Reader Submission: Jacob Scharfman

Jacob Scharfman (Photos by Scott Bump, left, and Alex Weick, right)

We love that the Reader Submissions are pouring in and the latest is American barihunk Jacob Scharfman, who was spotted by a reader at this last month's 2015 Handel Aria Competition in Madison, Wisconsin. Here's Scharfman's unedited, lighthearted bio:

Baritone Jacob Scharfman is making a splash in Boston, his home city, where he began singing in church-basement children’s operas at age seven. Though he loathed soccer, he loved frilly outfits, and the proscenium offered the only natural outlet for such “originality.” Selected for a Bohème children’s chorus at age ten, he famously told the conductor to “fix his downbeat.” Red (rainbow?) flags were everywhere.

Now taller, lankier, bearded, but still utterly tactless, he’s elbowing his way to stardom. The Boston Musical Intelligencer deems his voice “certain to gain popularity […] well-rounded and rich, maintaining clarity and precision throughout his entire range.” In June, the Boston Classical Review acclaimed his “rich, ringing” performance of Mr. Webb in Ned Rorem’s Our Town with the Boston Opera Collaborative. Other 2015 roles included Rugby in Vaughan William’s Sir John in Love with Odyssey Opera, Prince Yeletsky in Queen of Spades with Harvard’s Lowell House, and the Pilot (cover) in Rachel Portman’s Little Prince with Opera Fayetteville.

Honoring his type-A Jewish overachiever lineage, he’s got a packed concert season ahead. Upcoming engagements include the Henry Purcell Society of Boston, Boston Baroque, Exsultemus, and Schola Cantorum of Boston, in addition to several personal recitals and tapings in preparation for grad school auditions. Wish him luck. For further updates, find him at www.facebook.com/jacobscharfmanmusic or the perennially incomplete jacobscharfman.com.