ABOUT (shortest form)

Praised as a “superb vocal soloist” (The Washington Post) with “impressive clarity and color” (The New York Times), tenor Steven Soph performs repertoire spanning the Renaissance to the present day. He has appeared as soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the American Classical Orchestra, and the Tucson, Charlotte, Fort Worth, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestras, and has performed in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and the Kennedy Center.

A highly regarded interpreter of J.S. Bach, Steven is especially noted for his Evangelist and arias in the St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, and Christmas Oratorio, praised for precision, clarity, and expressive range. His Bach repertoire also includes the Mass in B minor, Magnificat, Easter Oratorio, and numerous cantatas.

In addition to his solo engagements, Steven performs regularly with leading North American vocal ensembles, frequently appearing as a featured soloist with GRAMMY® Award-nominated True Concord Voices & Orchestra and collaborating as both ensemble member and soloist with GRAMMY® Award-winning Conspirare. He also performs regularly with Yale Choral Artists, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and Ensemble Altera, and has appeared with GRAMMY® Award-winning Roomful of Teeth and Cut Circle. International festival appearances include Utrecht Early Music Festival and Festival Laus Polyphoniae in Antwerp.

He holds degrees from the University of North Texas and Yale School of Music.

ABOUT (short form)

Praised as a “superb vocal soloist” (The Washington Post) and noted for his “impressive clarity and color” (The New York Times), tenor Steven Soph performs repertoire spanning the Renaissance to the present day. He has appeared as soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the American Classical Orchestra, and the Tucson, Charlotte, Fort Worth, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestras, and has performed in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and the Kennedy Center.

At Severance Hall, he performed Stravinsky’s Threni with The Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst, an all-Handel program led by Ton Koopman, and Mozart’s Requiem conducted by Patrick Dupré Quigley. He made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in Manhattan Concert Productions’ performances of Mozart’s Requiem, conducted by Yoojin Muhn, and Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living, led by Jennaya Robison. At Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, he appeared in Bach’s Mass in B minor and Mendelssohn’s Psalm 41 with the American Classical Orchestra under Thomas Crawford.

Steven’s Baroque and Classical repertoire includes Handel’s Messiah; Bach’s Mass in B minor, Magnificat, and Passion settings; Haydn’s Creation (Uriel) and Lord Nelson Mass; and Mozart’s Requiem, “Orphanage” Mass, and Great Mass in C minor. His Romantic and twentieth-century repertoire includes Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis; Berlioz’s Requiem; Britten’s War Requiem; Stravinsky’s Threni; Reich’s The Desert Music; Keiser’s Brockes-Passion (North American debut); and Stacy Garrop’s Terra Nostra.

Recent seasons have included appearances in Symphony Hall in Boston in Handel’s Israel in Egypt and Saul with the Handel + Haydn Society; at Meyerson Symphony Center in Berlioz’s Requiem on Dallas’ Highlander Concert Series; and at the Krannert Center with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra in Garrop’s Terra Nostra, conducted by Stephen Alltop.

A graduate of the University of North Texas and Yale School of Music, Steven studied at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music with tenor James Taylor.

ABOUT (long form)

Praised as a “superb vocal soloist” (The Washington Post) and noted for his “impressive clarity and color” (The New York Times), tenor Steven Soph has built a career defined by stylistic fluency, narrative clarity, and a deep commitment to the concert repertoire. Performing music that spans the Renaissance to the present day, he has appeared in many of the nation’s most distinguished venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and the Kennedy Center.

Steven has appeared as soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the American Classical Orchestra, and numerous regional orchestras across the United States. With The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall, he performed Stravinsky’s Threni under Franz Welser-Möst, an all-Handel program led by Ton Koopman, and Mozart’s Requiem conducted by Patrick Dupré Quigley. He made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in Mozart’s Requiem and Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living, and has appeared at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in Bach’s Mass in B minor and Mendelssohn’s Psalm 41 under Thomas Crawford.

