Nicholas Isherwood
The Franco-American singer Nicholas Isherwood did musical, literary and theatrical studies at Oberlin College, The Actors Centre in London and the École des hautes études in Paris. An eclectic artist, Isherwood has sung medieval music with Joel Cohen, baroque music with William Christie, the Magic Flute at the Salle Pleyel, Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with Zubin Mehta, several world premieres by Karlheinz Stockhausen and an evening at the Knitting Factory with Steve Lacy. His interest for contemporary music has led him to work with composers such as Sylvano Bussotti, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Mauricio Kagel, György Kurtág, Olivier Messiaen, Giacinto Scelsi, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis as well as the leading composers of younger generations. Isherwood has sung on five continents, including the greatest theaters in Europe and the United States (La Scala, the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Covent Garden, the Théatre des Champs Elysées, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, etc.) and with world class orchestras and ensembles (London Philharmonic, the Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris, the London Sinfonietta, the Ensemble intercontemporain, the Ensemble Modern, the Arditti and Diotima Quartets, etc.). Isherwood has recorded 70 CDs for labels such as Erato, Naxos, NEOS, Stockhausen Verlag and Harmonia Mundi. In addition to his work as a singer, he has directed contemporary music theatre, taught master classes on the French Art Song and contemporary singing, and composed several pieces for voice. Isherwood has taught at numerous universities in the United States, as well as the École normale de musique and the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris, the Universität der Künste (UdK) in Berlin and the Hochschule für Musik in Munich. He has published a book The Techniques of Singing (Bärenreiter, 2012), as well as three peer reviewed articles. He is professor of singing at the Conservatoire du Pays de Montbéliard and professor of contemporary singing at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
