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GRAMMY and Juno award-winning conductor/composer Bramwell Tovey
was appointed Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in
2000. Under his leadership the VSO have toured to China, Korea,
across Canada and the United States. Mr. Tovey is also the Artistic
Adviser of the VSO School of Music, a state-of-the-art facility and
recital hall which opened in downtown Vancouver in 2011, next to
the Orpheum, the VSO's historic home. His tenure has included
complete symphony cycles of Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms as well as
the establishment of an annual festival dedicated to contemporary
music. In 2018, the VSO's centenary year, he will become the
orchestra's Music Director Emeritus.
During the 15-16 season Mr. Tovey's guest appearances
include the symphonies of Montreal, Melbourne, New Zealand, and
Pacific Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra and New York
Philharmonic, reprising his programs with both at Bravo! Vail in
summer 2016. The summer also includes returns to the Blossom Music
Center, Ravinia Festival, and Hollywood Bowl. In the winter of 2016
he will conduct Korngold's Die Tote Stadt with the
Calgary Opera.
In the 14-15 season Mr. Tovey made guest appearances with several
US orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York
Philharmonic and Kansas City Symphony. In Europe he performed with
the BBC Philharmonic and the Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester and he
traveled to Australia on two separate occasions for engagements
with the symphonies of Melbourne and Sydney.
In 2003 Bramwell Tovey won the Juno Award for Best Classical
Composition for his choral and brass work Requiem for a
Charred Skull. Commissions include the New York and Los Angeles
Philharmonics, the Toronto Symphony and Calgary Opera who premiered
his first full length opera The Inventor in 2011. A
recording of the work by the VSO with UBC Opera and the original
cast was made for the Naxos label and will be released this season.
In 2014 his trumpet concerto, Songs of the Paradise
Saloon, was performed by the LA Philharmonic with Alison
Balsom as soloist, and was subsequently repeated by the same
soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, in December
2014.
A talented pianist as well as conductor and composer, he has
appeared as soloist with many major orchestras including the New
York, Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, St Louis,
Toronto, and Royal Scottish orchestras. In the summer of 2014 he
played and conducted Gershwin's Rhapsody in
Blue at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Phil and in
Saratoga with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has performed his
own Pictures in the Smoke with the Melbourne and
Helsingborg Symphonies and the Royal
Philharmonic.
Maestro Tovey was Music Director of the Winnipeg Symphony
Orchestra from 1989 to 2001 where he founded the WSO's now
celebrated New Music Festival. From 2002-2006 he was Music Director
of Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, leading tours of Europe,
the USA, China and Korea. He opened Luxembourg's Salle Philharmonie
with the world première of Penderecki's
8th Symphony.
Mr. Tovey is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London, the
Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and holds honorary degrees
from the universities of British Columbia, Manitoba, Kwantlen and
Winnipeg. In 2013 he was appointed an honorary Officer of the Order
of Canada for services to music.
In August 2011 he was described by Musical America as "one of the
most versatile and charismatic musicians in the world."
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Bramwell Tovey, conductor
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Praised for her vocal beauty, seamless technique, and abundant
musicality, Nadine Sierra is being hailed as one of the most
promising, young talents in opera today. She was named the Richard
Tucker Award Winner in 2017 and was awarded the 2018 Beverly Sills
Artist Award by the Metropolitan Opera. Having made a string of
successful debuts at the Met, Teatro alla Scala, Opéra national de
Paris, and Staatsoper Berlin, she has become a fixture at many of
the top houses around the world. On August 24th, 2018, her debut
album, There's a Place for Us, will be released under
the Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music labels.
For the 2018-19 season, Sierra will return both to the
Staatsoper Berlin singing Nannetta in Falstaff and to the
Metropolitan Opera as Gilda in Rigoletto. She will also
make her house and role debut as Manon at the Opéra national de
Bordeaux and perform again as Gilda in a new production at the
Staatsoper Berlin under the baton of Daniel Barenboim. In concert,
she will perform and record Maria in Bernstein's West Side
Story with Antonio Pappano at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa
Cecilia, appear in Dallas, Prague, Paris, Bordeaux, Baden-Baden and
return to Venice for La Fenice's televised Capodanno
celebration.
