Daniel Moody
Countertenor Daniel Moody has garnered widespread acclaim for his commanding yet expressive vocal timbre and his breathtaking musicianship. Praised as having a “vocal resonance, [which] makes a profoundly startling impression” (The New York Times) and for his “vivid and powerful” voice (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), Mr. Moody is equally known for his “sweet and melancholy sound” (The Washington Post) and ability to “pierce hearts” and “utterly silence a room” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer) with his expressivity and connection with audiences.
Opera appearances include the title roles in Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo, Arsamene in Handel’s Xerxes, Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, L’Enfant in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges and most recently, Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with Cincinnati Opera alongside Anthony Roth Costanzo where American Record Guide remarked on Moody’s performance “numerous moments of utter beauty… voice blossom[ing] out into something big and round and smooth. [F]loats easily into soprano range…”
Mr. Moody drew attention in the role of Rinaldo from the San Diego Story for his unusually powerful tone: “[Mr. Moody] may help to create a new operatic vocal category: Helden Countertenor.” Daniel has also performed roles in Mark Morris’ productions of Britten’s Curlew River and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at BAM (Howard Gilman Opera House) and at the Tanglewood Music Festival where the Financial Times noted his “inspired and absorbing performances”.
A lover of early music, Mr. Moody has performed with acclaimed groups Les Violons du Roy (Bernard Labadie conducting) in Québec City, Apollo’s Fire, The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra and Portland Baroque Orchestra (David Hill conducting). He has performed at the Boston, Indianapolis and Washington Early Music Festivals and with early music groups Mountainside Baroque (Maryland), Antico Moderno (Boston) and La Fiocco (Pennsylvania). A graduate of the prestigious Yale Voxtet – resident at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music – he has performed as a soloist at such venues as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, London’s St. John’s Smith Square and, Cambridge’s Trinity College, with conductors David Hill, Simon Carrington, Masaaki Suzuki, and Matthew Halls. His performances have been broadcast live in concert on BBC Radio 3 in the United Kingdom, on Boston’s WGBH, Indiana’s WFIU, and WSHU’s Sunday Baroque.
Recent highlights include the American premiere of George Benjamin’s Dream of the Song (Stefan Asbury conducting) at the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood Festival; engagements with Charleston Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Illinois Symphony, Handel’s Hercules with Staunton Festival singing Lichas, Great Music in a Great Space series (Kent Tritle conducting) and Boston Symphony, standing in for Bejun Mehta. In 2016, Daniel was one of four vocalists in Joyce DiDonato’s Carnegie Hall Masterclasses, broadcast live on Medici TV.
Mr. Moody will be making his Carnegie Hall debut with Oratorio Society of New York and with Musica Sacra in December 2018 and in 2019, he premieres with the Atlanta Symphony as soloist in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in a duet concert with famed mezzo-soprano Anne Sophie von Otter.
Mr. Moody is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory (BM ’14), Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music (MM ‘16) and has won awards from the George London Competition ($5,000 prize), Handel Aria Competition (2nd place), Rochester Oratorio Society Classical Idol (3rd place), New York Oratorio Society Competition (Finalist), and the Russell Wonderlic Competition (1st place).