Stuart Howe (July 19, 1967) is an operatic tenor born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
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Raised in the countryside along the Saint John River, Stuart attended rural elementary and junior high schools before graduating from St. Malachy's Memorial High School, Saint John, in 1985.
At the age of fourteen, Howe began what became a highly successful and well know music entertainment company in the Canadian Maritimes. Due to his age, his family had to take turns driving his vans to and from jobs, until he was able to obtain a driver's license at sixteen.
Following high school he attended the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton briefly, before leaving to pursue his true ambition of the time: broadcasting. His talent was quickly recognized and he landed his first job at CFBC in Saint John. Stuart's radio career progressed and took him to Prince Edward Island, British Columbia and finally to Alberta.
North of Edmonton, Alberta in the city of Fort McMurray, Howe discovered his singing talent through a series of unexpected events. Until this time, he had not sung or participated in any theatrical pursuits of any kind.
Not without substantial risk, he ended his successful radio career and began the challenge of returning to school as a mature student to begin vocal training, first attending Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton where he obtained a diploma in Music Theatre.
While enrolled, he met noted American voice teacher Richard Miller, who encouraged Stuart to devote his talent to opera alone and in the fall of 1993, Stuart moved to Oberlin, Ohio for a two year Performance Diploma in voice – a curriculum exception created specifically for him by the school at Miller's request.
After completing this diploma at Oberlin, Stuart spent two more years studying the finer details of operatic performance with John Moriarty at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, before moving to Germany to pursue his career.
In numerous interviews, Howe has likened his entering the opera world to that of "being dropped on to a strange planet and being left to figure it all out alone".
When Stuart made his European debut as Nemorino in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore in Oporto, Portugal in November 1997, he had been given only three weeks prior to the opening performance to prepare. He spent sixteen hour days learning the role while also rehearsing his movements on stage. Since then, it has become his most performed role, with a total of more than 100 performances and rising.
His efforts were such a success that the press revered him as "the quintessential Nemorino". He then returned to Canada, for his first Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème in 1998.
The press has always been kind, praising Stuart constantly with accolades and featuring him in countless magazine and newspaper articles, as well as innumerable radio and television interviews and performances.
Throughout the years he has taken on major tenor roles of all kinds including those Lakmé, Falstaff, Don Pasquale, Lucia di Lammermoor, Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, La Fille du Régiment, Gianni Schicchi, and The Bartered Bride. He has also appeared in Die Fledermaus, Rossini's William Tell, Verdi's Attila, Lehár's The Merry Widow, Susannah by Carlisle Floyd, Bellini's La Straniera, Romberg's The Student Prince and Rota's The Italian Straw Hat.
Howe's career has taken him to cities throughout the world, including London, Frankfurt, Oporto, Haifa, Buenos Aires, Washington, Denver, Boston, Toronto, Hamilton, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, London, Victoria, Quebec, Montreal, Regina, Saskatoon and Halifax, to name but a few.
Regarded internationally as a creator of new operatic roles, he has appeared as James Nichol in Chan Ka Nin's The Iron Road to unanimous rave reviews at the historic Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres in Toronto. The opera has inspired a movie of the same name produced for Canada's Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Prior to this debut, he also created the extensive lead role of John Higgs for Pacific Opera Victoria's critically acclaimed world premier of Erewhon from Canadian composer Louis Applebaum and librettist Mavor Moore. Both world premieres were recorded and broadcast nationwide on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He also created lead roles in world premier operas such as Pulitzer Prize winning composer Robert Ward's Lady Kate, where he created the role of Tom Wade (leading to his first review in Opera News while still a student at Oberlin); and the role of Marco in The Padrone, a work written by Chadwick, former President of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
He has also been recipient of several prestigious career development grants and awards from various organizations including The Canada Council for the Arts. He was a 2001 Dora Award nominee for his portrayal of James Nichol in The Iron Road and was a Toronto winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1999.
In August 2009, Howe entered politics for the first time as a contestant for the Liberal Party of Canada's Oakville Electoral District nomination. He lost a very divided contest and has since returned to his successful performance career. He remains very active in various areas of political life.
Due to his particular educational and professional background, Howe has been approached for years to formalize and already active but informal teaching schedule. In 2010, he accepted an opportunity to participate as a voice teacher at Canada's top summer young artist program. This experience led him to formalize a full time teaching schedule that includes voice and opera skills. Howe also continues to be active across the globe teaching masterclasses and private lessons to young professional singers.