American music director and bass-baritone IAN POMERANTZ’s "rich bass-baritone voice" is "especially remarkable, with gravity turning mellifluous at key moments, free of any hint of false inflation.”  Praised for his versitility, he is “the possessor of an instrument naturally at home in many genres,- in opera, in recital, and in oratorio.”  Mr. Pomerantz is a specialist in the French baroque vocal repertoire, and is the co-founder and artistic director of Les Enfants d’Orphée, an ensemble dedicated to bringing the music of the French Baroque to North American audiences.  He recently gave the North American premiere of Philippe Courbois’ Orphée, and revived Boismortier’s Automne with harpsichordist Byron Schenkman, for which the Boston Music Intelligencer said the two “radiated with investment and artistic attitude.” With Les Enfants, he is also reviving cantatas by Clérambault as a part of the John Kleshinsky Concert Series in Boston.  A performance of Charpentier’s In Nativitatem N.S.J.C. Canticum brings him to New York City’s baroque stages this season, and he joins the Grammy Award-winning Boston Early Music Festival in the North American premiere of Campra’s opera Le Carnival de Venise.

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As a scholar of Jewish music, Mr. Pomerantz joined Boston’s Cantata Singers at Jordan Hall as the guest soloist in Yehudi Wyner’s Torah Service, and collaborated in Orchestra of New Spain’s groundbreaking program, The Triangle of Al-Andalus.  He recently joined Opera Connecticut as a Resident Artist in their season productions, and will premiere the new opera Who Married Star Husbands with Hartford Opera Theater.  In a collaboration with Les Enfants and Boston, Mr. Pomerantz will direct a revival of Louis Saladin’s Canticum Hebraïcum of the 1680’s, and joins Byron Schenkman and Friends as a guest soloist in reviving Handel’s cantatas for bass voice.

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Next season Mr. Pomerantz joins Opera Connecticut as Colline in La bohème, returns to the Boston Early Music Festival as a soloist in Caccini’s Alcina and premieres transcriptions of Reynaldo Hahn’s songs for voice and guitar at the American Church in Paris.  He also joins the Miryam Ensemble as a soloist performing baroque settings of the Song of Solomon, sings in the East Coast Premiere of Lidarti’s Esther with Miryam in Boston, Haman in Stradella’s Esther with New York Salon/Sanctuary Concerts, portrays Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet (Berlioz) with Shakespeare Opera Theatre and will join Aquilon Music Festival as a faculty member in historical performance, singing the role of Le Devin in the first modern performance of Marc Antoine Legrand’s La Chûte de Phaëton.

Mr. Pomerantz holds the Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from Westminster Choir College, the Masters of Music degree in Voice from Longy School of Music of Bard College, and is completing a doctorate focused on French Baroque repertoire at the Hartt School, with additional study in France.