Hailed as an “impressive tenor” (The New York Times) who sings with “sweet vibrancy” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer) Gene Stenger is one of the country’s most called upon Bach specialists who is also heralded for his performances of oratorios by Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Mozart.
Gene’s 2022-2023 season included solo debuts with the Helena Symphony (Handel’s Messiah), Messiah
Festival of the Arts (Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, & Handel’s Messiah), and Canticum Novum Singers
(Bach’s Mass in B Minor). He made returning solo appearances with the Buffalo Philharmonic (Mozart’s
Coronation Mass), Eastern Connecticut Symphony (Britten’s Serenade), Pioneer Valley Symphony
(Mozart’s Mass in C Minor), Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (Handel’s Messiah), Colorado Bach Ensemble
(Handel’s Messiah, & Bach’s St. Matthew Passion), Bach Akademie Charlotte (Bach’s Christmas
Oratorio), Baldwin Wallace University’s Bach Festival (Mass in B Minor), the Handel Society of
Dartmouth College (Britten’s Serenade, & Mozart’s Coronation Mass), TENET Vocal Artists (Bach’s Easter
Oratorio), and Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity New York (BWV 62, 243, & 126).
His 2021-2022 season featured solo debuts with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven’s
Symphony No. 9), Portland Symphony Orchestra (Bach’s St. Matthew Passion), New Haven
Symphony Orchestra (Handel’s Messiah), Providence Singers (Bach’s Magnificat, & Schütz’s Musikalische
Exequien), Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum (Monteverdi’s Vespers), Upper Valley Baroque (BWV
147), and return solo engagements with Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (Handel’s Messiah), Bach Society
of St. Louis (Bach’s Mass in B Minor), Handel Society of Dartmouth College (Haydn’s Creation), the
GRAMMY® nominated True Concord Voices & Orchestra (Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Haydn’s Paukenmesse,
Close-Up Recital Series), Bach Collegium at St. Peter’s New York (Handel’s Messiah), and Bach Vespers at
Holy Trinity New York (BWV 60, 92, 181, & 249).
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Stenger was a featured tenor soloist in several virtual projects,
including a video production of Handel’s Messiah produced by Classical Arizona PBS with the GRAMMY®
nominated True Concord Voices & Orchestra as part of their Fall “Bubble” project, and a reimagined
staged production of Bach’s St. John Passion with The Thirteen Chamber Choir. Additional virtual
projects included tenor soloist with the Bach Society of St. Louis’s 2021 Virtual Bach Festival, Bach
Vespers at Holy Trinity New York, and with OperaTune Productions for their program “Hope
Resurrected: A 3-part Classical Easter Concert Series Experience” featured on WMNR Radio. When live
performances resumed, Gene debuted with Teatro Nuovo covering the role of Count Almaviva in their
production of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Lincoln Center, marking the first full opera performance
in NY in over a year, and returned to the Staunton Music Festival, singing the role of Damon in Handel’s
Acis and Galatea.
Equally at home in chamber music, he has performed with numerous professional ensembles, including
the GRAMMY® award-winning Apollo’s Fire: the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn
Society, the GRAMMY® nominated True Concord Voices and Orchestra, the GRAMMY® nominated Choir
of Trinity Wall Street, the Clarion Music Society, and the Yale Choral Artists.
Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Gene holds degrees from Yale University’s School of Music, and Institute
of Sacred Music, Colorado State University, and Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music.
Recent discography credits include the role of the Minstrel (Narrator) in the world premiere recording of
Arnold Rosner’s opera The Chronicle of Nine with Odyssey Opera, and BMOP, tenor soloist in
Schmelzer’s Le Memorie Dolorose with TENET Vocal Artists and ACRONYM, and tenor soloist on Yale
Schola Cantorum’s album Fauré Requiem and other sacred music led by David Hill released on Hyperion
Records. He currently resides in New Haven, CT, where he serves as instructor of voice at Yale
University.