Steven Rickards

Steven Rickards has received international acclaim as one of America’s finest countertenors. He recently took part in the premiere of John Adams’s oratorio El Niño at the Châtelet opera in Paris. There have been subsequent performances of the work with the Adelaide Symphony, the BBC Philharmonic, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, the Tokyo Symphony, and the Malmö Opera (Sweden). His schedule of performances has included frequent appearances Joshua Rifkin and the Bach Ensemble with performances throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. He has also performed with The American Bach Soloists, Chanticleer, Ensemble Voltaire (formerly Ensemble Oubache), the Gabrieli Consort, Chicago ’s Music of the Baroque, the New London Consort, The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, The Santa Fe Opera, and the symphony orchestras of Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and St. Louis and Tokyo. He has sung at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York, and in France as a soloist with The Festival Singers under the direction of Robert Shaw. Rickards was the soloist in the American premiere performance of Michael Nyman’s Self-Laudatory Hymn of Inanna and Her Omnipotence with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. He has recorded for Chanticleer, Decca, Dorian, Four Winds, Gothic, Harmonia Mundi, Koch, Newport Classics, Smithsonian, and Teldec the labels. Rickards can also be heard on the Naxos label where he has recorded two solo albums with lutenist Dorothy Linell of the songs of John Dowland and Thomas Campion.

Steven Rickards’ compositions are frequently heard in district and state high school festivals and in churches around the world.  His works have been performed by organizations such as the Orlando Deanery Boy Choir, Florida’s Singing Sons, and the American Boy Choir.  His choral compositions have been premiered by groups including the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, the Singing Hoosiers, and the Christ Church Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys (Indianapolis). His compositions are published by Colla Voce and Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

Steven currently lives in Indianapolis where he teaches singing at Butler University and the University of Indianapolis. He sings regularly with The Choir of Men and Boys at Christ Church Cathedral, and with Paul Hillier and the Theatre of Voices. He recently received his doctorate from Florida State University.