ABOUT

A “superb vocal soloist” (The Washington Post) with “impressive clarity and color” (The New York Times), tenor Steven Soph performs concert repertoire spanning the Renaissance to modern day. Steven performs with renowned organizations including the Cleveland, Seattle, Philharmonia Baroque, Charlotte, Tucson, American Classical, New Jersey, and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras, and in esteemed venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Boston's Symphony Hall, and the Kennedy Center. A committed ensemble performer, he most recently sang the music of Josquin des Prez at Antwerp, Belgium's Festival AMUZ with Boston's Cut Circle. Steven also appears with Austin's Conspirare, Providence’s Ensemble Altera, Washington Bach Consort, Tucson’s True Concord, Yale Choral Artists, Kansas City’s Spire, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Washington D.C.'s The Thirteen, and Winter Park, Florida's Bach Vocal Artists.

Upcoming solo engagements include Bach's Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland with Boston's Handel and Haydn Society; Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem; Mozart's Requiem with the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park; Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Master Chorale of South Florida; Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the Handel Choir of Baltimore; Bach cantatas 4, 106, and 182 with San Francisco's American Bach Soloists; and Handel's Messiah with Philadelphia's Tempesta di Mare and the Handel and Haydn Society

Last season, Steven debuted with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah, made his Symphony Hall solo debut in Handel’s Israel in Egypt with Boston’s Handel + Haydn Society, his Meyerson Symphony Center solo debut in Berlioz’s Requiem on Dallas’ Highlander Concert Series, and joined the University of Iowa for Britten’s War Requiem. Steven returned to Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with the American Classical Orchestra for Bach’s Mass in B minor; to the Bach Society of Saint Louis and Lincoln, Nebraska’s Abendmusik as Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion; Choral Arts Philadelphia in Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610; the Oklahoma Bach Choir for Bach’s Cantatas 1, 61, 62, 65, and 70; Pro Musica Colorado for Handel’s Messiah; twice GRAMMY® Award-nominated True Concord Voices and Orchestra, the Master Chorale of South Florida, and the Oregon Bach Festival for performances of Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor; as well as the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival and True Concord Voices and Orchestra performing arias in Bach’s St. John Passion as well as covering the Evangelist role.

Recent seasons' highlights include several solo appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra, including Severance Hall premier performances of Stravinsky's Threni id est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, an all-Handel program led by Ton Koopman, and Mozart's Requiem led by Patrick Dupré Quigley. Steven appeared as a soloist at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with the American Classical Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Psalm 41, led by Thomas Crawford and made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in Manhattan Concert Productions’ performance of Mozart’s Requiem, conducted by Yoojin Muhn and Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living, led by Jennaya Robison. Steven made his Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra debut in a program of Bach, Monteverdi, Purcell, and Vivaldi, led by Patrick Dupré Quigley and his Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra debut in Stacy Garrop’s Terra Nostra, conducted by Stephen Alltop. He has performed Reich's The Desert Music with the New World Symphony and Seraphic Fire; Mozart's "Orphanage" Mass with San Diego's Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra; and Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor with the Bach Society of St. Louis and the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra.

An active Bach interpreter, Steven has “expertly inhabited” (Chicago Classical Review) and “intoned the long, intricate and gruelingly difficult lines of the Evangelist with precision of pitch and rhythm” (Palm Beach Arts Paper) in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Chicago Chorale and Seraphic Fire (Mendelssohn version). He performed “with a tenor ranging from feathered intimacies to powerful, glinting top notes” (The Dallas Morning News) and was deemed “first-class across the board” (Chicago Classical Review) as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion with the University of North Texas’ Collegium (1725 version) and Chicago Chorale. Steven appeared in Bach's B minor Mass with the American Classical Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra Augusta, the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Spire Chamber Ensemble (Kansas City), and Chicago Chorale; Bach's Magnificat with Voices of Ascension (NYC), True Concord Voices & Orchestra (Tucson), and Seraphic Fire; and employed “brilliant clarity and warm color” (South Florida Classical Review) in Bach’s Easter Oratorio with Seraphic Fire. Additionally, Steven has performed as the Evangelist in Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Dallas’ Highlander Concert Series, Bach Society of St. Louis, Charlotte Bach Festival, Brown University, and Boston University's Marsh Chapel; as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion with Charlotte Bach Festival, Boston University's Marsh Chapel, Arkansas Choral Society, and Concord Chorale; as the Evangelist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Cleveland’s Apollo’s Fire and at the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival; arias in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Voices of Ascension, Chicago Chorale, and Colorado Bach Ensemble; arias in Bach’s St. John Passion with True Concord Voices and Orchestra, Spire Chamber Ensemble, and Musikanten Montana; and brought his “excellent lyric tenor” (South Florida Classical Review) to BWV 34 and The Cleveland Orchestra, under Franz Welser-Möst.