Ms. Sierra's 2017-18 season included appearances at the Opéra
national de Paris, the Metropolitan Opera, La Fenice, Chorégies
d'Orange, and Staatsoper Berlin. She was named the Richard Tucker
Award Winner in 2017 and had the honor of receiving the 2018
Beverly Sills Artist Award from the Metropolitan Opera. Sierra also
had the pleasure of releasing her debut album, 'There's a Place for
Us,' with the Deutsche Grammophon and Universal Music on August
24th, 2018. Ask her your questions on Instagram:
@nadine.sierra.
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Nadine Sierra, soprano
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Highly acclaimed for her "passionate intensity and remarkable
vocal beauty," the Grammy Award winning Isabel Leonard continues to
thrill audiences both in the opera house and on the concert
stage. In repertoire that spans from Vivaldi to Mozart to
Thomas Ades, she has graced the stages of the Metropolitan Opera,
Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Salzburg Festival, Bavarian State
Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco
Opera as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Angelina
in La Cenerentola, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro,
Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Blanche de la Force
in Dialogues des Carmélites, the title roles
in Griselda, La Périchole, and Der Rosenkavalier, as
well as Sesto in both Mozart's La clemenza di Tito and
Handel's Giulio Cesare.
She has appeared with some of the foremost conductors of her
time: James Levine, Valery Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, Gustavo
Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Franz Welser-Möst, Edo de Waart, James
Conlon, Andris Nelsons, and Harry Bicket with the Cleveland
Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los
Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Vienna Philharmonic,
among others.
Ms. Leonard is in constant demand as a recitalist and is on the
Board of Trustees at Carnegie Hall. She is a recent Grammy
Award winner for Thomas Ades' The Tempest (Best Opera
Recording) and the recipient of the 2013 Richard Tucker
Award. She recently joined the supporters of the Prostate
Cancer Foundation to lend her voice in honor of her father who died
from the disease when she was in college.
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Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano
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Possessing a voice of uncommon allure, musical sophistication
far beyond her years, and intuitive and innate dramatic artistry,
the Grammy® Award-winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor has emerged
as one of the most compelling performers of her generation.
During the 2016-17 season, the artist's impressive symphonic
calendar includes a Boston Symphony Orchestra debut in a program of
Brahms, Purcell, and Stravinsky in collaboration with Thomas Adès,
Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder with Matthias Pintscher
conducting the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, John Adams' The
Gospel According to the Other Mary with Sir Simon Rattle and
the Berliner Philharmoniker as well as with David Robertson and the
St. Louis Symphony both at Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis and at
Carnegie Hall, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Iván Fischer and the
Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Mahler's Das Lied von der
Erde with Louis Langrée and the Detroit Symphony and with
Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. In
performances with Jaap van Zweden and the Hong Kong Philharmonic,
Miss O'Connor sings Mahler's Third Symphony and she assays the role
of Erda in concert performances of Wagner's Das Rheingold
with the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert conducting. Also,
in the present season, the California native brings her artistry to
the recital stage in three distinguished settings: Kelley O'Connor
returns to Collaborative Arts Institute Chicago for programs
spotlighting the songs of Debussy, Massenet, Chausson, and
Canteloube; she joins pianist Louis Langrée for recital programs in
Cincinnati featuring songs of Brahms and Ravel; and she is
accompanied by her frequent collaborator, Donald Runnicles, at the
Grand Teton Music Festival in a program of Brahms and
Bernstein.
Recent seasons include performances of John Adams' El
Niño under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski with the London
Philharmonic Orchestra, Ravel's Shéhérazade with Esa-Pekka
Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival,
Mahler's Eighth Symphony with Jirí Belohlávek and the BBC Symphony
Orchestra, Berio's Folk Songs with Daniel Harding and the
London Symphony Orchestra, Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Robert
Spano and the Atlanta Symphony, Stravinsky's Les Noces with David
Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony, and Elgar's Sea Pictures and
Britten's Spring Symphony with Edward Gardner and the City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
John Adams wrote the title role of The Gospel According to
the Other Mary for Kelley O'Connor and she has performed the
work, internationally, both in concert and in the Peter Sellars
production, under the batons of Gustavo Dudamel and Grant Gershon.
