George Jelinek, a distinguished broadcaster and music critic for Stereo Review magazine (USA), in a rave review about tenor Louis Danto, stated that ''No other tenor under contract to a major U.S. opera company today can duplicate such technique and overall control''. Copies of concert programs from Louis Danto's concerts at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall are available for viewing by clicking here.
Danto's uncommon vocal talents were already recognized, while still a student in Rome, by Gigli and Schipa, who heralded him as a major discovery in the tradition of the great bel canto tenors.
Born in Suwalki, Poland, he studied voice and cello in the conservatory of Minsk and later of Lodz. While still a child, he won first prize in the All-Russia voice competition. Louis Danto soon became internationally recognized, for the rare beauty and purity of his voice, its mastery, power and control, and for his breathtaking emotional expressivity.
Critics and audiences find him equally impressive in the Italian, Russian, and French opera repertoire, as well as in the Yiddish and cantorial music of which he is one of the world's all-time leading exponents. Louis Danto concertizes extensively throughout North America, Europe and Israel, and has recorded 19 highly acclaimed solo albums for RCA, DaCamera, Musical Heritage Society, and Cadenza.
He was the featured performer in a recent gala Thanksgiving service held at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada. Among the 16,000 enthusiastic audience were HRH Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Philip. Both congratulated and thanked him personally.
Numerous leading contemporary composers have written for, and dedicated their works to Louis Danto. In addition, he is a researcher and a champion of rare and unusual repertoire: during his 1989 East-European tour (of concerts in Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa, Kiev and Budapest) he discovered the manuscripts of many songs from the long-lost original classics of Jewish music, several of which he recorded for the first time on his ''Gems of the Jewish Operetta'' and ''Masters of the Jewish Art Song/The St. Petersburg School''.
His recent work includes ''Arias and Songs of Love'', made during his 1995 concert tour of Europe, recorded with the State Opera of Prague and ''I Heard a Voice From Heaven'' recorded with noted violist Rivka Golani, both released in the spring of 1996.
In December 1997 he released a new C.D., ''Music From The Soul of a People''. In February 1998, Cantor Louis Danto received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.