Praised by The New York Times for his “rich timbre” and “fine sense of line,” Mischa Bouvier is a winner of the 2010 CAG Victor Elmaleh Competition. “Mischa Bouvier’s rich baritone voice…and his refined artistry” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), make an immediate impact combined with his keen musicality and remarkable communicative powers.
Orchestral highlights in 2014-15 include: return engagements for Handel’s Messiah with the Alabama Symphony and Atlanta Baroque Orchestra and a debut with the Stamford Symphony (CT) for Mozart’s Requiem. He also continues his annual seasonal appearances with the American Bach Soloists (Polyphemus in Acis & Galatea) and Bach Collegium San Diego (Handel’s La Resurrezione), and regular appearances with the vocal ensemble TENET, including Monteverdi’s Vespers in NYC and Boston, and Jesus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico. Other international appearances include Holland’s Maastricht Musica Sacra Festival with the vocal ensemble Cut Circle and Paris with the Mirror Visions Ensemble. Mischa’s featured recitals for 14-15 include the Chamber Music society of Little Rock, Abbey Church Concerts (WA) and Art Trail Gallery (SC), and special performances with the Mimesis Ensemble at Weill Recital Hall and a Baroque Holiday program with Close Encounters with Music in Great Barrington, MA.
In 2013-14, Mischa made his Alice Tully Hall debut with Musica Sacra singing the New York premiere of Jocelyn Hagan’s amass and also his debut with his hometown Alabama Symphony Orchestra (Messiah). Other recent highlights are: Orchestra of St. Luke’s and Musica Sacra at Carnegie Hall in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (bass soloist); New York’s St. Thomas Church Choir (St. John Passion – bass soloist / Pilate); Princeton Glee Club (Fauré’s Requiem and Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs); American Bach Soloists (Magnificat, Handel’s Apollo and Dafne and Messiah and Lotti’s Mass for Three Choirs); Bach Collegium San Diego (Mozart’s Requiem); Columbus Symphony (Brahms’ Requiem); Pittsburgh’s Chatham Baroque (St. John Passion – bass soloist / Pilate); NYC’s ‘Sacred Music in a Sacred Space’ (St. Matthew Passion – bass soloist / Pilate); and the Colorado Symphony in Denver & Beaver Creek (Messiah).
Recent recitals with pianist Yegor Shevtsov include a southern tour with performances on the Macon Concert Series and Clemson University’s Utsey Chamber Music Series at the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts, as well as the Baldwin-Wallace Art Song Festival, Trinity Church’s “Concerts at One,” and the Music Room at the Lindberg Farm. His debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall featured new works by four emerging composers, including world premieres by Bryan Page and Yotam Haber, and songs by Ted Hearne and Gabriel Kahane.
An advocate for new music, Mischa has given several NYC performances of Mohammed Fairouz’ Furia, including a new orchestral version with the Knights, and he is featured on a CD of Fairouz’s opera Sumeida’s Song (Bridge): “…a soothing, cavernous baritone that can soar to heights of lyric beauty…” (Opera News). He has sung Lori Laitman’s Men With Small Heads, Paul Moravec’s Songs of Love and War and the world premiere of Charles Fussell’s cycle Venture during Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music. He sings regularly with the TENET vocal ensemble, which was recently featured in a special Arvo Pärt program at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall (in a series curated by David Lang).
Recent roles include Moneybags Billy in Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Tanglewood with casting by James Levine; Lucifero in Handel’s La Resurrezione with American Bach Soloists’ Academy and the Baroque Band in Chicago; and Betto in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with the Dupage Opera Theatre. Other roles performed include Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Le médecin in Debussy’s Pelléas and Mélisande, Enrico in Haydn’s L’isola Disabitata, Bardolph and Chief Justice in Gordon Getty’s Plump Jack, Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Belcore in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. He made his professional musical theater debut with the Boston Pops under the baton of Keith Lockhart singing Jigger Craig in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel in 2007 (now available on CD).
Mr. Bouvier has performed with a wide array of ensembles including Anonymous 4, the Mark Morris Dance Group, American Handel Society, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Five Boroughs Music Festival, Long Island Philharmonic, Metropolis Ensemble and Christopher Williams Dance. He has collaborated with Sting on Songs from the Labyrinth in Los Angeles.
Mischa Bouvier received his B.M. from Boston University and his M.M. from the University and Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He participated in training programs at the Lyric Opera Cleveland, Internationale Meisterkurse für Musik, Carmel Bach Festival and Tanglewood Music Festival.