He is known for quirky programs (e.g. Schoenberg and His American Pupils, 24 "Italian" Songs and Arias), and for talking to audiences from the stage.
[4] His 2009 recital of Songs from the World War I Era was named one of the Philadelphia Inquirer's "Best Classical Performances of the Year".
[6] His discography also includes orchestral songs of Virgil Thomson with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, a period instrument album of French mélodies (including Gabriel Fauré's La bonne chanson), Franz Schubert's Winterreise with Reiko Uchida, and a reconstructed Bach cantata with the Taverner Consort.
5 with the Boston Symphony, and Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs for a Mad King with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and is particularly associated with the music of Milton Babbitt, Aaron Jay Kernis, Charles Wuorinen, György Kurtág, Derek Bermel, Jorge Martín, and John Adams.
His operatic repertoire includes Mozart's Count Almaviva, and Don Giovanni, Fritz in Die tote Stadt, as well as many roles in modern works such as Chou En-Lai in John Adams' Nixon in China, Prior Walter in Peter Eötvös' Angels in America, Celestus in Louis Karchin's Romulus, Memphis in Donald Crockett's The Face, and the title role in Gordon Shi-Wen Chin's Mackay─The Black Bearded Bible Man.