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Hadyn's Die Schopfung with the Quebec Symphony:
“Among the soloists, I especially loved Colin Balzer
for among other things his presence and the heart he brings to every phrase. His way of singing was exemplary, his velvety
voice full of poetry." -Le Soleil, December 4, 2008 |
Bach Cantatas with Early Music Vancouver:
"This
particular assortment of cantatas favoured tenor Balzer, who can sing Bach's often attenuated lines with a lithe, seemingly
effortless lightness, then ratchet up the drama for recitatives and quasi-operatic arias like the tempestuous 'Stuermt
nur, stuermt' from the intimately scaled Cantata BWV 153."
-The Vancouver Sun, December 24, 2008 |
Haendel's Messiah with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra:
“Colin Balzer was elegance itself in his tenor solos, his singing sophisticated and beautifully shaped in his treatment
of the phrases.” -The Calgary Herald, December 6, 2008 |
With assured musicality and the varied tonal palette of a lieder
specialist, Canadian lyric Colin Balzer's 2008-2009 season includes the title role of Monteverdi's Orfeo
in Edmonton, Haydn's Die Schoepfung with Yoav Talmi and the Quebec Symphony, Haendel's Messiah with
the Calgary Philharmonic, the Mozart Requiem with the National Philharmonic, Mendelssohn's Elijah with
the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Purcell's The Fairy Queen with Early Music Vancouver, Haydn's Lord Nelson
Mass throughout Belgium with Philippe Herregweghe and Collegium Vocale Ghent; a European tour of Haendel's Brockes
Passion with Marcus Creed and the Akademie fuer alte Musik; and the role of Sacerdote in Mozart's Idomeneo
under Marc Minkowski at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. In 2009-2010, he makes his Philadelphia Chamber Music
Society recital debut, appears in Messiah with the Toronto and Edmonton Symphonies; returns to Early Music Vancouver
for Christmas Cantatas and rejoins Mto. Minkowski for Idomeneo at the Salzburg Festival.
Recent seasons have included concerts with the Het Brabants Orkest, Scottish Chamber
Orchestra, Luxembourg Symphony, Munich Bach Choir, Leipzig Baroque Orchestra, Toronto’s Tafelmusik, Quebec's Les
Violons du Roy, the Victoria, Quebec, Indianapolis, Ann Arbor, Oregon and New Jersey Symphonies. In addition he sang Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch at Finland’s Savonlinna Festival,
Acis in Handel’s Acis and Galatea at Festival Vancouver, and Mattheson’s Boris
Goudenow and Lully's Psyche at the Boston Early Music Festival. He frequently collaborates
with such distinguished conductors as Leopold Hager, Bernard Labadie, Helmuth
Rilling, Simone Young, Simon Preston, Gabriel Chmura, Christof Perick, Mario Venzago and Kenneth Montgomery.
Particularly esteemed as
a recitalist, he has been welcomed at London’s Wigmore Hall (accompanied by Graham Johnson), the Britten Festival in
Aldeburgh, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the Wratislavia Cantans in Poland, and at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden.
Recordings to date include Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch and Eisler and Henze song anthologies. A prizewinner of Holland’s ‘s-Hertogenbosch
Competition, the U.K.’s Wigmore Hall Song Competition, Stuttgart, Germany’s Hugo Wolf Competition
and Munich's 55th International ARD Competition, Mr. Balzer also holds the rare distinction of earning the Gold Medal
at the Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau with the highest score in 25 years. Born in British
Columbia, he received his formal musical training at the University of British Columbia with David Meek and with Edith Wiens
at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg/Augsburg.
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