times, March 2019
Bach’s “Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen” with Bach Akademie Charlotte
“With its own orchestral intro, the climactic tenor aria, “Nimm mich dir zu eigen hin” (“Take me to you as your own”), offered Stenger the chance to match Steigerwalt’s exploits, and he responded with his heartiest, most heartfelt singing of the evening.” –The Classical Voice of North Carolina, Feb 2019
Bach’s “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” with Virginia Symphony Orchestra
“Aside from the well-shaped choral output, the most lasting moments came from Stenger whose German was clean and concise and easily heard above the chamber-sized orchestra” – The Virginia Gazette, Nov 2017
Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” with Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart
“Der Tenor Gene Stenger bewältigte mühelos die vielen koloraturartigen Ausschmückungen in seinen Arien “Ich will bei meinem Jesu wachen” und “Geduld, wenn mich falsche Zungen stechen”(Gambenarie).” – Bergsträsser Anzeiger, March 2013
Translation: Tenor Gene Stenger effortlessly mastered the many coloratura embellishments in his arias “I will be with my Jesus watching” and “Patience, when false tongues sting me” (Aria da Gamba).
Rorem’s “Our Town” with Baldwin Wallace Opera
“The large cast was headed by Anna Caldwell, an impassioned, shining Emily, and Gene Stenger, who sang with sweet vibrancy as the Stage Manager.”-The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Feb 2010