She continues to be the eminent living interpreter of Peter
Lieberson's Neruda Songs and has given this moving set of
songs with Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony
Orchestra, with Bernard Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
with Robert Spano and the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as with
David Zinman and the Berliner Philharmoniker and the
Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich among many others.
Miss O'Connor has appeared numerous times with Gustavo Dudamel,
including in performances of Bernstein's "Jeremiah" Symphony on an
international tour with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and of
Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra.
With Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra, she
has sung excerpts from Roussel's Padmâvatî and given the
world premiere of a vocal work written for Miss O'Connor by the
legendary Indian musician, Zakir Hussain.
The artist enjoys a rich musical collaboration with Franz
Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra with whom she has sung
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Mass in C, Bernstein's "Jeremiah"
Symphony, staged performances of Falstaff both in Cleveland and at
the Lucerne Festival, and Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles.
Operatic highlights include Donizetti's Anna Bolena at
the Lyric Opera of Chicago conducted by Patrick Summers and
directed by Kevin Newbury, Madama Butterfly in a new
production by Lillian Groag at the Boston Lyric Opera and at the
Cincinnati Opera under the baton of Ramón Tebar, Berlioz's
Béatrice et Bénédict at Opera Boston, Falstaff
with the Santa Fe Opera, and A Midsummer Night's Dream at
the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Canadian Opera Company.
Kelley O'Connor has received unanimous international, critical
acclaim for her numerous performances as Federico García Lorca in
Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar. Miss O'Connor created the
role for the world premiere at Tanglewood, under the baton of
Robert Spano, and subsequently joined Miguel Harth-Bedoya for
performances of Golijov's piece with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. She reprised her "musically
seductive, palpably charismatic" (Washington Post) portrayal of
Lorca in the world-premiere of the revised edition of
Ainadamar at the Santa Fe Opera in a new staging by Peter
Sellars during the 2005 season, which was also presented at New
York City's Lincoln Center and Madrid's Teatro Real. For her debut
with the Atlanta Symphony in Ainadamar, she joined Robert
Spano for performances and a Grammy® Award-winning Deutsche
Grammophon recording. Her discography also includes Lieberson's
Neruda Songs with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony as
well as Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary with
Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra
for Deutsche Grammophon.
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Kelley O'Connor, mezzo-soprano
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Described by the Boston Globe as “one of the world’s most remarkable singers,” American tenor Nicholas Phan is increasingly recognized as an artist of distinction. Praised for his keen intelligence, captivating stage presence and natural musicianship, he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. Also an avid recitalist, in 2010 he co-founded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC) to promote art song and vocal chamber music, where he serves as Artistic Director.
Phan once again launches his new season in Chicago, curating CAIC’s seventh annual Collaborative Arts Festival. This year’s three-day festival (Sep 5 - 8), “The Song as Drama,” will examine the narrative power of the song cycle and the ability of song to tell epic stories with minimal forces. Other highlights of his 2018-19 season are two role debuts: Eumolpus in Stravinsky’s Perséphone, with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony; and the title role in Handel’s Jephtha, with Boston Baroque and Martin Pearlman. The title role in Bernstein’s Candide, with Marin Alsop and the Israel Philharmonic, will mark his debut in Israel. In addition to three programs with the San Francisco Symphony, he will return to major orchestras across the country including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and Colorado Symphony. In November he will sing the first of many outings of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin this season, as he gives the world premiere of Antoine Plante’s arrangement of the cycle for full orchestra, with Mercury, the Houston-based orchestra of which Plante is the founder. A celebrated recording artist, Phan will be heard on two forthcoming recordings: Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette with Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, (recorded in June 2017); and Handel’s Joseph and His Brethren (recorded in December 2017) with Philharmonia Baroque and Nicholas McGegan, singing the roles of Simeon and Judah.
Phan's most recent solo album, Illuminations, was released on Avie Records in April 2018. His previous solo album, Gods and Monsters, was nominated for the 2017 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo Album. His other previous solo albums, A Painted Tale, Still Fall the Rain and Winter Words, made many "best of" lists, including those of the New York Times, New Yorker, Chicago Tribune and Boston Globe. Phan's growing discography also includes a Grammy-nominated recording of Stravinsky's Pulcinella with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony, the opera L'Olimpiade with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, Scarlatti's La gloria di primavera with Philharmonia Baroque, an album of Bach’s secular cantatas with Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan, Bach's St. John Passion (in which he sings both the Evangelist and the tenor arias) with Apollo's Fire, and the world premiere recordings of two orchestral song cycles: The Old Burying Ground by Evan Chambers and Elliott Carter's A Sunbeam's Architecture.
