Nicholas Phan

Others have identified Phan, a young American tenor, as a star in the making, and this fine Britten recital confirms it.  The voice is graceful, mellifluous and durable, but behind it lie sharp intelligence, poetic insight and a confident individuality, allowing him a deeply personal response to the Hardy cycle Winter Words.  In the Seven Sonnets, Phan is equally at ease with the demands of the bel canto devices. The six folk-song settings here are exquisitely artful.