Biography
American baritone Sanford Sylvan earned widespread recognition for his performances in John Adams’s Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, yet his operatic work in other productions also drew consistent praise. Throughout his career he concentrated most deeply on the art-song literature, an emphasis that earned lasting appreciation from audiences at recitals and from collectors of lieder and chanson recordings.
Born in New York, Sylvan first trained as a teenager in the preparatory division of the Juilliard School before completing his undergraduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music. International attention arrived when he originated the role of Chou En-Lai at the Houston Opera premiere of Nixon in China in 1987; the original-cast recording of that opera received a Grammy Award two years later. Over the course of his career he earned several additional Grammy nominations. His operatic engagements spanned the repertoire from Mozart, including a PBS-televised Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, to Stravinsky’s The Flood. Adams again engaged him for the 1991 premiere of The Death of Klinghoffer, for the 1988 song cycle The Wound-Dresser on texts by Walt Whitman, and for the 2009 opera A Flowering Tree. Contemporary composers Philip Glass and John Harbison likewise wrote for his voice.
In recital and on disc Sylvan collaborated exclusively with pianist David Breitman; their joint interpretations, notably of Gabriel Fauré’s chansons, remain especially valued. The pair introduced Jorge Martin’s song cycle The Glass Hammer at Carnegie Hall in 2000. Sylvan joined the Juilliard faculty in 2012 and was appointed chair of its vocal program in 2018. He died in early 2019 at the age of sixty-five.
Born in New York, Sylvan first trained as a teenager in the preparatory division of the Juilliard School before completing his undergraduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music. International attention arrived when he originated the role of Chou En-Lai at the Houston Opera premiere of Nixon in China in 1987; the original-cast recording of that opera received a Grammy Award two years later. Over the course of his career he earned several additional Grammy nominations. His operatic engagements spanned the repertoire from Mozart, including a PBS-televised Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, to Stravinsky’s The Flood. Adams again engaged him for the 1991 premiere of The Death of Klinghoffer, for the 1988 song cycle The Wound-Dresser on texts by Walt Whitman, and for the 2009 opera A Flowering Tree. Contemporary composers Philip Glass and John Harbison likewise wrote for his voice.
In recital and on disc Sylvan collaborated exclusively with pianist David Breitman; their joint interpretations, notably of Gabriel Fauré’s chansons, remain especially valued. The pair introduced Jorge Martin’s song cycle The Glass Hammer at Carnegie Hall in 2000. Sylvan joined the Juilliard faculty in 2012 and was appointed chair of its vocal program in 2018. He died in early 2019 at the age of sixty-five.
Albums
