HARWOOD MANAGEMENT GROUP INC.
ARTIST NEWSLETTER
October - December 2008

 

Soprano LYNNE ABELES is a member of the Opera Studio at Di capo Opera in NYC. She attended the International Academy of Vocal Arts in Tel Aviv this summer.  In September she performed the role of  Mary Warren in The Crucible with DiCapo Opera Theatre in New York.  In November the opera will be performed in Hungary.

Baritone DARRELL BABIDGE is a professor of voice at Brigham Young University.  Hel performed as soloist in the Durufle Requiem at Music in the Mountains in california.  He also returned to Utah Festival Opera this summer for performances of John Hancock in Broadway's 1776. 

Mezzo Soprano SEPTEMBER BIGELOW is currently engaged as a main stage performer on board of the Disney Magic/Disney Wonder cruise.

Countertenor BIRAJ BARKAKATY completed his graduate studies at Manhattan School of Music in New York City. He performed in a workshop with the Seattle Academy of Baroque Opera.  He is the newest member of ARTEK a vocal ensemble based in NY that performs and tours regularly.  On November 2 he performs Bach Cantata #17 from the Easter Oratorio with Herb Dimmock's Bach Festival in Baltimore.
 
Baritone TIMOTHY ROBERT BLEVINS made his debut with  Opera National de Lyon as Crown in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.  This was a new production that will travel to other presenting organizations. 

Bass-baritone BENJAMIN BLOOMFIELD spent the Summer singing Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro with Martino Arroyo's Prelude to Performance Program in NYC.. In October, he will perform the role of Supt Budd in Albert Herring at the Chateauville Foundation in Virginia, which will be conducted by Lorin Maazel.  He will also perform a "gala concert" at the Kennedy center with Marvin Hamlisch and Meastro Maazel.  This is a benefit for the Castleton Festival.

Mezzo Soprano GRETHA BOSTON performed as part of a Canadian tour with Colm Wilkinson. 

Mezzo Soprano LAURA BRIOLI recently performed the role of Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana in Asturias, Spain. In October, she will sing Azucena in Il Trovatore at the Indianapolis Opera, and in Novemeber she will perform the title role in Carmen at the Washington Opera.

Soprano REBECCA CARR will perform in a gala with the Harrisurg Symphony in October.

Conductor/Pianist RICHARD CARSEY is Music Director of Skylight Opera in Milwaukee, and the Summer Pops Artistic Director of the Racine Symphony Orchestra in Wisconsin. Currently, he is also the Music Director of A Little House on the Prarie, a new musical directed by Francesca Zambello, at the Guthrie Theater, as well as Music Director of another new musical, Minister’s Wife, by Josh Schmidt and Jan Tranene at the Writer’s Theater in Chicago. He will lead performances of I Do I Do at Skylight Opera and also Old Wicked Songs at the Tandem Theatre in Milwaukee. 

Tenor BRETT COLBY is president of the local Arts Council in Asbury Park, NJ.  This Summer, he performed El Remendado in Carmen and Goro in Madama Butterfly at Metro Lyric Opera in New Jersey.

<>Tenor MARK CORTALE continues to produce and sing in a show called Anatomically Incorrect at Sidney Opera House and Joe's Pub and throught North America

Counter tenor ROBERT CROWE  performed at the Ludwigsburg Festival in Germany in September and will sing recitals in Potsdam and Berlin in October of 2008.

Director JONATHAN EATON is artistic and general manager of Pittsburgh Opera Theater.  He recently has been appointed co-artistic director  of THING for the Ruhr 2010 Festival in Germany, and directed Weill's Lost in the Stars for Pittsburgh Opera Theater, which was conducted by Julius Rudel.  The production was also performed at the Virginia Arts Festival.

Soprano ROBIN FISHER is currently voice professor at Sacramento State University. She is a frequent rectal and concert singer throughout Northern california.  In the Summer she performed in a Pops Concert with the Bear Valley Festival Orchestra.

Baritone LARS FOSSER made his NY debut at Weill Recital Hall in NYC as a winner of the Center for Contemproary Opera Competition.  On this program he premiered Elegy, a new vocal work, by Bartholomew Berzonsky with lyrics by Karl Shapiro. In September, he will tour Greenland in concert with the Symfonietta Artica. In October, he will begin recording his upcoming CD entitled The Bad Guy with the Ruse Philharmonic Orchestra in Bulgaria, including arias and scenes from the Italian repertoire of villains. In December, he will be performing in various concerts of Händel’s Messiah. He will also perform Ernani with the Bel Canto Society in Denmark on Nov 7th and 9th.

Soprano YULIA FRENKEL recently performed an opera program in Catskill NY with Maestro Anton Coppola.

Tenor DAVID GAGNON he was a soloist in a Pops Concert with the Bear Valley Festival, and in a Bernstein Concert with the Pasadena Symphony Orchestra in California. In September, he performed the role of Paris in The Crucible with DiCapo Opera Theatre in New York. The opera will be performed in Hungary in November.  He will also sing Tamino in The Magic Flute with the Townsend Opera Players in January.

Tenor DAVID GUZMAN sang in the Bellayre Opera Festival's Gala Concert in August. He was Hoffmann in Les Contes de Hoffmann with Vertical Opera Repertory in Brooklyn NY in September. He performs a "gala" concert for Boheme Opera of New Jersey on November 2.