Phan has appeared with many of the leading orchestras in the North America and Europe, including the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Philharmonia Baroque, Boston Baroque, Les Violons du Roy, BBC Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Strasbourg Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, and the Lucerne Symphony. He has toured extensively throughout the major concert halls of Europe with Il Complesso Barocco, and has appeared with the Oregon Bach, Ravinia, Marlboro, Edinburgh, Rheingau, Saint-Denis, and Tanglewood festivals, as well as the BBC Proms. Among the conductors he has worked with are Marin Alsop, Harry Bicket, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Alan Curtis, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Charles Dutoit, James Gaffigan, Jane Glover, Manfred Honeck, Bernard Labadie, Louis Langrée, Nicholas McGegan, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, John Nelson, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Helmuth Rilling, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Masaaki Suzuki, Michael Tilson Thomas, Bramwell Tovey and Franz Welser-Möst.
An avid proponent of vocal chamber music, he has collaborated with many chamber musicians, including pianists Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Jeremy Denk, Graham Johnson, Roger Vignoles, Inon Barnatan, Myra Huang and Alessio Bax; violinist James Ehnes; guitarist Eliot Fisk; harpist Sivan Magen; and horn players Jennifer Montone, Radovan Vlatkovic and Gail Williams. In both recital and chamber concerts, he has been presented by Carnegie Hall, London's Wigmore Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Atlanta's Spivey Hall, Boston's Celebrity Series, and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
Phan's many opera credits include appearances with the Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Chicago Opera Theater, Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and Frankfurt Opera. His growing repertoire includes the title roles in Bernstein's Candide, Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex and Handel's Acis and Galatea, Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore, Fenton in Falstaff, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and Lurcanio in Ariodante.
A graduate of the University of Michigan, Phan is the 2012 recipient of the Paul C Boylan Distinguished Alumni Award. He also studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Aspen Music Festival and School, and is an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. He was the recipient of a 2006 Sullivan Foundation Award and 2004 Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation. In 2018, Phan was appointed to the faculty of DePaul University, where he serves as an adjunct member of the voice faculty.
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Nicholas Phan, tenor
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Canadian baritone Elliot Madore has been praised for his "movie
star quality" (Merkur) and "exceptional" artistry (New York
Times).
In the 2017-2018 season, he returns to the San Francisco Opera
for the world premiere of John Adams' Girls of the Golden West
directed by Peter Sellars and the Zurich Opera as Germano in La
scala di seta. He will debut with the Berlin Philharmonic as The
Cat/Grandfather Clock in L'enfant et les sortilèges conducted by
Seiji Ozawa, with the Bremen Kammerphilharmonie in Pelléas et
Melisande conducted by Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, and with the Los
Angeles Philharmonic singing Papageno's arias with Gustavo Dudamel.
He returns to the Tanglewood Music Festival to sing Bernstein's
Songfest with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In his signature role of Pelléas in Pelléas et Melisande, he
made his Bayerische Staatsoper debut in a new production at the
Prinzregententehater. He has also sung Pelléas with the Croatian
National Opera in Stéphane Braunschweig's famous production, with
Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra in a fully-staged
production by Yuval Sharon, at Opéra-Théâtre de Limoges, and with
the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit. Mr. Madore made
his Metropolitan Opera mainstage debut as Lysander in their
original baroque fantasy The Enchanted Island conducted by William
Christie, as well as singing the Novice's Friend in Billy Budd as a
member of Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Since then,
he has appeared as Figaro in The Barber of Canadian baritone Elliot
Madore has been praised for his "movie star quality" (Merkur) and
"exceptional" artistry (New York Times).
