DANN COAKWELL
Tenor
Biography
Dann Coakwell, tenor, has been praised as a “clear-voiced and eloquent … vivid storyteller” (The New York Times), with “a gorgeous lyric tenor that could threaten or caress on the turn of a dime" (The Dallas Morning News). He can be heard as a soloist on the Grammy-winning album The Sacred Spirit of Russia (Harmonia Mundi 2014), as well as as well as multiple other Grammy-nominated and critically acclaimed albums, recent examples of which include Mendelssohn & Bach: Matthäus-passion (Analekta 2024), James Richman & Dallas Bach Society: Messiah (1741 Original Version) (Onyx Classics 2024), Bruhns: Cantatas and Organ Works, Vol. 1 (BIS 2022), led by Masaaki Suzuki, and Considering Matthew Shepard (Harmonia Mundi 2016). He has performed as a soloist across Europe, Japan, and throughout the Americas, under renowned conductors such as Helmuth Rilling, Masaaki Suzuki, Monica Huggett, William Christie, María Guinand, Nicholas McGegan, Matthew Halls, Craig Hella Johnson, and the late John Scott.
Dr. Coakwell has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center's Alice Tully and David Geffen halls, as well as other prominent New York City venues such as Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue and Trinity Church Wall Street. He has appeared as a soloist with organizations such as Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart in Germany, Bach Collegium Japan, Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela, Pacific Baroque Orchestra in Canada, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco, Oregon Bach Festival, Portland and Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Dallas Bach Society, Conspirare, and the symphony orchestras of Orlando, Charlotte, Nashville, Indianapolis, Quad Cities, and Kansas City.
Specializing in the Evangelist and tenor roles of J.S. Bach, Dr. Coakwell frequently performs the composer’s major oratorios—St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Christmas Oratorio, and Mass in B-Minor—as well as many of Bach’s cantatas. Also an enthusiast of Benjamin Britten, Coakwell has appeared in several productions of Britten’s Canticles, Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings (one of which was at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall), and St. Nicolas. Other prominent solo roles performed also include numerous Handel oratorios; Rameau’s Pigmalion; Haydn’s Creation; Mozart Requiem and Mass in c minor (Levin, Beyer, and Süssmayr completions); Mendelssohn’s Elijah; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis.
Dr. Coakwell served for more than two and a half decades as an educator at institutions that have included Yale, Ithaca College, and Colgate University, and has enjoyed guest teaching artist residencies across the U.S. and abroad. He holds an Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music/Institute of Sacred Music, a Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degree from Texas Tech University, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Texas at Austin.