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The Ameican tenor, Daniel McGrew, obtained his Bachelos of Music degree in Voice from Oberlin College (September 2011-April 2015); his Master of Music degree in Voice, Early Music, Chamber Music, and Song from Yale School of Music (September 2015-April 2017); and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice and Opera from University of Michigan (September 2017-April 2020).
A winner of the 2021 Young Concert Artists International auditions, Daniel McGrew is an active performer of a broad range of repertoires spanning opera, musical theatre, early, and new music. Most recently, he has been seen at the Marlboro Music Festival in performances of L.v. Beethoven and Robert Schumann, as a guest artist at Songfest for the world premiere of John Harbison’s Poems for Robin and as a guest at the Tanglewood Music Center for the American-premiere of George Benjamin and Martin Crimp’s Lessons in Love and Violence, under the baton of the composer. His upcoming performances include debuts at The Kennedy Center and New York’s Merkin Hall as a recent winner of the 2021 Young Concert Artist Auditions in addition to appearances with the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Pro Musica Columbus and Mirror Visions Ensemble.
Recent operatic appearances include Harlekin in Ullman’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis, and the title roles in Leonard Bernstein’s Candide and Charpentier’s La descente d'Orphée aux enfers, each at the University of Michigan and under the direction of Matthew Ozawa. As part of the Tanglewood Music Center’s celebration of the Leonard Bernstein centennial, Daniel McGrew performed François in A Quiet Place, directed by Peter Kazaras. Additional highlights include title roles in Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring and Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Contino Belfiore in W.A. Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, Ecclitico in Haydn’s Il mondo della luna, and Toquemada in Ravel’s L’heure Espagnole, all at the Oberlin Conservatory. He recently joined Opera Colorado for the recording of Gerald Cohen and Deborah Brevoort’s Steal a Pencil for Me, which the company premiered in 2018.
Also at Tanglewood, Daniel McGrew received mentorship from Dawn Upshaw, Sanford Sylvan and Stephanie Blythe, culminating in performances of B. Britten’s Les illuminations, sacred works of Heinrich Schütz, Schubert ensembles with Emanuel Ax, and, for the Festival of Contemporary Music, György Kurtág’s Three Ancient Inscriptions. On his performance of those songs, the Boston Globe lauded Daniel’s “viciously beautiful timbre;” Classical Scene praised his “intense concentration,… clarity, and ferocity.” Additional performances of new music include the role of Jesus in the premier of Robert Kyr’s oratorio, Transfiguration, with Yale Camerata, Reena Esmail’s This Love Between Us, with Yale Schola Cantorum and Juilliard415, and a concert on the NYFOS Next series exploring the music of James Primosch. He is currently collaborating with Guggenheim Fellow, Matthew Ricketts on a new cycle written for him and pianist Nathanial LaNasa.
Daniel McGrew performed in the symphonic premiere of James Lapine’s revue, Sondheim on Sondheim, with the Boston Pops Orchestra. He later joined Kate Baldwin, Liz Calloway, and other Broadway actors in David Loud’s, A Good Thing Going, for which his “most beautiful, longing-imbued tenor” was celebrated as “a find!” (Woman Around Town).
An early music specialist, Daniel McGrew has performed J.S. Bach with numerous conductors including Matthew Halls, John Harbison, David Hill, Kenneth Slowik, and Masaaki Suzuki, including a one-on-a-part B Minor Mass (BWV 232) at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. He has made multiple appearances with Gamut Bach Ensemble at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and the Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity Cantata Series. He joined Elm City Consort for Douce Dame: Woman and the Ars Nova, a program exploring women’s voices in the 14th century through the music of Guillaume de Machaut and Phillipe de Vitry. As a soloist with Yale Schola Cantorum, he appeared in J.S. Bach’s Missa brevis in A major, BWV 234 at Alice Tully Hall, Arvo Pärt’s Passio in performances throughout Russia and the Baltic region, J.S. Bach’s Magnificat in D major, BWV 243 throughout India, and the Monteverdi's Vespers 1610 and George Frideric Handel’s Occasional Oratorio in New York and New Haven. He twice attended the Bach Institute at Emmanuel Music in Boston.
Daniel McGrew is deeply committed to recital performance and the art of song - he very recently joined the Five Boroughs Music Festival and Brooklyn Art Song Society to present a complete cycle of Wolf’s Mörike Liederbuch with Martin Katz. In the spring of 2020 he joined the Mirror Visions Ensemble, with whom he now appears regularly. He has also made numerous appearances with the New York Festival of Song and University Music Society. In 2019, he attended Stephanie Blythe’s Fall Island Vocal Seminar, performing the songs of living American composers.
Daniel McGrew is a committed teacher and pedagogue, having taught studio voice, lyric dictions, and music history at University of Michigan (September 2017-April 2020), Oberlin Conservatory, Bowling Green State University, and Adrian College (September 2019-April 2020), and Regional Center for the Arts in Trumbull, Connecticut (September 2020-October 2021). He currently maintains a private studio in Stamford, Connecticut. |
