Countertenor Sam Higgins has received national recognition for his “innate musicality” and his “complex understanding of music.” He has been singing with orchestras since the age of 11. His most recent prizes include first place at the 2023 Schmidt Undergraduate Awards, second place in the International MIOpera Competition, and his win of the 2023 Barbara E. Maze award presented by the Handel and Haydn Society. In 2018, he was named a Grand Prize Winner in the Fidelity Young Artists Competition at the Boston Symphony Pops. The Grand Prize award included a solo performance of Bereite dich, Zion from the Christmas Oratorio of J.S. Bach with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Symphony Orchestra Pops in Symphony Hall. On February 29th, 2020, Sam performed Handel’s aria Dove sei, amato bene from ‘Rodelinda’ on NPR’s “From the Top.” In May of 2021, he was awarded first place at the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition. His win at the National Classical Singer Competition came in May of 2020, where he was then featured in the summer issue of Classical Singer Magazine. In February of 2019, he participated in the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s High School Singers Intensive as one of only ten singers selected nationwide. In May of 2021, Higgins was awarded first place at the Boston Schmidt Vocal Competition. Sam attended the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Vocal program in the summer of 2019. In August of 2021, he entered the esteemed Curtis Institute of Music studying under Julia Faulkner and selected by baritone Eric Owens.  
 
Higgins’ 2023-24 Season starts with his participation in Opera Philadelphia’s “Festival O’23,” where he will perform Britten’s Canticle II. He then performs the alto part in Handel’s Oratorio L’allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato at Curtis in mid-November. Throughout the year, he will perform Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Bach’s Ich habe genug (BWV 82) and Kreuz und Krone fro.

At Curtis in the 2021-22 season, he performed “Deep Blue,” a piece written for him by composer Adrian Wong. He also sang scenes from Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and all of Purcell’s From Hardy Climes and Dangerous Toils of War.