Soprano SUZAN HANSON performed in Doug Cuomo's chamber opera Arjunoa's Dilemma, based on Bhagavad-Gita, as part of the BAM Next Wave Festival 2007-2008 season, and continued this project in August at Suny Purchase in NY.

Soprano SONYA HEADLAM recently sung the Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Master Singers of Milwaukee under the direction of Eric Townell.

Soprano RENEE HEITMANN sang Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus at Smith Opera House in Geneva NY on July 31.

Tenor JOHN J. HEBERT performed Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra.  He performed a gala concert at the Donnell Library.

Bass ERIC JOHNSON is head of the opera department at Syracuse University.  He recently performed Don Fernando in Beethoven's Fidelio with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.

Conductor DANIEL KAWKA recently conducted Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto and Florentz Tenere with his Ensemble Orchestral de Paris.

Director VALERIE KUINKA recently finished working on a production of Romeo vand Juliet at the Metropolitan Opera where she is a regular member of the directing staff.  She produced and directed a gala concert to celebrate the 40th aniversary of the Canadian Children's Chorus.

Conductor DANIEL LIPTON was Music Director of Opera Ontario in Canada.  On June 19 and 20 he led  Puccini Concerts  with the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen for the Europaisches Klassik Festival in Ruhr Germany.

Conductor PAUL NADLER conducted Romeo and Juliet, starring Anna Netrebko, at the Metropolitan Opera, where he is currently on the staff. He spent the summer with the Academy of Vocal Arts in Montreal and Tel Aviv.

Soprano VALERIE MACCARTHY made her debut with English National Opera in London as Renee/Alice in the new opera Lost Highway by composer Olga Neuwirth. It is based on the movie directed by David Lynch, and this production is directed by  Diane Paulus.

Bass-baritone MORGAN MOODY has recently renewed his contract with Operahaus Zurich for two seasons.

Baritone DARREN PERRY joined the prestigious Merola Program at San Francisco Opera where he  performed Sid in Britten's Albert Herring.  He also covered Masetto in Don Giovanni.  In September he begins rehearsals for Sam in Pirates of Penzance at Opera Omaha.

Tenor CHARLES REID is a fest singer at Nationaltheater Mannheim.  This season he is singing Nemorino, David, Ferrando, Alfredo, Tamino, and Steuermann.  He has sung Alfredo in La Traviata at Staatstheater Wiesbaden and recently sang as soloist in the Mozart Requiem with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston.  He spent the summer to Bayreuther Festspiele as Vogelgesang in Die Maestersinger von Nurnberg.

Conductor BYUNG HYUN RHEE was associate conductor with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and has recently relocated to NYC.

Director/Composer SCOTT RICHARDS's jazz opera, Charlie Crosses the Nation,  was performed at the New York City Opera VOX Festival this May.

Conductor TIMM ROLEK is currenly Artistic Director and Conductor Sacramento Opera.  He is also Artistic Director for the Lake Tahoe Music Festival and Summer guest conductor of the Reno Philharmonic. This Summer marked the merger of the two organizations to share resources, and he conducted performances at Lake Tahoe and Reno in July. 

Conductor NICHOLAS ROSS had a busy season in New York. He was on staff at New York City Opera as cover condcutor for Verdi's Falstaff and covered Cendrillon.  He spent the summer playing violin in the orchestra at Glimmerglass Opera.  He has just been selected as Director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Northern Arizona.

Mezzo Soprano KRISTIN ROTHFUSS  recently performed the role of Loretta in a new opera The Man in the Black Suit based on the story by Steven King and composed by Eve Beglarian and Grethe Holby.

Conductor BRIAN SALESKY is Artistic Director of Knoxville Opera.  .

Bass-baritone SAM SMITH  recently performed his first Don Pasquale in Don Pasquale at AnchorageOpera.  He spends the fall season at the Metropolitan Operaa.

Soprano ERIN STEWART performed in an Evening of Steven Forster's songs at the Finger Lakes Chamber Music Series in July. In October through December, she will play Christine in Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas.

Soprano JACQUELINE THOMPSON begian the Fall season as Inez in Il Trovatore with the Westfield Symphony Orchestra in NJ.  She performs a "gala" concert for Boheme Opera of New Jersey on November 2.

Soprano ALISA THOMASON performs in a Gala Concert for Nevada Opera Theatre on October 17.  On November 2 she performs the Dvorak Requiem at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salt Lake Utah. 

Conductor ALESSANDRO TORTATO is very busy conducting operas and symphony orchestra in Italy.

Conductor ERIC TOWNELL is currently Music Director of the Rochester Choral Society and the Master Singers of Milwaukee. . In July, he lead the Rochester Oratorio Society at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. 

Soprano ANNA VIROVLANSKY is currently in a fest contract at Theater Bonn in Germany.

Conductor KRISTOF VAN GRYSPEER  is spending the season iwht his own opera company Intimate Opera and assiting with the season at Pacific Opera in Orange County California.

Tenor DINYAR VANIA made his debut with Sacramento Opera as Cavaradossi in Tosca.

Conductor DAVID WROE is Music Director of the Westfield Symphony Orchestra.  He began his busy Fall season with concert performances of Il Trovatore with the Westfield Symphony Orchestra at PNC Arts Center and in Summit NJ .  Following this he is a guest conductor with the NYU Symphony Orchestra at the Harms center in NY.  The repertiore for this concert is Beethoven's 6th Symphony and V. Williams Tallis Fantasia.