Biography

Mr. Rader is a graduate of the Early Music Institute of Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. He is currently living in Indiana where he is a staff member of Choir of Men and Boys for Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Indianapolis. He is a member of LIBER: Ensemble for Early Music, performing with the group throughout the United States and Europe. Recently, he was awarded 3rd prize in the Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award 2011 in Lugano, Switzerland. In addition, he is a regular performer with Magnificat Baroque in Berkeley, California.

Sharing the stage with ARTEK, Marion Verbruggen Trio, AVE, Music's Re-creation, and Archetti, he has sung on the Chicago, Bloomington, Berkeley and Boston Early Music Festivals during recent seasons. Also, he is a founding member and co-director of Vox Reflexa, a chamber vocal ensemble geared toward bridging the gap between ancient and new music day through chant melodies and texts. Within this ensemble Mr. Rader is the director of the Vox Reflexa Consort, the portion of the ensemble specifically crafted for the performance of early works.

His stage experience includes IU 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 stage direction of Tom Diamond) and the role of Oberon in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Other solo engagements include: St. John Passion, Come, Ye Sons of Art, and Fire and Ice: Michelangelo the Writer in Nashville, TN; Vivaldi Gloria, St. John Passion, and Chichester Psalms in Indianapolis; Charpentier's Orphée, Carissimi's Jephte, and Schütz' Weihnachts-Historie in California; and Bach's Cantata, BWV 80 ("Ein feste Berg") in Magdeburg, Germany.

 

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

  • 3rd place winner –Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award 2011 Countertenor Competition
  • Winner - Grace Moore Memorial Scholarship Competition; 2009 Young Artist Division
  • Orpheus National Vocal Competition - Semifinalist