Biography
Hailing from Cartago, Costa Rica, tenor Esteban José Zúñiga Calderón is a passionate performer and dedicated voice instructor. Praised by his high vocal range and expressiveness on stage, Zúñiga has forged a musical path through the world of vocal music and andragogy, from Latin America to the United States. After completing his undergraduate studies in Costa Rica, he obtained his Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music with former Metropolitan Opera tenor Neil Rosenshein. Since then, he has lived in the Pacific Northwest to pursue a Doctor in Musical Arts degree with a specialization in Historical Performance Practice from the University of Oregon.
Zuniga’s repertoire includes principal roles in operas by Rossini, Donizetti, Mozart, Bizet, and Handel in addition to zarzuela, operetta, and musical theater productions. His comprimario tenor roles include operas by Puccini, Verdi, R. Strauss, and J. Strauss. Moreover, he has performed baroque operatic roles by M.A. Charpentier, J, Eccles, and Rameau as well as contemporary roles by current composers Paul Davis and Tobias Picker. As a soloist, he continues to perform in cantatas, oratorios, and chamber music by Britten, Schubert, Bach, Orff, Debussy, Liszt, Mozart, Handel, Saint-Saenz, and Mendelssohn. Zúñiga as had the opportunity to sing in a wide variety of venues throughout the United States, and on prestigious stages of his home country, Costa Rica.
Besides performing and teaching, Zúñiga continues to center his research interests on the development of the tenor voice from a technical point of view throughout history, as well as its role in the development of vocal music. He also centers a lot of his investigative efforts on the process of assigning repertoire to developing voices with accuracy and efficiency towards the achievement of their specific goals.