Steven has performed Handel’s Messiah with the Seattle, Fort Worth, Tucson, New Jersey, Charlotte, Cheyenne, Winston-Salem, and Aiken Symphony Orchestras, Colorado Pro Musica, ProMusica Columbus, Bach Society of St. Louis, Master Chorale of South Florida, Handel Oratorio Society (Augustana College), Spire Chamber Ensemble, Apollo Chorus of Chicago, Bourbon Baroque, Variant 6, Oklahoma Bach Choir, Messiah Choral Society (Winter Park, Florida), and Alpine Chorale (Denver); Pastore and Apollo in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado; Vivaldi's Introduction and Gloria with Voices of Ascension; Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Master Chorale of South Florida and Seraphic Fire; Uriel in Haydn’s Creation with Master Chorale of South Florida, Texas Choral Consort, Colorado Pro Musica; and Evangelist in the North American debut of Keiser's Brockes-Passion at the University of Connecticut. Steven made his Staunton Music Festival debut in Bach’s BWV 131, Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir as well as his Choral Arts Philadelphia debut in North American premiers of Carissimi’s rediscovered oratorios Goliath and Noah. During the pandemic, Steven performed in True Concord Voices & Orchestra’s “bubble” season, recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts in The Art of Reopening: A Guide to Current Practices Among Arts Organizations During COVID-19. He also contributed to remote projects with Seraphic Fire, Master Chorale of South Florida, and Victoria Bach Festival.

International appearances include Utrecht Early Music Festival, the Netherlands; Festival Tage Alter Musik, Regensburg, Germany; Musica Sacra Festival, Maastricht, the Netherlands; and Festival Laus Polyphoniae, Antwerp, Belgium with Cut Circle, in addition to Festival de Arte y Ópera Contemporánea, Morelia, Mexico with Roomful of Teeth.

Steven performs with top American vocal ensembles including GRAMMY® Award-nominated True Concord Voices & Orchestra; GRAMMY® Award-winning Roomful of Teeth and Conspirare; Gramophone® finalist Cut Circle; Yale Choral Artists; Santa Fe Desert Chorale; Oregon Bach Festival Berwick Chorus; Colorado Bach Ensemble; Sounding Light; Ensemble Altera; Artefact; Ensemble Origo; The Leonids; and Spire Chamber Ensemble.

Recent recording credits include Ensemble Altera’s “The Lamb’s Journey,” True Concord & Orchestra’s 2024 GRAMMY®-nominated “A Dream So Bright: Choral Music of Jake Runestad” and 2015 GRAMMY®-nominated “Far in the Heavens: Choral Music of Stephen Paulus,” solos on Baltimore Choral Arts Society’s 2023 “Mozart’s Requiem,” solos on 2021 GRAMMY®-nominated “The Singing Guitar” with Conspirare, Académie du Disque Lyrique Orphées d'Or-winning and Gramophone® finalist "Guillaume Du Fay: The Tenor Masses" with Cut Circle, Seraphic Fire's "Steal Away," tenor vocals on Maná's 2015 Latin GRAMMY® Award-winning Best Pop/Rock Album "Cama Incendiada," and Jory Vinikour's album of duet cantatas by Agostino Stefanni.

Steven holds degrees from the University of North Texas and Yale School of Music where he studied at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music with renowned tenor James Taylor. Steven attended the American Bach Soloists Academy in 2011, was a 2014 Carmel Bach Festival Adams Fellow, and a 2016 Oregon Bach Festival Young Artist. www.stevensoph.com