 The repertoire of Roger Pines (countertenor) has ranged in America from Primo Pastore in Monteverdi's Orfeo (The Dallas Opera) and the alto solos of Bach's Magnificat (Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra) to Oberon in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (The Opera of the University of Wisconsin-Madison). His concert activities have also included appearances with San Diego's early-music ensemble Nota Bene, of which he was a founding member; the Dallas Bach Society; the vocal ensemble of the Newberry Consort; and a recital at Madison's Elvehjem Museum of Art. He has twice sung the Messiah alto solos at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel. In February 2008 he will perform for the third time with Chicago's Callypigian Players in Handel's Esther.
Mr. Pines changed from tenor to countertenor after substituting at short notice for an ailing colleague in a concert at Munich's Herkules-Saal by the renowned Clemencic Consort. He later performed a early-music repertoire with that ensemble in Vienna, Florence, and Venice. His European credits also include two rarely heard Baroque operas, Draghi's La vita nella morte and Emperor Leopold II's Il lutto dell'universo, with Vienna's Spectaculum festival, as well as concerts with Cappella Academica Wien at Vienna's Musikverein; with the Paul-Hofhaymer Ensemble in Salzburg; and with Musica Antiqua Wien in Vienna and Belgrade. Mr. Pines is a soloist and choir member at Chicago's Church of the Ascension. His “day job” is dramaturg at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he has been on the staff since 1995. An alumnus of Amherst College (Massachusetts), Mr. Pines was a soloist with the Amherst College Glee Club for four years, including tours to 24 countries. |