Central to Steven’s artistic identity is his work as the Evangelist in the Passion settings of J.S. Bach. He has performed the role in the St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, and Christmas Oratorio with Apollo’s Fire, the Bach Society of Saint Louis, the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, Chicago Chorale, Seraphic Fire (Mendelssohn version), the Charlotte Bach Festival, and the University of North Texas’ Collegium (1725 version), among others.

His broader Bach repertoire includes the Mass in B minor, performed with the American Classical Orchestra under Thomas Crawford, Symphony Orchestra Augusta, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Spire Chamber Ensemble, Chicago Chorale, and Philharmonie Austin; the Magnificat with True Concord Voices & Orchestra, Voices of Ascension, and Seraphic Fire; the Easter Oratorio; and numerous cantatas, including BWV 34 with The Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst.

Beyond Bach, Steven’s repertoire encompasses Handel’s Messiah; Haydn’s Creation (Uriel); Mozart’s sacred works; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis; Berlioz’s Requiem; Britten’s War Requiem; Stravinsky’s Threni; Reich’s The Desert Music; and contemporary works including Stacy Garrop’s Terra Nostra, performed at the Krannert Center with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra under Stephen Alltop.

Alongside his solo career, Steven remains an active and collaborative ensemble artist. He appears regularly as a featured soloist with True Concord Voices & Orchestra and collaborates with Conspirare as both ensemble member and soloist. He maintains ongoing artistic relationships with Yale Choral Artists, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and Ensemble Altera, and has appeared with Roomful of Teeth and Cut Circle.

International festival appearances include Utrecht Early Music Festival, Festival Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Musica Sacra Festival Maastricht, and Festival Laus Polyphoniae in Antwerp.

A graduate of the University of North Texas and Yale School of Music, Steven studied at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music with tenor James Taylor, and was a Carmel Bach Festival Adams Fellow and Oregon Bach Festival Young Artist.

ABOUT (longest form)

A “superb vocal soloist” (The Washington Post) with “impressive clarity and color” (The New York Times), tenor Steven Soph performs concert repertoire spanning the Renaissance to modern day. He appears with renowned organizations including the Cleveland, Seattle, Philharmonia Baroque, Charlotte, Tucson, American Classical, New Jersey, and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras, and in esteemed venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Boston's Symphony Hall, and the Kennedy Center. A committed ensemble performer, he recently sang the music of Josquin des Prez at Antwerp, Belgium's Festival AMUZ with Boston's Cut Circle. Steven also appears with Austin's Conspirare, Providence’s Ensemble Altera, Washington Bach Consort, Tucson’s True Concord, Aeternum, Yale Choral Artists, Kansas City’s Spire, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Washington D.C.'s The Thirteen, and Winter Park, Florida's Bach Vocal Artists.

In the ‘25-’26 season, Steven makes his solo debuts with Philadelphia’s Tempesta di Mare and Seattle’s Music at Epiphany in Handel’s Messiah, with the Austin Philharmonie in Bach’s Mass in B minor, with Waco, TX’s Vox Seraphim in Bach’s Magnificat, and with the newly-formed Philadelphia Bach Collective for Bach’s Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott. He returns to Boston’s Symphony Hall as the High Priest in Handel’s Saul, with the Handel + Haydn Society, to Yale’s Woolsey Hall as Samana II in the east coast debut of Christopher Theofanidis’s Siddhartha, She, with Yale Philharmonia and Yale Choral Artists, to Dallas’ Highlander Concert Series for Mendelssohn’s Elijah, to the Bach Society of Saint Louis in both J.S. Bach’s and C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat, and to the Augustana Oratorio Society for Handel’s Messiah. His season concludes as Tmolus in Geschwinde, geschwinde, ihr wirbelnden Winde, BWV 201, at the Oregon Bach Festival.

