Stephen Lancaster

Biography

Stephen Lancaster joined the music faculty at the University of Notre Dame in 2007, where he teaches classical and musical theater singing styles to graduate and undergraduate voice students and serves as head of the graduate voice studio. His students have gone on to study at esteemed graduate and young artist programs across the country and to perform with organizations such as Apollo’s Fire, Bach Collegium Japan, and Tanglewood Music Festival.

Described as “a fine storyteller” (American Record Guide), “varied in tone and alive to feeling” (Fanfare Magazine) Lancaster has been featured as a soloist in venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall, and Centro Cultural de Belém. Chamber performances include recitals for Gstaad New Year Music Festival, Musique dans le Grésivaudan, Festival de Musique d’Uzerche, Les Grandes Heures de Saint-Emilion, Brooklyn Art Song Society, and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series. His solo albums include Dichterliebe & Liederkreis, Op. 39 with fortepianist Laure Colladant (Blue Griffin), Sacred Song with organist Kevin Vaughn (Albany), and Le Menu des Mélodies with pianist Martin Katz (Centaur).

Lancaster created the baritone solo role in Robert Kyr’s “Earth Ritual” with Conspirare as well as Thomas Schuttenhelm’s “Seven Living Words for the HIV Positive” with Chorosynthesis and has premiered numerous works at the Atlantic Music Festival. As an ensemble singer, he is a member of the Grammy award-winning ensemble Conspirare and the Sphinx Organization’s EXIGENCE vocal ensemble.

Solo concert credits include the Fauré & Duruflé Requiems at Carnegie Hall presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York; Le bal masqué with the South Bend Symphony; Carmina Burana with Lisbon Summer Fest; Five Mystical Songs with UMS Choral Union at Hill Auditorium; Ein Deutsches Requiem at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle.

On the operatic stage, highlights include Anthony in Sweeney Todd and Dancaïro in Carmen with Eugene Opera; Schaunard in La bohème, Falke in Die Fledermaus, and Morales in Carmen with Arbor Opera Theater; Jake Wallace in La fanciulla del West with Apotheosis Opera; creating the role of Jaques in As You Like It by Roger Steptoe. Lancaster also holds the Colleague Certificate from the American Guild of Organists and serves as the organist for Sunnyside Presbyterian Church in South Bend.