“A model of phrasing, control, and style, and an irresistible performer.”
~ The Washington Post
After conservatory training in Montreal and Chicago, David Gordon made his operatic debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1973. Since then he has forged a distinguished international career as opera and concert tenor, voice teacher, lecturer, and author.
David has appeared as tenor soloist with virtually every major North American symphony orchestra, and with other prestigious orchestras and music festivals on four continents. His concert repertoire spans eight centuries of music and eight languages.
"A virtuoso singer and actor," (Salzburg Nachrichten), David has performed 60 principal operatic roles with the Chicago Lyric Opera; San Francisco Opera; Houston Grand Opera; Metropolitan Opera; Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center; Hamburg Staatsoper (Germany), and other companies in North America, Europe, and Japan.
For 30 seasons David was a central figure at the Carmel Bach Festival in California, where he was tenor soloist, Dramaturge, lecturer, and director of the Festival's master class for young professional singers. In 2003 he began producing the Festival's supertitles, a duty he continues to perform today. Word quickly spread, and his supertitles of great choral works have been used by dozens of orchestras and choral ensembles throughout North America.
The music of J.S. Bach has a special place in David's career. The Chicago Tribune described him as "one of the world's great Bach tenors," and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch called him "One of the greatest interpreters of the Evangelist of our time." He has sung Bach's music in hundreds of concerts in North and South America, Europe, and Japan.
David's classical discography includes eight centuries of music on CDs for RCA Red Seal, Decca, London, Telarc, Naxos, Dorian, Newport, and Vox.
David's fascination with daily life in historical times led to write The Little Bach Book, his eclectic and unique study of the everyday world in Bach's time. It is richly illustrated and filled with amazing details about daily life in Leipzig when Bach and his family lived there in the early 1700s. Learn more...
David lives in Pacific Grove, California, with his wife, Ginna BB Gordon, an artist and author. Together David and Ginna are the owners of Lucky Valley Press, a boutique publisher providing editing and design services to independent authors.
You can read a more detailed description of David's career here...
Classical Music Bio Classical CDs Performing Credits Press Clippings