| Biography
Hailed as "clearly gifted with intelligence and musicality" by the The New York Concert Review, Alexander Hurd's performances have garnered consistent critical acclaim. A singer whose interests are far-reaching, the repertoire of “the fine young baritone” (The New Yorker) ranges from Bach to Ligeti.
Highlights of the current season include recitals in Yokohama, Japan, Buffalo, and at the University of Illinois. This fall, Hurd sings on a concert featuring the vocal music of Paul Brantley in New York City. In May he will perform Respighi's Il tramonto with the Buffalo Chamber Players. Later that month he performs a program of vocal chamber music on the Concerts in the Heights series in New York City.
Recent performances include recitals in New York City, Buffalo, Salt Lake City, Oberlin, and at the University of Illinois, Philip Glass' Songs of Milarepa with the University at Buffalo's Slee Sinfonietta as part of the opening concert for the Center for 21st Century Musi, George Crumb's A Journey Beyond Time with Speculum Musicae at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, the New York Premiere of John Musto's River Songs, also at Merkin Concert Hall, a private master class and performance of Poulenc’s Le bal masqué conducted by James Levine, the part of Pan in Bach's Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan at Tanglewood under Craig Smith, and songs by William Bolcom and Ned Rorem with pianist Brian Zeger at the 2005 Lotte Lehmann Foundation benefit honoring Phyllis Curtin.
Mr. Hurd is the winner of the 2005 Joy In Singing Award and the Vocal Arts Resource Network Song Competition. In 2004 he received 2nd Prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. In 2003 a CEC International Partners ArtsLink Grant took him to Slovenia to present a series of recitals and lectures on Twentieth-Century American Art Song. A Fulbright Grantee, he studied the Lied repertoire in Stuttgart, Germany. He has spent summers at prestigious music festivals, receiving fellowships to the Aspen Music Festival, the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Steans Institute at Ravinia.
A graduate of Oberlin College, he holds bachelors degrees in Modern European History and Voice Performance. He received his master's degree in Voice Performance from the University of Cincinnati where he is also completing work towards a doctorate. His teachers have included Dr. Robert C. White, Barbara Honn, William McGraw, Marlene Rosen, and William Sharp.
Alexander Hurd has served as Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo since 2004. Prior to this appointment he taught at SUNY-Potsdam’s Crane School of Music.
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