In the 2017-2018 season, he returns to the San Francisco Opera
for the world premiere of John Adams' Girls of the Golden West
directed by Peter Sellars and the Zurich Opera as Germano in La
scala di seta. He will debut with the Berlin Philharmonic as The
Cat/Grandfather Clock in L'enfant et les sortilèges conducted by
Seiji Ozawa, with the Bremen Kammerphilharmonie in Pelléas et
Melisande conducted by Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, and with the Los
Angeles Philharmonic singing Papageno's arias with Gustavo Dudamel.
He returns to the Tanglewood Music Festival to sing Bernstein's
Songfest with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In his signature role of Pelléas in Pelléas et Melisande, he
made his Bayerische Staatsoper debut in a new production at the
Prinzregententehater. He has also sung Pelléas with the Croatian
National Opera in Stéphane Braunschweig's famous production, with
Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra in a fully-staged
production by Yuval Sharon, at Opéra-Théâtre de Limoges, and with
the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit. Mr. Madore made
his Metropolitan Opera mainstage debut as Lysander in their
original baroque fantasy The Enchanted Island conducted by William
Christie, as well as singing the Novice's Friend in Billy Budd as a
member of Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Since then,
he has appeared as Figaro in The Barber of Seville and Mercutio in
the new production of Roméo et Juliette conducted by Gianandrea
Noseda which was broadcast worldwide in HD. He made his San
Francisco Opera debut as Anthony in Sweeney Todd and returned to
the Bayerische Staatsoper as Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos under
music director Kirill Petrenko with performances in Munich and at
the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. He debuted at Lyric Opera
of Kansas City as Belcore in L'elisir d'amore, Florida Grand Opera
debut as Reinaldo Arenas in Jorge Martin's Before Night Falls, and
at the Santa Fe Opera as Mercutio in a new production of Roméo et
Juliette conducted by Harry Bicket. He also debuted at the Dutch
National Opera as Prince Hérisson de Porc-Epic in Laurent Pelly's
new production of Chabrier's L'étoile which was recorded for
DVD.
He made his European operatic debut at the Glyndebourne Festival
in a new production of L'heure espagnole as Ramiro and L'enfant et
les sortilèges as The Cat/Grandfather Clock directed by Laurent
Pelly and conducted by Kazushi Ono. He was also seen in this same
Ravel double-bill at the Saito Kinen Festival conducted by Seiji
Ozawa and directed by Laurent Pelly which recently won a Grammy
Award for Best Opera Recording. He made his Salzburg Festival debut
as the Japanese Envoy in concert performances of Stravinsky's Le
rossignol with Ivor Bolton and Mozarteumorchester Salzburg. At the
Tanglewood Festival, Mr. Madore has been seen as Harlekin and the
Music Master in Ariadne auf Naxos under the baton of Christoph von
Dohnányi. He returned to the Glyndebourne Festival as the title
role in Mozart's Don Giovanni, a role he also sang at Opera
Philadelphia, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and at the Tanglewood
Festival with James Levine. Elliot was a member of the ensemble at
Opernhaus Zürich where he was seen as Valentin in a new production
of Faust, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte under Tomas Netopil,
Schaunard in La bohème conducted by Nello Santi, Andrei a new
production of Peter Eötvös's Three Sisters, Silvio in Pagliacci,
Silvano in Un ballo in maschera and Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos
under Fabio Luisi.
In concert, he opened the new Philharmonie Hall in Paris with
Les Arts Florissants as Adario in Rameau's Les Indes galantes
conducted by William Christie. He made his Baltimore Symphony debut
with Marin Alsop in Carmina Burana, was heard in concert with
Charles Dutoit and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in L'heure
espagnole and L'enfant et les sortilèges, and debuted with the
Houston Symphony Orchestra in Carmina Burana under music director
Andrés Orozco-Estrada. He was heard in recital with the Cleveland
Art Song Festival and with Music Toronto, which was broadcast on
the CBC. Mr. Madore has also recently performed recitals in New
York, Winnipeg, and Philadelphia. He made his Carnegie Hall recital
debut at Weill Recital Hall as part of Marilyn Horne's The Song
Continues series and performed a solo concert with the Edmonton
Symphony in a program of opera arias and Lieder. His Canadian
recital debut took place at the National Arts Centre in Canada
which was recorded and broadcast on the CBC Radio Two's "Next!
Canada's Music Future" Series.
