Steven Ebel

Steven Ebel was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme as a tenor in 2009-2011 at the Royal Opera House-Covent Garden. Self-taught as a composer, he made history when he became the first singer/composer in the history of the Royal Opera House to perform his own work under its auspices in October 2009. Entitled Diary of a Young Poet, a staged 40 minute work for tenor, narrator and piano set to poems and prose by Rilke, commissioned by the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme. He also presented an excerpt from his opera Morgens in the ROH2 Exposure series and has had five song cycles premiered as part of a recital series at ROH: Divan Songs (tenor and piano), As I walk to her grave (for soprano and piano quintet), The being of all things (tenor and piano), Irish Lullabies (soprano and piano) and Der Schatzgräber (mezzo and piano). His International Suite for Solo Violin was premiered at the Royal College of Music in London and Turnings, a suite for woodwind trio, was commissioned and premiered by the Kandinsky Winds at the Chichester Festival. Cadillac Rain for voices, electric guitar and ensemble was recently performed by New Music New York this past summer. Other song cycles which he has premiered include The Fear – premiered at UW-Madison (2008), Vestiges – premiered at the community Church of NYC (2006), A Timbered Choir and Wedding Songs. In the USA, he served as Co-Director of New Music New York (NMNY), for which he has fulfilled many commissions, including the premiere of Look Out, a 35 minute cycle to poems of agrarian poet Wendell Berry, and The Privilege of Art, a composition for multiple voices and ensemble to a poem by Emerson.  He has also been the recipient of a Puffin Foundation and Meet the Composer Foundation grants. He premiered The Fool's Air and Prophecy for voice and ensemble at Merkin Hall in New York City with Washington Square Contemporary Music Ensemble. In Germany he has received commissions from Musikakademie diapason in Karlsruhe where last year saw the premiere of Geh' aus mein Herz - Variationen for youth string quartet and sang the premiere of Ringlenätze, a comedic work for youth string orchestra and tenor this May.  He is making his French debut as a performer and composer in October at the Theater du Capitole in Toulouse. A further commission in 2013 comes from dramatic soprano Margareta Brandt, a mono-opera on the subject of Maria di Magdelone in Finland. Soprano Marika Schönberg has also commissioned a work to texts of Kahlil Gibran from The Prophet entitled Cycle it will have its premiere in December in her native Stockholm. 

Recent operatic performances include Victorin/Voice of Gaston in Die tote Stadt (Royal Opera House debut), Tamino Die Zauberflöte (Cleveland Institute), Frank Olson in Man: Biologi of a Fall (New York: world premiere), Peter Quint The turn of the Screw (Opera Cleveland) and Jimmy Mahoney in Mahagonny (Tanglewood Music Festival and Italian tour). He joined the Jette Parker Young Artist Program in 2009, and has sang his son cycle Diary of a Young Poet (Meet the Young Artist Week), Rimenes Artaxerxes, Major-Domo to Faninal Der Rosenkavalier, Hypocondriac Gambler The Gambler, Albazar Il Turco in Italia and Forth Jew Salomé, Gernando L'isola disabitata, Heinrich der Schreiber Tannhäuser, Joaquino Fidelio and Malcom Macbeth for The Royal Opera He is currently engaged as a singer at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe Germany and has upcoming engagements in Munich, Toulouse and Santiago de Chile.