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About
A native of South Carolina, Mac Atkinson attended the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities. He went on to graduate from the vocal performance program at Oberlin Conservatory where he studied under Timothy LeFebvre. Mac currently studies under the esteemed Manny Perez. His recent performances include Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin and Donald Swann's The Road Goes Ever On with An Die Musik in Baltimore. As well as, Puck in Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Albert Herring in Britten's Albert Herring, and El Remendado in Bizet’s Carmen with the Miami Classical Music Festival. Other highlights include working with composer Missy Mazzoli and Librettist Royce Vavrek in their opera Proving Up as Miles Zegner and completing a bucket list item when he performed Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin for the first time on Warner Stage at Oberlin Conservatory.
As a bookseller Mac Atkinson worked as an appraiser and head of sales for Boards and Wraps in Baltimore for three years. He functioned as their face at antiquarian fairs across the East Coast. For the last two summers he has attended the Rare Book School in Charlottesville Virginia, studying with many acclaimed members of the book community. Prior to this he has sold books and antiques independently for over a decade. Among his most recent notable sales are a first edition set of Laura Engel's Little House books and a first edition of A Shropshire Lad signed by A. E. Houseman.
Reviews
"Singing as a boy at the beginning, Atkinson allowed his tone and pitch to falter. After embarking on an adventure that Miles imagines as a passage into manhood, however, the tenor took on a confident if compact sound, more Peter Pears than Pavarotti. Few singers can boast of singing an aria while circling the audience on a bicycle, but now Atkinson can."
- Cleveland Classical on Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up.
"In the title role, Mac Atkinson displayed an agile character tenor and the ability to make Albert’s repressed emotions come alive. He projected the grocery worker’s sadness at being attached to his mother’s unyielding strings at his initial appearance. His embarrassment at speeches praising Albert’s purity at the May King celebration was manifest and Atkinson’s wonderfully varied dynamic range in the drunken scene rose to a volatile climax as he resolved to throw caution to the wind and explore life’s wilder temptations. Albert’s final narrative about his night of debauched revelry was rendered with deft lightness and rhythmic acuity."
- South Florida Classical Review on Britten's Albert Herring
"The Miami Beach Classical Music Festival’s production of this 1960 opera managed to conjure up the multiple worlds of a fairy kingdom, mortal quarreling lovers, bumpkin vaudevillians and a royal court in perfect proportion. A video of last week’s performance (July 22) at the Faena Forum displays a well-prepared, musically scrupulous traversal by a talented young cast and imaginative production team... In the spoken role of Puck, Mac Atkinson leapt about the stage with Terpsichorean agility, and exceptionally clear diction."
- South Florida Classical on Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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