In addition to the Metropolitan Opera National Council
Auditions, Mr. Madore was the recipient of the 2010 George London
Award for a Canadian Singer from the George London Foundation, a
finalist in the 2010 Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers
in Houston and the recipient of the ARIAS Emerging Young Artist
Award from Opera Canada. He was also the winner of the 2009 Palm
Beach Vocal Competition. Elliot Madore is a graduate of the Curtis
Institute of Music where he studied with Marlena Malas.
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Elliot Madore, baritone
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Bass-baritone Eric Owens has a unique reputation as an esteemed
interpreter of classic works and a champion of new music. Equally
at home in orchestral, recital, and operatic repertoire, Mr. Owens
brings his powerful poise, expansive voice, and instinctive acting
faculties to stages around the world.
In the 2017-18 season, Mr. Owens will return to the Lyric Opera
of Chicago to make his role debut as Wotan in David Pountney's new
production of Wagner's Die Walküre. He will also sing
Filippo II in Verdi's Don Carlo at Washington
National Opera, Don Basilio in Rossini's Il Barbiere di
Sivigliaat Houston Grand Opera, Enrico in
Donizetti's Anna Bolena at Canadian Opera
Company, and the Forester in Janáček's The Cunning Little
Vixen at the Glimmerglass Festival, where he will serve
as Artist in Residence and Artistic Advisor. Concert appearances
include Rossini's Stabat Mater with the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti,
Verdi's Requiem with both the National Symphony
Orchestra led by Gianandrea Noseda and the Nashville Symphony
Orchestra, and Mendelssohn's Elijah with Music
of the Baroque. He will also give a recital at the Shriver Center
in Baltimore, as well as dual recitals with Susanna Phillips at the
Schubert Club in St. Paul and Lawrence Brownlee at the Celebrity
Series of Boston.
Eric Owens launched the 2016-17 season with his role debut as
Wotan in David Pountney's new production of Wagner's Das
Rheingold at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He sang a trio
of operas at the Metropolitan Opera that included the Met premiere
of Kaijo Saariaho's L'amour de Loin, a new production
of Rusalka under Sir Mark Elder, and a revival
of Idomeneo conducted by James Levine, all of
which were broadcast through the Met's Live in HD series. Concert
highlights included joining Alan Gilbert and the New York
Philharmonic for performances as Wotan in Das
Rheingold and of Beethoven's Ninth
Symphony, which he also performed at the Cincinatti May
Festival as its Artist in Residence, a gala celebrating the
Metropolitan Opera's Fiftieth Anniversary at Lincoln Center, and
performances as Orest in Strauss's Elektra at
the Verbier Festival and Méphistophélès in Berlioz's La
Damnation de Faust with the New Zealand Symphony
Orchestra. He also gave a guest recital at the Cleveland Art Song
Festival, performed dual recitals with Susanna Phillips at the
Washington Performing Arts and Lawrence Brownlee at the Lyric Opera
of Chicago and William Jewell College, and appeared with the
Chicago Symphony's Negaunee Music Institute to present an
interactive recital for incarcerated youth alongside Riccardo Muti
and Joyce DiDonato.
The 2015-2016 season featured Mr. Owens in several
collaborations with the New York Philharmonic as the Mary and James
G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, including a tribute to legendary
African-American singers and their legacy titled In Their
Footsteps, a concert of Strauss selections and excerpts from
Act 3 of Die Walküre conducted by Alan Gilbert,
and a festive concert celebrating the holiday season. Other
orchestral engagements during the season included performances of
Bruckner's Te Deum with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra under Riccardo Muti, Beethoven's Symphony No.
9 with the St. Louis Symphony, as well as with Osmo
Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra,
Ravel's L'enfant
et les sortileges with
Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Bayerischer Rundfunk,
Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem with the Baltimore
Symphony Orchestra, and Dvořák's Stabat
Mater with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra.
He also joined Music of the Baroque as Simon in concert
performances of Handel's Judas Maccabaeus.
Operatic highlights of his 2015-16 season included his return to
the Metropolitan Opera as Orest in a new production
of Elektra by legendary director Patrice
Chéreau, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, which was broadcast on the
Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Live in
HD series. He also hosted the Metropolitan
Opera's Live in HD broadcast
of Otello. He returned to Washington National Opera
as Stephen Kumalo in Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars.
