New York City, Arizona, Vancouver, Bilbao, Portland and Granite State Opera companies and has been engaged as soloist with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, and the Boston, Simon Bolivar,
St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Santa Cecilia and American Symphony Orchestras, working with such esteemed conductors as Leon Botstein, Gustavo Dudamel, Claus Peter Flor, Louis Langree, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, David Robertson, Michael Tilson Thomas and Michael Stern. He has performed in recital at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Washington's Terrace Theater and Boston's Gardner Museum.
While still early in his professional career, Mr. Castagner has already made a number of auspicious debuts with a wide variety of operatic and symphonic repertoire. He has bowed as both Iopas and Hylas in Les Troyens, Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore, Ferrando in Così fan Tutte, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Joaquino in Fidelio, Golo in Schumann's Genoveva, Count of Nangis in Chabrier's Le roi Malgre Lui, Acis in Acis and Galatea, the Teapot, Tree Frog and Arithmetic in L'enfant et les sortileges and El Remendado in Carmen, as well as covering the roles of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Aleya in The House of the Dead for The Metropolitan Opera. He sang Freddy in the New York Philharmonic's production of My Fair Lady with Kelli O'Hara and Kelsey Grammar. Symphonic highlights of past seasons include numerous performances of Handel's Messiah, Bach's B Minor Mass and St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Choral Fantasy, Berlioz's Romeo et Juliette and Requiem, and Ralph Vaughan William's On Wenlock Edge. Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times described his performance in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 as "clean, clear and rapturous."
This season, Mr. Castagner returns to The Metropolitan Opera to sing The Fool in Wozzeck and will perform Gilbert and Sullivan with Bramwell Tovey in Vancouver. He will also appear with Ken Noda for a recital at Harvard University. Orchestral engagements include the Philadelphia Orchestra with Charles Dutoit in Saratoga, NY, and in Philadelphia for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and the Florida Philharmonic singing Haydn's Creation with Stefan Sanderling.
"The manner is fresh, appealing, and winning, the voice saucy, wide-ranging, flexible....It was moving to see a few old-timers rush to the footlights (like people used to do more often) to cheer the young singer. They were on to something: with luck and the right opportunities, Mr. Castagner could be a major tenor." The New York Sun
"His sound at the start was light and tightly focused....By the fourth song, deliberate understatement had given way to passion and nuanced coloration." The New York Times
AUGUST 2010-PLEASE DESTROY ALL PREVIOUSLY DATED MATERIALS.