Hailed as “clearly gifted with intelligence and
musicality” by the New York Concert Review, Alexander Hurd has garnered
critical acclaim for his performances of repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to
Ligeti.
A singer who often appears in recital and in
performances of contemporary music, his 2012-13 performances include the world
premiere of Robert Dennis’s When it
rains…, Harbison’s A Full Moon in March and Liptak’s Under the Resurrection Palm with the Buffalo
Chamber Players, and Bach’s Ich
habe genug with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra under maestro Glen
Cortese.
Recent highlights include “The Singing Serpent,” a
collaborative program with the Pittsburgh Song Collective and the Pittsburgh
Zoo; Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles at SUNY-Fredonia; the premieres
of new works by Robert Dennis and Karl Kramer with Concerts in the Heights;
Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols with the Norwalk
Symphony; Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with soprano Tony Arnold
and pianist David Breitman; the premiere of the recently-rediscovered Heine-
Liederzyklus of Marcel Tyberg; the part of Testo in Monteverdi’s Combattimento
di Tancredi e Clorinda with the Buffalo Chamber Players; Aaron Jay Kernis’s
Infinite Sky, Brilliant Sky, with the Society for New Music; Glass’s Songs of Milarepa for the opening of The
University at Buffalo’s Center for 21st Century Music; the 50th
Anniversary Gala of The Joy in Singing Award at Merkin Hall; a recital at the
Minato Mirai Hall in Yokohama, Japan; and Copland’s Old American Songs with the
Newark-Granville Symphony Orchestra under maestro Timothy Weiss.
Hurd’s recording of songs by John Musto, was released
by Centaur Records in 2009. It features twenty-four of the composer’s songs,
including nine world- premiere recordings. Cantos, a disc devoted to the
vocal works of Ricardo Zohn- Muldoon, was released by Bridge Records in 2010.
He is the winner of the 2005 Joy In Singing Award. In
2004 he received 2nd prize in the Young Concert Artists International
Auditions. A Fulbright Grantee, he studied the lied repertoire in Stuttgart,
Germany.
He earned dual Bachelor’s degrees in voice performance
and history from Oberlin College and his Master’s and Doctoral degrees from The
Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
He has served on the voice faculties of SUNY-Potsdam,
SUNY-Buffalo, and SUNY-Fredonia, teaching applied voice.
© Alexander Hurd, 2013