Biography

Hailed as an “impressive tenor” (The New York Times) who sings with “sweet vibrancy” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer) and creates “the most lasting moments” (The Virginia Gazette) of the performance, Gene Stenger is rapidly making his mark as specialist in the oratorio repertoire.

Gene's 2019-2020 season will feature his debuts with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (Mozart's Requiem), Odyssey Opera (world premiere of Arnold Rosner's The Chronicle of Nine), Orchestra Seattle and Seattle Chamber Singers (Bach's St. Matthew Passion), Chatham Baroque (BWV 93), Mineola Choral Society (Haydn's Creation), Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity New York (BWV 140 & 144), and ARTEK. His return solo engagements include performances with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven's Symphony No. 9), Bach Society of St. Louis (Mozart's Requiem, and Bach's Magnificat), Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (Handel's Messiah), Colorado Bach Ensemble (Handel's Messiah), TENET Vocal Artists (Bach's Christmas Oratorio), Madison Bach Musicians (Monteverdi's Vespers), Bach Collegium at St. Peter's New York (Bach's St. Matthew Passion), and the Yale Camerata (Mendelssohn’s Elijah).

The 2018-2019 season featured debuts with the Staunton Music Festival (Handel’s Theodora, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion), Bach Akademie Charlotte (Bach’s Magnificat, and St. Matthew Passion), the Harvard Baroque Orchestra (Handel’s Judas Maccabeus), Emmanuel Music (BWV 24 & 28), and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (Handel’s Messiah). His return solo engagements included performances with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra (Handel’s Messiah), TENET Vocal Artists (Handel’s Messiah, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion), the Baldwin Wallace University Bach Festival (BWV 4), the Oregon Bach Festival (BWV 74), and Bach Collegium at St. Peter's New York (Bach's St. John Passion).

Mr. Stenger has also made appearances with the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, performing as the tenor soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion under the baton of Helmuth Rilling, which included an international tour in both Germany, and South America, and was featured in a documentary about Rilling’s life entitled Ein Leben mit Bach (A Life with Bach), the American Classical Orchestra, Voices of Ascension, the Northeast Pennsylvania Bach Festival, the Yale Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the Yale Schola Cantorum at Lincoln Center, and has also performed a solo quartet version of David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Equally at home in chamber music, he has performed with numerous professional ensembles, including the GRAMMY® award-winning Apollo’s Fire: the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, the GRAMMY® nominated True Concord Voices and Orchestra, the GRAMMY® nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street, the Clarion Music Society, and the Yale Choral Artists.

In addition to concert repertoire, Mr. Stenger’s opera credits include Tonio-cover (La fille du Régiment), Count Almaviva-cover (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), King Kaspar (Amahl and the Night Visitors), and El Remendado (Carmen) with Opera Fort Collins, where he served as an Apprentice Artist with the company from 2010-2013. Additional opera roles include Paolino (Il matrimonio segreto), Peter Quint-cover (Turn of the Screw), the roles of Pirelli and The Beadle (Sweeney Todd), and Marco Palmieri (The Gondoliers) with the Charles and Reta Ralph Opera Center, Pygmalion-cover (Pygmalion) with the American Bach Soloists Academy, Albert Herring (Albert Herring) with Opera in the Ozarks, and the role of the Stage Manager in the Ohio premiere of Ned Rorem’s Our Town with Baldwin Wallace University Opera. Internationally, Gene has performed Ferrando (Cosi fan tutte) with Opera Orvieto, and has also participated in an opera scenes exchange program with students from East China Normal University in Shanghai, China.

Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Gene holds degrees from Yale University’s School of Music, and Institute of Sacred Music, Colorado State University, and Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music. Recent discography credits include tenor soloist in Schmelzer’s Le Memorie Dolorose with TENET Vocal Artists and ACRONYM, and tenor soloist on Yale Schola Cantorum’s album Fauré Requiem and other sacred music led by David Hill released on Hyperion Records. In 2017, Gene was a Virginia Best Adams vocal fellow with the Carmel Bach Festival, and was a prize winner in the annual Handel Aria Competition in Madison, WI. He currently resides in New Haven, CT, where he serves as instructor of voice at Yale University.