Russell Oberlin

Russell Keys Oberlin (October 11, 1928 – November 25, 2016) was an American countertenor, founding member of the New York Pro Musica Antiqua, and Broadway performer, widely recognized as the first countertenor in the United States to achieve broad public recognition. Born in Akron, Ohio, he sang professionally as a child before enrolling at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, where he studied from 1948 to 1951 and began building a career as a tenor even prior to completing his degree.

In 1952, Oberlin was among the founding members of the New York Pro Musica Antiqua, an ensemble devoted to medieval and Renaissance repertory. He initially performed with the group as a high tenor, but his unusually wide vocal range soon led him to take on alto parts, and he sang regularly with the ensemble through 1959, with later appearances as a guest soloist. He described his voice as a naturally high tenor that allowed him to perform countertenor repertoire without resorting to falsetto. A central figure in Pro Musica's restoration of the medieval liturgical drama The Play of Daniel, he sang the roles of Belshazzar's Prince and the Herald Angel when the production was first presented at The Cloisters in January 1958. He also appeared in the subsequent recording and in a 1965 public television version that became an annual Christmas telecast.

In 1955, the same year Leonard Bernstein engaged him for a recording of Handel's Messiah, Oberlin appeared on Broadway in The Lark. His stage and concert work during this period placed him at the center of the early music revival in the United States. In 1961, he sang the role of Oberon in the Covent Garden premiere of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, a production conducted by Georg Solti; the role had originally been created by Alfred Deller at the Aldeburgh Festival. That same year Oberlin also performed in the opera's North American premiere in Vancouver and its United States premiere at San Francisco Opera. Leonard Bernstein later wrote a part for him in the Chichester Psalms, composed in 1965.

Throughout his performing career, Oberlin gave recitals, appeared as soloist with leading orchestras in the United States and abroad, and recorded extensively, including albums of songs by Dowland and Purcell and arias by Handel. His recordings for Expériences Anonymes, later reissued on the Lyrichord Early Music label, included seven volumes of Music of the Middle Ages drawing on repertory from England, France, and Spain, as well as recitals of music by Byrd and Dowland performed with the In Nomine Players and lutenist Joseph Iadone. In 1962, he appeared in a film performing Bach's Cantata No. 54 alongside Glenn Gould, who played the harpsichord part on a harpsipiano. Two 1962 television segments, one featuring an aria from Handel's Rodelinda and another from Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, were later collected alongside a 2004 interview on a DVD titled Russell Oberlin: America's Legendary Countertenor.

At the age of 36, Oberlin retired from active performance to pursue a teaching career, joining the faculty of Hunter College in New York as Professor of Music. He held that position from 1966 to 1994. As a senior Fulbright research scholar, he lectured in both the United States and England. He later appeared on radio programs including Performance Today and Millennium of Music to discuss his life and work. His papers, spanning 1930 to 2016, are held in the Music Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Oberlin died in New York City on November 25, 2016, at the age of 88.