Martin Near

Martin Near has been acclaimed for the “sweet limpidity” of his singing (The New York Times), with a “cool, beaming countertenor” commended for its “crystal clear…beautiful, blooming top notes” (New York Classical Review). He enjoys a varied career exploring twin passions for early music and new music. Highlights of recent solo performances include a concert version of Machaut’s Remede de Fortune, created as a collaboration between Blue Heron and Cleveland’s Les Délices (Debra Nagy, director) and returning to Blue Heron’s season in 2019, and Richard Rodney Bennett’s Ophelia (1987) with Boston’s Odyssey Opera under the artistic direction of Gil Rose. Mr. Near maintains a parallel career in the pipe organ industry, providing services in organ pipe reconditioning and repair, voicing, tonal finishing, and tuning for Spencer Organ Company of Waltham, and he has also been known to compose, arrange, and engrave using Finale.