Nathan Berg

Career

After some studies at the University of Western Ontario and the Maîtrise nationale de Versailles Nathan Berg carried out the majority of his formal musical training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England studying with legendary pedagogue Vera Rózsa. While at the Guildhall School he won prizes in the Kathleen Ferrier Competition,The Royal Overseas League, Peter Pears Competition, Walter Gruner International Lieder Competition and the Guildhall's Gold Medal for Singers joining a list of singers that includes Bryn Terfel and Benjamin Luxon.

The English journalist Bernard Levin once wrote of the young Nathan Berg in The Times; "A Canadian baritone, Nathan Berg by name, with a voice not only powerful and full of meaning, but of such velvet beauty that the comparison cannot be avoided: surely the young Fischer-Dieskau sounded like this.".

Since his debut singing Messiah in Paris in December 1992 Berg has become known for his contributions in Early to Classical music periods in opera and concert. Highlights from his earlier career include performances and recordings with French early music group Les Arts Florissants with whom he recorded often (see recording list below). He also recorded Dvorak's Stabat Mater with the late Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony which proved to be Shaw's final recording and a German Lieder disc with pianist Julius Drake. His repertoire in recent years has evolved as he has moved into dramatic operatic repertoire.

In 2013 Nathan debuted at Moscow's Bolshoi Opera in the title role of Wagner's Flying Dutchman and returned to New York's Carnegie hall in Haydn's Creation with Roger Norrington. In the same season Mr. Berg performed with the Houston Symphony in Berg's Wozzeck and the Valencia's Palau de les Arts in Mozart's Magic Flute. in 2014 he had his concert debut in the role of Alberich (Wagner's Reingold) with Myung-Whun Chung conducting. In 2015 Mr. Berg made his debut at the Teatro Alla Scala, Milan in the world premier of Battistelli's opera CO2. In 2016 he premiered in the role of Bluebeard in Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle directed by Mariusz Treliński (co-production with the Metropolitan Opera, New York) at the Polish National Opera, Warsaw and the role of Vodnik in Dvořák's Rusalka at the National Center for the Performing Arts, Beijing. In yet another stage debut in 2016 Nathan "made a star turn, from beginning to end, as a grumpy and grizzled Albrecht” in Minnesota Opera's Rheingold. In 2017 Nathan will have his debut at the Salzburg Festival alongside Bartoli in Handel's Ariodante and Rossini's La Donna del Lago.

His career has moved among recital, concert and opera. In recital he has appeared at the Wigmore Hall in London, Lincoln Center in New York, Musee d'Orsay in Paris, BBC Radio Studios in London, the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France, the Winspear Centre in Canada and the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. with pianists Graham Johnson, Julius Drake, Roger Vignoles, Michael McMahon and Martin Katz. Mr. Berg's early work in concert and opera concentrated on Early Music and Classical. He has since also engaged in Romantic and later with recent operatic debuts as Wagner's Dutchman, and Alberich, Puccini's Scarpia and Bartok's Bluebeard and in concert with Mahler's Kindertotenlieder. A bass-baritone with "a first-class voice" (Boston Globe), he has worked with conductors including Abbado, Boulez, Davis, Dohnányi, Hogwood, Jacobs, Jurowski, McGegan, Mackerras, Nelson, Spano, Zuckerman, Masur, Dutoit, Salonen, Eschenbach, Hogwood, Maazel, Marlot, Norrington, Slatkin, Christie, Herreweghe, Tortelier, Leppard, Rilling, Haenchen, Ozawa, Welser-Möst and Tilson Thomas. He has performed in concert with major orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony (Washington), Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Boston Symphony, Montreal Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Colorado Symphony, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, St Louis Symphony, Handel and Haydn Society, Seattle Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Minnesota Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, London Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Les Arts Florissants, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Freiburg Baroque, Les Talens Lyriques, Concert d’Astree, English Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, São Paulo Symphony and Concertgebouw Orchestra. Apart from these orchestras' home concert halls his performances have also taken place at prestigious venues and festivals such as Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, The Saratoga Festival, Tanglewood, The Grant Park Festival in Chicago, and Vienna's Musikverein. Among his operatic work he has appeared in Mozart's Figaro, Don Giovanni, Guglielmo and Leporello (a role which Berg won the 2005–2006 Austin Critics Table Awards award for Best Male Singer), Puccini's Scarpia, Marcello and Coline, Wagner's Dutchman, Verdi's Ferrando, Rossini's Alidoro, Rameau's Huascar and multiple Handel roles (for example, Hercules, Zoroastro, Achilla) in such places as Bolshoi, Glyndebourne, Paris National Opera, Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie, New York City Opera, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées Teatro Verdi in Trieste, Opéra de Dijon, Opéra de Lyon, Royal Swedish Opera, Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, Opera de Lille, Vancouver Opera, Calgary Opera, Edmonton Opera, Austin Lyric, Arizona Opera, Utah Opera, Opera de Nice, and the Bavarian State Opera.

Berg is an established recording artist with over thirty CD and DVD recordings to his name. In 2015 he was featured in releases of Rameau's Les Indes Galantes with the Bordeaux National Opera (DVD/BLUERAY) and a new recording of Dvořák's Requiem with Philippe Herrewege and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic. He has recently appeared on a DVD releases of Lully's Armide conducted by William Christie and directed by Robert Carson and the 2011 production of Handel's Giulio Cesare (Opera National de Paris with Natalie Dessay conducted by Emmanuelle Haim). In 2012 he appeared as bass soloist on a recording of Beethoven's 9th Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony (released in 2013), and recorded the role of Zoroastro in Handel's Orlando with Pacific Baroque released by ATMA Classique (2014 Juno award nominee) also in 2013. A few examples of earlier celebrated recordings featuring Nathan Berg are his 2005 Janáček's Glagolitic Mass with the Chicago Symphony conducted by Pierre Boulez, 1999 Dvořák Stabat Mater with Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony (Robert Shaw's last recording), 2002 Mozart's Requiem with Violins de Roy and his 1994 Messiah with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie.

Nathan Berg's Recordings