Interview with baritone Thomas Hampson

Annett Andriesen, general manager of the International Vocal Competition 's-Hertogenbosch, is interviewing Thomas Hampson, baritone. The admired American baritone, Thomas Hampson, studied at Eastern Washington University (B.A., 1977), Forth Wright College (B.F.A., 1979), the University of Southern California, and the Music Academy of the West at Santa Barbara, where he won the Lotte Lehmann award in 1978. In 1980 he took the 2nd prize at the ‘s Hertogenbosch International Vocal Competition, and in 1981 1st place in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions. Praised by the New York Times for his “ceaseless curiosity,” Thomas Hampson enjoys a singular international career as an opera singer, recording artist, and “ambassador of song,” maintaining an active interest in research, education, musical outreach, and technology. The American baritone has performed in the world’s most important concert halls and opera houses with many renowned singers, pianists, conductors, and orchestras. One of the most respected, innovative, and sought-after soloists performing today, he was recently inducted to Gramophone’s 2013 “Hall of Fame”; honored as a Metropolitan Opera Guild “Met Mastersinger”; and presented with the first Venetian Heritage Award (2013) and the Concertgebouw Prize (2011). On the opera stage in the 2013-14 season, the baritone makes his role debut as the eponymous antihero of Berg’s Wozzeck at the Metropolitan Opera, in a production featuring Deborah Voigt and led by James Levine. Hampson also reprises his star turn in the title role of Simon Boccanegra at the Vienna State Opera, and revisits such signature parts as Amfortas in Parsifal at Lyric Opera of Chicago (as well as in concert with the National Symphony); Giorgio Germont in La traviata at the Bavarian State Opera; Mandryka in Arabella at the Salzburg Festival; and Scarpia in Tosca at both the Deutsche Oper Berlin and London’s Royal Opera House. In the concert hall, he opens the season in performances of Eisler’s Ernste Gesänge with Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden, and sings Brahms, Schubert, and Wolf on a twelve-stop European tour with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Other orchestral collaborations include programs of arias and duets with Luca Pisaroni in Prague, Bratislava, Essen, Baden-Baden, and Paris, and selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the BBC Scottish Symphony. The baritone takes his celebrated lieder recitals to London’s Wigmore Hall, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and to Coburg, Heidelberg, Brussels, and Berne.