Nicholas Phan to make a connection with Benjamin Britten

By Mark Wedel, Kalamazoo Gazette

KALAMAZOO, MI — Nicholas Phan discovered Benjamin Britten while browsing through old love letters at the University of Michigan’s music library in the late ’90s.

Tenor Nicholas Phan discovered Benjamin Britten as a student at University of Michigan. He’ll perform a recital of Britten and Schubert for Fontana Chamber Arts on Oct. 19. Courtesy photo

Phan, now an acclaimed rising star tenor who’s performed opera to solo recitals in the U.S. and Europe, will sing a selection of Britten compositions and arrangements for Fontana Chamber Arts  on Oct. 19. He’ll be with his pianist Myra Huang, and Gail Williams on French horn.

At U-of-M, he was a student staying in his hometown of Ann Arbor for college. He had been a violinist since he was four, but in high school, “I got bit by the drama bug,” he said from a quiet spot in Central Park, in his new hometown of New York City.

Just for fun, he auditioned for the school’s production of “The Music Man.”  “Everybody responded to my audition so positively and so excitedly, they cast me right away at the first round of auditions,” he said. “From then on I was like, ‘okay, you can sing!'”

At U-of-M he learned that classical voice was for him. He’d also come out as gay. When he discovered Britten, he’d found a role model. The composer became romantically involved with tenor Peter Pears in the 1940s, and the two lived together when their relationship could’ve gotten them imprisoned in Great Britain.

In the archives, “I became fascinated by the love story between him and Peter Pears. I was reading their correspondence, their love letters back-and-forth, and I was just astounded by this really romantic story, that this relationship and great love between two people could spawn such beautiful music. … It was incredible to me,” Phan said.

Read the full article by Mark Wedel from Kalamazoo Gazette.