At the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, he performed an evening of
jazz standards featuring the music of Billy Eckstine and Johnny
Hartman, and he will also appear in recital under the auspices of
the Oberlin College and Conservatory, Troy Chromatic Concerts, and
the Curtis Institute of Music.
Mr. Owens began his 2014-2015 season with the Berlin
Philharmonic in Bach's St. Matthew
Passion conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and directed by
Peter Sellars, with staged performances at the Lucerne Festival,
BBC Proms, and New York's Park Avenue Armory as part of Lincoln
Center's White Light Festival. He returned to Lyric Opera of
Chicago, where he is a Community Ambassador, for performances of
Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Mr. Owens also made his
role debuts as the title role in Der
fliegende
Holländer with Washington
National Opera, King Philip II in Don Carlo at
Opera Philadelphia, and the title role
in Macbeth at the Glimmerglass Festival, where
he returned as an Artist-in-Residence.
Symphonic highlights of Mr. Owens' recent seasons included
performances of Verdi's Requiem with the New
York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert and the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis,
Ravel's L'enfant
et les sortileges with the
Swedish Radio Symphony and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, both under
the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Beethoven's Symphony
No. 9 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by
Riccardo Muti. He also performed a duo recital with soprano Susanna
Phillips under the auspices of the Philadelphia Chamber Music
Society.
Mr. Owens has created an uncommon niche for himself in the
ever-growing body of contemporary opera works through his
determined tackling of new and challenging roles. He received great
critical acclaim for portraying the title role in the world
premiere of Elliot Goldenthal's Grendel with the
Los Angeles Opera, and again at the Lincoln Center Festival, in a
production directed and designed by Julie Taymor. Mr. Owens also
enjoys a close association with John Adams, for whom he performed
the role of General Leslie Groves in the world premiere
of Doctor Atomic at the San Francisco Opera, and
of the Storyteller in the world premiere of A Flowering
Tree at Peter Sellars's New Crowned Hope Festival in
Vienna and later with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Doctor
Atomic was later recorded and received the 2012 Grammy
for Best Opera Recording. Mr. Owens made his Boston Symphony
Orchestra debut under the baton of David Robertson in
Adam's El Niño.
Mr. Owens's career operatic highlights include Alberich in the
Metropolitan Opera's Ring cycle directed by
Robert Lepage; his San Francisco Opera debut
in Otello conducted by Donald Runnicles; his
Royal Opera, Covent Garden, debut in Norma; Vodnik in
Rusalka at Lyric Opera of Chicago; the title role in
Handel's Hercules with the Canadian Opera
Company; Aida at Houston Grand
Opera; Rigoletto, Il Trovatore,
and La Bohème at Los Angeles opera; Die
Zauberflöte for his Paris Opera (Bastille) debut; and
Ariodante and L'Incoronazione di
Poppea at the English National Opera. He sang Collatinus
in a highly-acclaimed Christopher Alden production of
Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at Glimmerglass
Opera. A former member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Mr. Owens
has sung Sarastro, Mephistopheles in Faust, Frère
Laurent, and Aristotle Onassis in the world premiere
of Jackie O (available on the Argo label) with
that company. Mr. Owens is featured on two Telarc recordings with
the Atlanta Symphony: Mozart's Requiem and
scenes from Strauss' Elektra and Die Frau
ohne Schatten, both conducted by Donald Runnicles. He is
featured on the Nonesuch Records release of A Flowering
Tree.
Mr. Owens has been recognized with multiple honors, including
the Musical America's 2017 "Vocalist of the Year" award, 2003
Marian Anderson Award, a 1999 ARIA award, second prize in
the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition, the
Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and
the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice
Competition.
A native of Philadelphia, Mr. Owens began his musical training
as a pianist at the age of six, followed by formal oboe study at
age eleven under Lloyd Shorter of the Delaware Symphony and Louis
Rosenblatt of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He studied voice while an
undergraduate at Temple University, and then as a
graduate student at the Curtis Institute of Music. He currently
studies with Armen Boyajian. He serves on the Board of
Trustees of both the National Foundation for Advancement in the
Arts and Astral Artistic Services.
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Eric Owens, bass
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