Bejun Mehta (born 29 June 1968)[1] is an American countertenor. He has been awarded the Echo Klassik,[2] the Gramophone Award,[3] Le Diamant d’Opera Magazine,[citation needed] the Choc de Classica,[4] the Traetta Prize,[5] and been nominated for the Grammy Award,[6] the Laurence Olivier Award,[7] and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.[8] Writing in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Michael Stallknecht called him "arguably the best counter tenor in the world today."[9]
From the age of nine through fifteen, Mehta was a solo boy soprano in concerts and recordings. Of his CD for the Delos label in 1983 (Bejun DE 3019), Leonard Bernstein commented, "It is hard to believe the richness and maturity of musical understanding in this adolescent boy."[11][1] He was named by the magazine Stereo Review as the Debut Recording Artist of the Year.[11]
Mehta sang for several years as a baritone without much success. "I was average, just average," he said.[13] He began to experiment with singing in the countertenor range after reading a 1997 New Yorker profile of the countertenor David Daniels, whose early experiences seemed to mirror his own.[14]
In 1998 he attended the Music Academy of the West summer conservatory program,[15] where Marilyn Horne, who knew of his work as a boy soprano, offered him sponsorship through the Marilyn Horne Foundation, an organization that works to develop new talent and preserve the art of song recital. He made his operatic debut as a countertenor that same year as Armindo in a New York City Opera production of Partenope by Handel. Two months later he substituted for David Daniels, who was taken ill during an international concert tour.[10]
The British composer George Benjamin wrote a lead role for him in his opera Written on Skin, which premiered in 2012 at Aix-en-Provence. In 2013 he gave a "visceral and beautifully-sung performance" in the world premiere recording of that opera.[19] In 2014, Benjamin was at work on a new concert piece for Mehta that receives its world premiere in September 2015 at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.[18]
Mehta's CD Down by the Salley Gardens, a collection of English art song, was released in 2011 (with Julius Drake /Harmonia Mundi). Ombra Cara, Mehta's recording of Handel arias (Freiburg Baroque Orchestra/René Jacobs/Harmonia Mundi), was awarded the 2011 Echo Klassik as Opera Recording of the Year.[2] Mehta's CDs and DVDs also include Agrippina (BBC Music Magazine's 2012 Opera Award[20] and nominated for a Grammy as Best Opera Recording of the Year[6]) and Belshazzar, both on Harmonia Mundi, Theodora (C-Major Entertainment/Unitel, shortlisted for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik[21]), Mitridate (Decca), Messiah (Unitel Classics), and Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Glyndebourne Label), George Benjamin’s Written on Skin (Nimbus CD, BBC Magazine 2014 Premiere Recording of the Year),[22] Benjamin's Written on Skin (Opus Arte DVD, 2013 Royal Opera House, 2014 Gramophone Award-Contemporary[3]). Mehta's 2013 solo CD Che Puro Ciel (Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/René Jacobs/Harmonia Mundi), a collection of classical arias and was awarded Le Diamant d’Opera Magazine,[citation needed] the Choc de Classica,[citation needed] and was shortlisted for the 2014 Gramophone Award in the Recital category.[23] In 2014, Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv released a new complete studio recording of Orlando with Mehta in the title role (B’Rock/Jacobs), which was shortlisted for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.[8] Also in 2014, ArtHaus released a theatrical film version of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice shot entirely on location at the Český Krumlov Theater in which Mehta both starred as Orfeo and was the artistic advisor. Mehta also appears on El Maestro Farinelli, Pablo Heras-Casado’s debut recording on Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv (2014), singing two of Farinelli's most notable arias.
