Grammy-winning American tenor
RICHARD CLEMENT has performed with most of America’s major orchestras and music directors, bringing
tonal beauty and superb musicality to repertoire from the baroque to the contemporary. He recently
earned particular acclaim for the title role of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius with the North Carolina Symphony and
Sacramento Choral Arts Society and Orchestra. In addition he premiered--and recorded--Theofanides' The Here and
Now with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony, including performances in Atlanta and at New York’s Carnegie
Hall. Among the most in-demand tenors for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, invitations include the Brooklyn
Philharmonic, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; New Jersey, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Oregon, San Diego, Baltimore, Nashville, Phoenix,
Colorado and Toledo Symphonies. He recently sung Elijah with the Memphis and Charlotte Symphonies; and
the Verdi Requiem with the the Santa Rosa Symphony and Chautauqua Music Festival Orchestra. 2008-2009
engagements include the Atlanta Symphony for Messiah and concert performances of John Adams' Doctor Atomic;
Beethoven's Missa solemnis with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra; and the Memphis Symphony's Die
Schoepfung. His current season includes returns to the New Jersey Symphony for the Verdi Requiem under
Neeme Jaervi, Die Schoepfung with the Puerto Rico Symphony, Beethoven's Missa solemnis with the National
Arts Centre Orchestra and a return to the Atlanta Symphony for more Messiahs.
Mr. Clement has performed the role of Belmonte
in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony; Rachmaninoff’s
The Bells with Jeffrey Kahane and the Colorado Symphony; Carmina Burana with Neeme Järvi and the Detroit
Symphony, Haydn’s Die Schoepfung with Duain Wolfe and the Colorado Symphony; and Die
Schoepfung and two Mozart programs with Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society
under Grant Llewellyn. He also sang Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht
and Second Symphony with Kurt Masur and the Israel Philharmonic; Toch’s Cantata of the Bitter Herbs
with the Czech Philharmonic; the Mozart Requiem with the Saint Louis Symphony; Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex
with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony; Kernis’ Millenium Symphony with the Minnesota Orchestra;
Mendelssohn’s Second Symphony with the Atlanta Symphony; Tippett’s A Child of Our Time
with Jeffrey Kahane and the Santa Rosa Symphony; The Bells with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony in Lincoln
Center’s Avery Fisher Hall; Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ and Beethoven’s Missa solemnis
with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In addition he has been guest soloist with the Cleveland and Philadelphia
Orchestras; Houston, Toronto, San Francisco and Cincinnati Symphonies, and collaborated with such conductors as Wolfgang Sawallisch,
Jesús López-Cobos, Bobby McFerrin, Daniel Harding, Christopher Hogwood, Carlo Rizzi, John
Mauceri, Marin Alsop, Hugh Wolff and James Conlon.
Festival engagements include Tanglewood (concert performance of Act
III of Verdi’s Falstaff), Beethoven #9 at both Grant Park and the Hollywood Bowl, and the Bach B Minor
Mass with Seiji Ozawa at Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival.
Mr. Clement’s considerable operatic credentials
include Pedrillo in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Sir Colin Davis and the New York
Philharmonic; Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at Belgium’s De Vlaamse Opera and with the Colorado
Symphony. At the Vancouver Opera his roles include Nanki-Poo (The Mikado), Ferrando (Così
fan tutte), Little Bat (Susannah) and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni); Ernesto (Don Pasquale) at
Glimmerglass Opera; Vanya (Katya Kabanova) and To-No-Chujo (Tale of the Genji) at Opera Theater of St. Louis;
Belmonte (Entführung) with the Boston Baroque; Lensky (Eugen Onegin) and Nemorino
(L’elisir d’amore) at Opera Festival of New Jersey; Candide, Lockwood (Wuthering Heights) and
Fenton (Falstaff) at Boston Lyric Opera; and Albert Herring with the Atlanta Opera.
Mr.
Clement studied voice at Georgia State University and the Cincinnati Conservatory, where he received his Master of Music degree.
He was a Tanglewood Music Festival Fellow, has been a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio and was a recipient
of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Jacobson Study Grant. Recordings include Britten’s War
Requiem with the Washington Choral Society, Bartók’s Cantata Profana with the Atlanta Symphony
(both Grammy winners) and Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame. Mr. Clement is currently on staff as a visiting lecturer at Atlanta's Georgia
State University.
