Richard Slade
Tenor
Richard Slade, tenor, conductor, and teacher, is a versatile artist, equally at home on concert and operatic stages.
He has sung Tamino in The Magic Flute across New York state, from the Smith Opera House in Geneva to a tour with the Long Island Philharmonic. He has been a regularly featured singer at the Caramoor Festival, with appearances in La Gazza Ladra, Lucrezia Borgia, and Il Pirata. He participated in the Samuel Barber festival at the Kaye Playhouse and was featured on the McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase on WQXR.
He has performed in rare revivals of important works such as Donizetti’s Gianni di Parigi and Martin y Soler’s Una cosa rara at the Vineyard Opera, and in Opera Manhattan’s productions of Fauré’s Pénélope, Hahn’s Le Marchand de Venise, and Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites. In the 150th anniversary performance of The Bohemian Girl at the Kaye Playhouse, he sang the role of Thaddeus. He made his Town Hall debut in Paisiello’s La Molinara, and his Bronx Opera debut as Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus. In the world of operetta he has performed in Iolanthe, Princess Ida, and Utopia, Limited with New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players, and a duet cabaret show, Oh Love, True Love! or The Lass That Lov’d a Tenor, with his wife, soprano Cynthia Reynolds.
His concert appearances include the title role in Händel’s Judas Maccabeus, and the tenor solos in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and many of Bach’s cantatas. He was artist-in-residence with the Long Island Choral Society, singing as soloist on all of their concerts. For 11 years he toured and recorded as a member of The Western Wind, America’s pre-eminent a cappella vocal ensemble.
Mr. Slade is very much at home on the recital platform -—-not only does he sing a wide range of classical art songs, but he specializes in the parlor repertory of the Victorian era. In June of 2000 he saved the show at the Caramoor festival by learning and performing Schumann’s Spanisches Liebeslieder on three hours’ notice, substituting for an indisposed colleague.
In addition to singing Mr. Slade conducts the Sound Shore Chorale in New Rochelle and the choirs of the First Unitarian Society in Hasting-on-Hudson and Sutton Place Synagogue in New York City.
Mr Slade maintains a private voice studio, teaching in New York City, New Rochelle, and by Skype. He received his BA from Yale University and his MM from New England Conservatory. He was an apprentice with the Des Moines, Sarasota and Maine Opera companies and has toured the U.S. and Europe with the Yale Whiffenpoofs, the New York Ensemble for Early Music, the New York City Opera, and the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players.
Mr. Slade is particularly proud to have had a joke used on Prairie Home Companion!
