Lyric tenor Charles Blandy has performed a wide repertoire, from works of Mozart and Bach to the most challenging contemporary music. Opera News and the Boston Globe praised his performances as Francis Flute in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. At Tanglewood, he appeared in the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, starring Dawn Upshaw and conducted by Robert Spano, later reprised at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Next year he will sing Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at Emmanuel Music in Boston, where he has also sung Tamino in Mozart’s Magic Flute and Lurcanio in Handel’s Ariodante. He recently performed the role of Almaviva in Boston Lyric Opera’s family performances of Barber of Seville.
In March he made his Lincoln Center debut in the Mozart Requiem and Haydn Paukenmesse with the National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall in New York, where he will return in November to sing Handel’s Alexander’s Feast. He recently performed as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions with Emmanuel Music, and with the Bethlehem Bach Choir in their Christmas concert of Bach and Haydn. He was a finalist in the Oratorio Society of New York solo competition, singing in Weill Recital Hall. He performed Handel’s Messiah and Britten’s Cantata Misericordium with the Charlotte Symphony; Britten’s St. Nicolas with conductor Raymond Leppard in Indianapolis; and Mozart’s Requiem with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, performed outdoors on the Esplanade in Boston. He has appeared with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Cantata Singers, Berkshire Choral Festival, Pittsburgh Bach and Baroque, and the Bloomington Early Music Festival.
On four days notice he took over a tricky tenor part in Berio’s Sinfonia under conductor Robert Spano at Tanglewood. He recently appeared with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in music of Ronald Perera and Scott Wheeler. His performance of Jorge Liderman’s Song of Songs with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (now a Bridge Records CD) was called “sterling” by the San Francisco Chronicle, and appears on a critically-praised Naxos CD of Scott Wheeler’s opera Construction of Boston. He gave the US premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s song cycle for voice and strings Die Liebenden with Chameleon Arts Ensemble, in a performance the Boston Globe called “marvelous.”
With a wide repertoire in art song, he recently gave a recital of songs by Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and Szymanowski at Tufts University -- called “one of the most engrossing concerts in ages” by reviewer Caldwell Titcomb.
He teaches in Harvard University’s Holden Voice Program and at Tufts University. He was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he was awarded the Grace B. Jackson prize. He received his Master’s Degree from Indiana University, and has studied at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, England. He is a native of Troy, NY, and graduated from Oberlin College with a BA in religion.