In the ‘24-’25 season, Steven made his solo debut with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah, with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem in Bach’s Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn, with the Handel Choir of Baltimore in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, and with San Francisco’s American Bach Soloists in Bach cantatas 4, 106, and 182. He made his Jordan Hall solo debut in Bach's Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland with Boston's Handel + Haydn Society, and toured a Vespers program with Baroque Music Montana. He returned to the Master Chorale of South Florida for Mendelssohn’s Elijah, to the Handel + Haydn Society for Handel’s Messiah, to the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park for Mozart’s Requiem, and to True Concord Voices and Orchestra for Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor.

In the ‘23-’24 season, Steven made his Symphony Hall solo debut in Handel’s Israel in Egypt with Boston’s Handel + Haydn Society, his Meyerson Symphony Center solo debut in Berlioz’s Requiem on Dallas’ Highlander Concert Series, and joined the University of Iowa for Britten’s War Requiem. Steven returned to Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with the American Classical Orchestra for Bach’s Mass in B minor; to the Bach Society of Saint Louis and Lincoln, Nebraska’s Abendmusik as Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion; Choral Arts Philadelphia in Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610; the Oklahoma Bach Choir for Bach’s Cantatas 1, 61, 62, 65, and 70; Pro Musica Colorado for Handel’s Messiah; the Master Chorale of South Florida and the Oregon Bach Festival for performances of Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor; as well as the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival and True Concord Voices and Orchestra performing arias in Bach’s St. John Passion as well as covering the Evangelist role.

Recent seasons' highlights include several solo appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra, including Severance Hall premier performances of Stravinsky's Threni id est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, an all-Handel program led by Ton Koopman, and Mozart's Requiem led by Patrick Dupré Quigley. Steven appeared as a soloist at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with the American Classical Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Psalm 41, led by Thomas Crawford and made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in Manhattan Concert Productions’ performance of Mozart’s Requiem, conducted by Yoojin Muhn and Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living, led by Jennaya Robison. Steven made his Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra debut in a program of Bach, Monteverdi, Purcell, and Vivaldi, led by Patrick Dupré Quigley and his Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra debut in Stacy Garrop’s Terra Nostra, conducted by Stephen Alltop. He has performed Reich's The Desert Music with the New World Symphony and Seraphic Fire; Mozart's "Orphanage" Mass with San Diego's Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra; and Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor with the Bach Society of St. Louis and the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra.

An active Bach interpreter, Steven has “expertly inhabited” (Chicago Classical Review) and “intoned the long, intricate and gruelingly difficult lines of the Evangelist with precision of pitch and rhythm” (Palm Beach Arts Paper) in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Chicago Chorale and Seraphic Fire (Mendelssohn version). He performed “with a tenor ranging from feathered intimacies to powerful, glinting top notes” (The Dallas Morning News) and was deemed “first-class across the board” (Chicago Classical Review) as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion with the University of North Texas’ Collegium (1725 version) and Chicago Chorale. Steven appeared in Bach's B minor Mass with the American Classical Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra Augusta, the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Spire Chamber Ensemble (Kansas City), and Chicago Chorale; Bach's Magnificat with Voices of Ascension (NYC), True Concord Voices & Orchestra (Tucson), and Seraphic Fire; and employed “brilliant clarity and warm color” (South Florida Classical Review) in Bach’s Easter Oratorio with Seraphic Fire. Additionally, Steven has performed as the Evangelist in Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Dallas’ Highlander Concert Series, Bach Society of St. Louis, Charlotte Bach Festival, Brown University, and Boston University's Marsh Chapel; as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion with Charlotte Bach Festival, Boston University's Marsh Chapel, Arkansas Choral Society, and Concord Chorale; as the Evangelist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Cleveland’s Apollo’s Fire and at the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival; arias in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Voices of Ascension, Chicago Chorale, and Colorado Bach Ensemble; arias in Bach’s St. John Passion with True Concord Voices and Orchestra, Spire Chamber Ensemble, and Musikanten Montana; and brought his “excellent lyric tenor” (South Florida Classical Review) to BWV 34 and The Cleveland Orchestra, under Franz Welser-Möst.

