Colin Balzer

Born in British Columbia, Canada, tenor Colin Balzer received his formal musical training at the University of British Columbia with David Meek and at the Hochchule für Musik Augsburg with Canadian soprano Edith Wiens.

The last couple of years have seen Colin performing diverse repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Penderecki with critical acclaim in both Canada and Europe with such conductors as Bernard Labadie, Yoav Talmi, Christof Prick, Helmuth Rilling and Simone Young. This past season had Colin singing masses from Gounod, Bruckner, Dvorák, and Schubert, King David by Honneger, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Handel's Messiah, Britten's War Requiem at the Britten. Festival in England, Acis in a Munich production of Acis and Galatera, and Lucano, Soldato and Familiari in Festival Vancouver's production of Monteverdi's L'incoronatione di Poppea.

In addition to his concert work, Colin is a dedicated art song performer. He has worked in masterclasses with such artists as Phillip Langridge, Helmut Deutsch, Robert Tear, Edith Wiens, Elly Ameling, Brigitte Fasbender, Rudolph Jansen, and Christoph Pregardien and has attended both the Britten-Pears School in Alderburgh and the Franz Schubert Institut in Baden, Austria. This past year, in addition to winning prizes in several competitions in Germany, Colin took second prize at the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition in London, England with what the London Times called an "engaging stage presence and supple, subtle range of vocal colour... steady, sensuous line... witty sense of timing... and imaginative richesse."

Colin has been featured on "My Heart, My Home", a recording of folk songs and spirituals with the West Coast Mennonite Chamber Choir, and has recorded a set of Henze Lieder for Naxos.