Steven van Gils - tenor

Nederlandse versie

Biography

Steven van Gils began his voice studies at the Conservatory of Rotterdam during the latter stages of his Masters studies in Economics at the University of Amsterdam. After being taught by Frans Huijts for the first few years, he graduated under the tutelage of Roberta Alexander.
   He has taken further lessons and master classes with Carolyn Watkinson, Jard van Nes, Maarten Koningsberger, Nico van der Meel, Sheila Barnes, Roger Braun, Kelvin Grout, Meinard Kraak and Adrian Thompson.

In the field of oratorio he has performed the solo parts in, amongst others, Mozart's Requiem, in Händel's Messiah, in Franck's Sieben Worte, in Gounods Messe Solennelle, in Stainer’s Crucifixion, in Stravinsky's Les Noces, in Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, in Haydn's Stabat Mater and both in Rossini's Stabat Mater and in his Petite Messe Solennelle. He has been a soloist in many of Bach's Cantata's, as well as having sung the Evangelist in the Matthäus Passion (St. Matthew Passion), in the Johannes Passion (St. John Passion), in the reconstruction of the Markus Passion (Bach/Koopman) and in the recent Dutch reinterpreted translation of the Matthäus Passion. He has also sung the aria's in the Matthäus Passion, in the 1725 Johannes Passion, in the Weihnachts Oratorium (Christmas Oratorio) and in the Hohe Messe (High Mass).

In opera he has performed the roles of Tamino and Monostatos in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) and the role of First Sailor in Dido and Aeneas by Purcell. Furthermore, with The New Opera Academy (DNOA) he played Lysander in Britten's A Midsummernight’s Dream and with Opera Intermezzo he played the roles of  Marsyas in Grétry's  Le Jugement de Midas and of Mr. Ford in Salieri's Falstaff.
   During concert performances he has sung the title role in Mozart's Idomeneo, Orfée in Gluck’s Orfée et Eurydice (Parisian version) and Charlie in Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel.
   He can also be heard as Monostatos in the Dutch language recording of Die Zauberflöte (de Toverfluit) that is used by the Amsterdam Marionette Theatre in its puppeteering performances.
   Dutch language opera forms an important part of his repertoire. He sung the main tenor part of Armand in Constant van de Walls rediscovered late-romantic Attima and recently he created the role of Willem II in Ruud van Eeten's opera of the same name. For Music Theatre Hollands Diep he played Wuddink in Hans Koolmees's new Waterman.
   With this company he also played the part of Mackie Messer in Die Dreigroschenoper (Three penny opera) by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. He has also performed in several projects instigated by youth opera producer YO!, such as the large scale Opera uit het Hart (Opera from the Heart), as well as the Dutch opera short Busvlinder by composer Bob Zimmerman.
   He was a also part of the successful production De Noces / Svadebka / de Bruiloft (The Wedding) by Music Theatre Collective Walpurgis, which succesfully ran at the Oerol Festival, as well as other festivals in Belgium and France.
   At Oerol he has performed multiple times, last year with the Resident Artists Program of the National Reisopera as Toby in Offenbachs Robinson Crusoé, and in 2006 as part of Roeland by Buffo Operamakers.

In the field of contemporary music he has recently become involved with VocaalLAB Nederland. For them he has amongst others performed the part of Dr. S. in Nyman's The Man who mistook his Wife for a Hat. This season he will be one of the three singers in the new opera De Gehangenen (The Hanged) by Jan Kuijken and he will perform the role of Sparrow in Richard Ayres' The Cricket Recovers directed by Pierre Audi during the Holland Festival.

In the genre of art song and Lieder he frequently partners with pianist Rixt van der Kooij. Together they have performed amongst others Schuberts Winterreise, early songcycles by Hugo Wolf, cycles by Robert Schumann, Lieder by Johannes Brahms and Britten's On this Island as well as his Holy Sonnets of John Donne.

email: info@stevenvangils.com