Steven has performed Handel’s Messiah with the Seattle, Fort Worth, Tucson, New Jersey, Charlotte, Cheyenne, Winston-Salem, and Aiken Symphony Orchestras, Colorado Pro Musica, ProMusica Columbus, Bach Society of St. Louis, Master Chorale of South Florida, Handel Oratorio Society (Augustana College), Spire Chamber Ensemble, Apollo Chorus of Chicago, Bourbon Baroque, Variant 6, Oklahoma Bach Choir, Messiah Choral Society (Winter Park, Florida), and Alpine Chorale (Denver); Pastore and Apollo in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado; Vivaldi's Introduction and Gloria with Voices of Ascension; Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Master Chorale of South Florida and Seraphic Fire; Uriel in Haydn’s Creation with Master Chorale of South Florida, Texas Choral Consort, Colorado Pro Musica; and Evangelist in the North American debut of Keiser's Brockes-Passion at the University of Connecticut. Steven made his Staunton Music Festival debut in Bach’s BWV 131, Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir as well as his Choral Arts Philadelphia debut in North American premiers of Carissimi’s rediscovered oratorios Goliath and Noah. During the pandemic, Steven performed in True Concord Voices & Orchestra’s “bubble” season, recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts in The Art of Reopening: A Guide to Current Practices Among Arts Organizations During COVID-19. He also contributed to remote projects with Seraphic Fire, Master Chorale of South Florida, and Victoria Bach Festival.

International appearances include Utrecht Early Music Festival, the Netherlands; Festival Tage Alter Musik, Regensburg, Germany; Musica Sacra Festival, Maastricht, the Netherlands; and Festival Laus Polyphoniae, Antwerp, Belgium with Cut Circle, in addition to Festival de Arte y Ópera Contemporánea, Morelia, Mexico with Roomful of Teeth.

Steven performs with top North American vocal ensembles including GRAMMY® Award-nominated True Concord Voices & Orchestra; GRAMMY® Award-winning Roomful of Teeth and Conspirare; Gramophone® finalist Cut Circle; Yale Choral Artists; Santa Fe Desert Chorale; Oregon Bach Festival Berwick Chorus; Colorado Bach Ensemble; Sounding Light; Ensemble Altera; Artefact; Aeternum; Ensemble Origo; Blue Heron; The Leonids; and Spire Chamber Ensemble.

Recent recording credits include the role of Job on Yale Schola Cantorum’s “In the Land of Uz,” Ensemble Altera’s “The Lamb’s Journey” and “Dazzling Light,” The Thirteen’s “Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610” and “Monteverdi: The ‘Lost’ Vespers of 1650,” True Concord & Orchestra’s 2024 GRAMMY®-nominated “A Dream So Bright: Choral Music of Jake Runestad” and 2015 GRAMMY®-nominated “Far in the Heavens: Choral Music of Stephen Paulus,” solos on Baltimore Choral Arts Society’s 2023 “Mozart’s Requiem,” solos on 2021 GRAMMY®-nominated “The Singing Guitar” with Conspirare, Académie du Disque Lyrique Orphées d'Or-winning and Gramophone® finalist "Guillaume Du Fay: The Tenor Masses" with Cut Circle, Seraphic Fire's "Steal Away," tenor vocals on Maná's 2015 Latin GRAMMY® Award-winning Best Pop/Rock Album "Cama Incendiada," and Jory Vinikour's album of duet cantatas by Agostino Stefanni.

Steven holds degrees from the University of North Texas and Yale School of Music where he studied at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music with renowned tenor James Taylor. Steven attended the American Bach Soloists Academy in 2011, was a 2014 Carmel Bach Festival Adams Fellow, and a 2016 Oregon Bach Festival Young Artist. www.stevensoph.com