Biography

Mr. Rader is a recent Master’s-level graduate of the Early Music Institute
of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. He holds a B.M. in Voice
Performance from Middle Tennessee State University. He continues to reside
in Indiana, where he is a staff member of the Choir of Men and Boys for
Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Indianapolis.

He is a member of ¡Sacabuche! Ensemble and has performed with the group,
as well as Liber: Ensemble for Early Music, throughout the United States.
In addition, he has been involved in numerous solo and choral performances
with Belle Meade (now Music City) Baroque of Nashville, Tennessee. Sharing
the stage with Magnificat, ARTEK, Marion Verbruggen Trio, AVE, Music’s
Re-creation and Archetti, he has performed at the Chicago, Bloomington and
Berkeley Early Music Festivals during the 2010 season.

He is also a founding member and Co-Director of Harmonia Speculum, a
chamber vocal ensemble formed in 2009 which is geared toward bridging the
gap between antiquity and present day through chant melodies and texts.
Within this ensemble, Mr. Rader is also the Director of the Vox Reflexa
Consort, the portion of the ensemble crafted specifically for the
performance of early works.

His stage experience includes Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(as Oberon) and Indiana University Opera Theater’s production of Händel’s
Giulio Cesare, for which he sang the title role under the baton of Maestro
Gary Thor Wedow and the stage direction of Tom Diamond.

Other solo engagements have included performances of St. John Passion,
Come, Ye Sons of Art, and Fire and Ice: Michelangelo the Writer in
Nashville, Tennessee, the Vivaldi Gloria and Chichester Psalms in
Indianapolis, Indiana, and Bach’s Kantate BWV 80 (“Ein feste Berg”) in
Magdeburg, Germany.

Throughout his singing career, he has sung for Dr. Jeffery Smith, Dr.
Murray Forbes Somerville, Dr. Raphael Bundage, Eiddwen Harrhy and Nigel
North. His teachers include mezzo-soprano Diane Pulte, soprano Christine
Isley-Farmer and tenor Paul Elliott. In 2009, Mr. Rader was the first
place winner of the Grace Moore Memorial Scholarship Competition, Young
Artist Division.

 

What is a Countertenor?

Defining what exactly one means by "countertenor" is among the most challenging semantic issues facing modern vocal instruction and authorship. I feel that it is best defined as the broader group of voice types encompassing any range higher than that of a tenor. This would include anything from haute-contre (or"natural countertenors" - men whose modal voices lie higher than that of the standard tenor range) to sopranist (or male soprano, depending on the source). Most countertenors will fall in the alto or mezzo-soprano range if one is forced to quantify the voice as such. (Male alto was, for a long period of time in the 20th Century, the only acceptable definition of countertenor.) Some countertenors use primarily the lightest possible function of their vocal folds, while others (haute-contre, specifically) use their entire modal voice for a vast majority of their range. I have found that most men who sing in this tessitura are using mixture of the "light" and "full" mechanisms for their production of sound. It is of important note that " head voice," "chest voice," and the abominable "falsetto" are terms stemming from archaic (and wholly inaccurate) thought toward vocal pedagogy, and have no bearing on the discussion of the countertenor voice, or on that of any voice, for that matter.

—Andrew Rader, 2007

Accomplishments

  • Winner - Grace Moore Memorial Scholarship Competition; 2009 Young Artist Division
  • Orpheus National Vocal Competition - Semifinalist