Alexander's Feast, Kloster Michaelstein, Germany, September 2019

I travelled to Germany this September to make my first commercial recording. Kathy Romey invited me to be the sole native-english-speaking tenor for Alexander’s Feast, recorded in Kloster Michaelstein, Germany with Vox Orchester, Lorenzo Ghirlanda, and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi.

What an unbelievable experience working with such an international group of colleagues, and the first time in my travels to Germany where I was the native speaker, and the one expected to help my colleagues achieve the same sort of sound that they helped me with when singing Bach in past years.

The recording itself was four intense days of hundreds of takes to get to achieve a sound that was not only together, but chords that were pristine with individual lines with direction and character.

I can’t tell the rush of relief when we would hear the loud spacebar click at the end of a take we knew would be used for the recording. The dozens of microphones in the setup were intimidating at first, but by the end were just part of the experience of recording. On the last night, we were able to share the material with a full house in Halberstadt, Germany at the Marienkirche. I was asked that night to warm up and prepare the chorus, an honor in and of itself.