Eric Finbarr Carey is a tenor on the move. In the 2024-2025 he made his debut with The Gewandhaus Orchester as tenor soloist in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, appeared as soloist with the Oratorio Society of New York in performances of both the Bach Magnificat and Mozart Requiem at Carnegie Hall, and made his debut with Bethlehem Bach. A specialist in the music of Benjamin Britten, his is a two-time fellow of the Britten -Pears Programme in Aldeburgh, England. Pianist Erika Switzer performs regularly in major concert settings around the world, including at New York’s Weill Hall (Carnegie), Geffen Hall, the Frick Collection, Bargemusic, at the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Spoleto Festival in Charleston.
A Downtown Music debut.
This concert is made possible, in part, with the generous support of Ridgeway Garden Center, White Plains, and the Morano Group LLC Mamaroneck.
Erika Switzer is an accomplished collaborative pianist who performs regularly in major concert settings around the world, including at New York’s Weill Hall (Carnegie), Geffen Hall, Frick Collection, and Bargemusic, at the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC). Her performances have been called “precise and lucid” by the New York Times, and Renaud Machart of Le Monde described her as “one of the best collaborative pianists I have ever heard; her sound is deep, her interpretation intelligent, refined, and captivating.”
From 2000-2007, Switzer performed and studied in Germany, an experience that profoundly inspired and shaped her work. During that time, she appeared at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and in the Munich Winners & Masters series and won numerous awards, including best pianist prizes at the Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf, and Wigmore Hall International Song Competitions.
Switzer has long been a leader in envisioning and promoting the future of art song performance. In 2009, in collaboration with soprano Martha Guth, she founded the organization Sparks & Wiry Cries, which commissions new works, presents the songSLAM festival in New York City, and publishes The Art Song Magazine. She is also devoted to new music, and has recently premiered new compositions at the 5 Boroughs Music Festival, Brooklyn Art Song Society; and Vancouver’s Music on Main.
Switzer collaborates with a range of top singers. A frequent collaborator is baritone Tyler Duncan, and as a duo, Switzer and Duncan have performed in major concert halls and music festivals around the world. She is also an active teacher, serving on the music faculty at Bard College and Conservatory of Music. Switzer holds a doctorate from The Juilliard School and lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Noted for his “silken tenor”(Opera News), Eric Finbarr Carey continues the 2024-2025 season with notable debuts and reengagements.
In the 2024-2025 season Carey made his debut at The Gewandhaus Orchester as tenor soloist in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, Carnegie Hall as tenor soloist in Mozart Requiem and Bach Magnificat with The Oratorio Society of New York, and will sing Bach Magnificat again this Spring with The St. Agnes Cathedral, and a debut with Bethlehem Bach. He reprises the roles of Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress in Fargo, North Dakota, Evangelist in Bach St. John Passion with Upper Valley Baroque, led by Filippo Ciabatti, and will sing the role of Florestan in a concert version of Beethoven’s Fidelio with Concerts in the Village.
Last season in concert Carey was the tenor soloist in Bach St. John Passion with Princeton Pro Musica conducted by Maestro Ryan Brandau where he was “An exceptional soloist…who was particularly expressive and found a great deal of dynamic range” (TownTopics), and Evangelist in the same piece with Bach in Baltimore. As a 2022-23 resident artist with Bach in Baltimore he sang as tenor soloist in various Bach Cantatas, and presented two solo recitals with the group. He was tenor soloist in the world premiere of the lost mass of Orlandini and Händel’s Dixit Dominus with Upper Valley Baroque, where he returned last spring as soloist in Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610. He performed and recorded the world premiere of Andrew Faulkenberry’s oratorio The Crooked Cross in 2023. An Avid recitalist with “captivating vocal quality”(Operawire), he sang a series of solo recitals with pianist partner Bethany Pietroniro in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the Hudson Valley, and will also presented a recital of Monteverdi, Händel, Caccini and Air de Cour with Theorbist Richard Stone of Tempesta di Mare.
A specialist in the music of Benjamin Britten, last fall Carey sang in two of his operas: the role of Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw with Opera Baltimore, and the Tempter in Enigma Opera’s The Prodigal Son, as well as concert performances with Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players in Britten’s Canticle V. This spring he will sing Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with Concerts in the Village. Carey was a two time fellow at the Britten-Pears Programme in Aldeburgh, UK with mentorship from Mark Padmore and Roderick Williams.
Carey made notable debuts in the 2020/21 season on both the concert and operatic stages. He appeared as the tenor soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andris Nelsons in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, with Emmanuel Music in Bach’s B Minor Mass, and Odyssey Opera with a “very strong performance”(Gramophone UK) which was “an oasis of lyricism” (Bachtrack) in the world premiere of The Chronicle of Nine.
Carey has held residencies in the Renée Fleming Song Studio at Carnegie Hall, the Britten-Pears Festival Young Artist Program, and Tanglewood Music Center as a two time fellow. At Tanglewood, working extensively with Dawn Upshaw, Margo Garrett, and Alan Smith. As a second-year fellow, he was featured in the American premiere of Richard Ayres’s The Cricket Recovers conducted by Thomas Adés and a concert of Bach Cantatas with John Harbison. He is an alumnus of Bard College, Boston University, Peabody Conservatory and The Johns Hopkins University.