O Tuneful Voice
Songs of Haydn, Spohr, Lachner, Storace, Linley, Pinto, Clifton, and Salomon
James Taylor, tenor
Christoph Hammer, fortepiano
Cynthia Roberts, violin
Sprague Memorial Hall
470 College Street, New Haven
Free; no tickets required.
Part of the Yale School of Music Faculty Artist Series
With an extensive repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century, tenor James Taylor devotes much of his career to oratorio and concert literature. One of the most sought-after Bach tenors of our time, he performed the St. Matthew Passion for his debut with the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur. His career has taken him throughout the United States, South America, Japan, Israel, and to virtually all the major concert halls of Europe with conductors such as Rilling, Harnoncourt, Herreweghe, Jacobs, Suzuki, Koopman, Labadie, Welser-Möst, Nézet-Séguin, and Christophers. His artistry has been documented on more than thirty professional CD and DVD recordings for labels such as Sony, Hänssler, harmonia mundi, and Naxos. He joined the Yale faculty in 2005.
Christoph Hammer studied organ, musicology and German in Munich and Los Angeles and has concentrated since 1989 on playing historical keyboard instruments. As a soloist and accompanist he has an international reputation, having worked with renowned artists such as Emma Kirkby. Since 1996 he has been head of the Munich Neue Hofkapelle baroque orchestra.