ARTISTIC WORK

“A fine storyteller” (American Record Guide), “varied in tone and alive to feeling” (Fanfare Magazine), baritone Stephen Lancaster engages with audiences through a diverse repertoire of vocal music. Winner of the Nico Castel International Master Singer Competition and The American Prize for men in art song and oratorio, he 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.

A passionate chamber musician, Lancaster has performed song recitals in New York, Paris, Berlin, and Gstaad, and for Musique dans le Grésivaudan, Festival Musique d’Uzerche, Les Grandes Heures de Saint-Emilion, Atlantic Music Festival, and Brooklyn Art Song Society. His solo discography includes “Le Menu des Mélodies” with pianist Martin Katz (Centaur), “Sacred Song” with organist Kevin Vaughn (Albany), and “Dichterliebe & Liederkreis, Op. 39” with fortepianist Laure Colladant (Blue Griffin). His recital on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series was broadcast live by WFMT Chicago.

Concert credits include the Fauré & Duruflé Requiems at Carnegie Hall presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York; “Carmina Burana” with Lisbon Summer Fest; creating the baritone roles in Robert Kyr’s “Earth Ritual” with Conspirare and Thomas Schuttenhelm’s “Seven Living Words for the HIV Positive” with Chorosynthesis; Five Mystical Songs with UMS Choral Union at Hill Auditorium; “Le bal masqué” with South Bend Symphony; and “The Bells” and “Belshazzar’s Feast” with Holland Symphony. Operatic appearances include roles with Eugene Opera, Apotheosis Opera, and Arbor Opera Theater and creating the role of Jaques in “As You Like It” by Roger Steptoe.

Lancaster enjoys performing as an ensemble member of the Grammy award-winning vocal ensemble Conspirare as well as the Sphinx Organization’s EXIGENCE vocal ensemble, which highlights artistry within the Black and Latinx community.

BIOGRAPHIES

HEADSHOT 1 & 2

REVIEWS

"Lancaster and Colladant give us detailed and inspired readings that open our ears to the beauty of it all.”
 - Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review, 2021 (“Robert Schumann: Dichterliebe & Liederkreis, Op. 39,” Blue Griffin)

"Baritone Stephen Lancaster….slips well into the role of poet/musician required to project these songs proper essence. As called upon, his voice is at times lyrical and tender, or passionately determined."
 - Classical Music Sentinel, 2021 (“Robert Schumann: Dichterliebe & Liederkreis, Op. 39,” Blue Griffin)

"...baritone Stephen Lancaster projected the pathos of the Libera me with great strength."
 - New York Concert Review, 2015 (Duruflé Requiem, DCINY at Carnegie Hall)

"Lancaster is varied in tone and alive to feeling….he is engaged in his performances, and the recital ends in excellent fashion, with Lancaster almost conversational in his directness of communication."
- Fanfare Magazine, 2015 (“Le Menu des Mélodies,” Centaur Records)

"Lancaster...shows good interpretive skill with these songs, coloring his voice to fit the text...and employing a wide range of expression and dynamics. He's a fine storyteller-singer who sounds like he is having fun with the animal songs."
 - American Record Guide, 2015 (“Le Menu des Mélodies,” Centaur Records)

"Lancaster's voice was wonderful. His line...burst in during a quiet moment in the fourth movement, and he held his own against the orchestra's full complement of strings and wind instruments."
 - South Bend Tribune, 2015 (Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, South Bend Symphony)

TEACHING

Stephen Lancaster is Associate Professor of the Practice in voice and head of the graduate voice studio at the University of Notre Dame, where he has taught since 2007. Through studio lessons for graduate and undergraduate vocal performance majors and musical theater minors, he employs an evidence-based, collaborative approach to vocal pedagogy. He has developed and taught elective courses spanning topics from voice science to diction and early music performance practice.

Lancaster also serves as artist faculty for the Vocal Arts Institute at the Atlantic Music Festival, offering vocal coaching and lessons and mentoring students and artist fellows. Through these varied teaching experiences grounded in inclusive excellence, Lancaster empowers students to discover their unique instruments, explore wide-ranging repertoire, and realize their artistic potential.

Lancaster’s current and former students successfully pursue a variety of career paths in the arts, including graduate study and performances with organizations such as the New York Philharmonic, Seraphic Fire, Apollo's Fire, Bach Collegium Japan, Border CrosSing, and Hawaii Opera.