John McMunn
John McMunn is a Hazard Chase Young Associate Artist.
American tenor, John McMunn began his vocal studies at the Boston University Opera Institute while studying Music Theory as an undergraduate at Harvard University. Last year he completed the MPhil in Musicology at King’s College, Cambridge where he served for two years as a Choral Scholar. With the choir of King’s College he performed extensively throughout Europe and the United States and appeared on numerous recordings for both the EMI and Signum labels.
While at Cambridge, he established himself as a dynamic ensemble performer, working with groups as diverse as the CU Music Society, the CU Chamber Orchestra, and the Cambridge and Sagittarian Consorts. He continues this work today, appearing frequently in concert with the choirs of the Temple Church and Westminster Cathedral, as well as with the consorts Opus Anglicanum and Polyphony.
As a soloist his concert, opera and oratorio credits encompass more than a millennium, ranging from chant and early polyphony – through the standard 18th and 19th century oratorio repertoire – to the more obscure musical corners of the 20th and 21st century. A proponent of new music, he has premiered numerous works by living composers, notably Helmut Lachenmann’s Consolation I for the Royal College of Music’s Transcendent festival, and Robert Zuidam’s Rage d’amours at the Boston Symphony’s Tanglewood Music Center, where he has twice been awarded vocal fellowships.
Recent appearances include Lucano in the Benjamin Britten International Opera School’s controversial L’incoronazione di Poppea, the Evil Counselor in Andrew Lawrence-King’s radical staging of Ludus Danielis with the Harp Consort, performances of a new completion of Bach’s St Matthew Passion under Paul Spicer, work with William Christie’s Les Arts Florissant in Paris, and the title role in Bampton Classical Opera’s acclaimed Acis and Galatea at St. John’s, Smith Square. Recipient of numerous awards, including the Harvard University Paine Traveling Fellowship and a major scholarship award from the Sir Peter Moores Foundation, he is supported by the Josephine Baker Trust and is currently the Cuthbert Smith Scholar to the Royal College of Music, where he studies with Neil Mackie.
Promoters please note: if you wish to include this biography in a concert programme etc, please contact Hazard Chase to ensure that you receive the most up to date version.
Email: Kate Baylis
