American baritone Eugene Chan is quickly becoming one of the leading artists of his generation. He garnered critical acclaim when he stepped in with less than 24 hours notice to sing Orff’s Carmina Burana at the world-renowned Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Bramwell Tovey, in July 2008. Mr. Chan has performed in many of the major cities throughout the world in repertoire that include’s the title role’s of Don Giovanni and Eugene Onegin, Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Il Conte Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Danilo (The Merry Widow), Schaunard (La bohème), Albert (Werther), Mr. Gedge (Albert Herring),
Baritones at Encompass Arts
Metropolitan Opera Baritone, Gary Simpson, will sing Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust in Naples, Florida. Gary will also be traveling back to Romania in the Fall to sing HOLLAENDER in Der Fliegende Hollaender, with the Bucharest National Opera. Gary recently sang SCARPIA and PIZZARO in Frankfurt Germany this summer with Opera Classica Europa. Gary sang HOLLAENDER, his fifth production, in Cape Town, South Africa in January, 2011. In February Gary sang IAGO in Otello with the Arizona Opera as well as SCARPIA with the Shreveport Opera
Daniel Serafin has been praised as an artist of outstanding promise in opera, recital and orchestral concerts. The young Austrian baritone’s operatic repertoire spans from the classics to modern works, in his portrayals as Marcello in La Boheme, Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus, Cascada in The Merry Widow, Count Homonay in The Gypsy Baron, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Sid in Albert Herring, Silvio in Pagliacci, the Composer in Viva la Mamma, the Black Cat/Clock in L’enfant et les sortilèges as well as the Count of Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro.
American baritone Jerett Gieseler’s recent portrayal of Gasparo in Donizetti’s Rita was hailed as “swaggeringly macho, robustly sung” by Opera News and allartsreview4u.com declared his “a powerful voice” of “great dignity and lyrical intensity.” Gieseler is a prizewinner of the 2010 Irene Dalis Competition, the 2009 Liederkranz Vocal Competition, Wagner Division; the 2009 Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, Wagner Division; the 2007 Chester Ludgin Memorial Verdi Baritone Competition; and the recipient of two grants from the Wagner Society of New York.
Sicilian baritone, Giovanni Guagliardo, is quickly establishing himself as an important young baritone to watch on the international opera scene. Upcoming engagements for Mr.Guagliardo include: Ostasio in Francesca da Rimini at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste and L’Africaine with the Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall. Last season he performed the Faure Requiem at the Teatro Bellini in Catania, SONORA at Torre del Lago, MARULLO in Beijing on tour with the Teatro Regio di Parma and MARCELLO at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari. In the 2009-2010 season he sang MONTANO in Otello at the Champ Elysees in Paris, FREDRIC in Lakme at Palma de Mallorca, MARCELLO at the Teatro Bellini and SHARPLESS at the Staatsoper Hamburg.
Brendel grew up in Wiesbaden, where he took singing lessons with Rolff Sartorius during his time at the conservatory. In 1971, he debuted at the Pfalztheater in Kaiserslautern as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. His artistic home for the greater part of his career was the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, where in 1977 he became the youngest Kammersänger in the company’s history. In some sense taking up the mantle of Josef Metternich, who had retired in 1971, Brendel established his primacy as the star Munich baritone of his era across an extraordinary range of roles, from Mozart (not only Guglielmo but Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, the title role in Don Giovanni) to Verdi (Germont in La traviata, Posa in Don Carlo, Renato in Un ballo in maschera, Carlo in La forza del destino, and di Luna in Il trovatore) and beyond.
Italian baritone Mario Bellanova returns from the summer spent in Japan and Australia. After having sung in the production of Teatro Reggio di Torino’s La Traviata with Maestro Noseda, he was invited on tour with the company to Tokyo. He then traveled to Adelaide, where he made his operatic concert debut to critical acclaim. Some of Mr. Bellanova’s most recent engagements include performances of Carmen at Caracalla, La Traviata at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Andrea Chénier on tour in Japan with the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Tristan und Isolde at the Teatro di Roma, and Turandot at the Teatro de la Maestranza de Sevilla.
Ben Davis is quickly establishing himself as a crossover artist, able to bridge the worlds of Broadway and Opera. Most recently, Ben made his Lincoln Center debut to rave reviews in Kurt Weill’s, Knickerbocker Holiday, opposite Kelli O’Hara and Victor Garber. He made his film debut as Papageno in Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute with James Conlon conducting (Venice & Toronto Film Festivals; Movie Soundtrack). Broadway credits include Stephen Sondheim’s, A Little Night Music, Javert in Les Miserables, Trevor Graydon in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Marcello in Baz Luhrmann’s La boheme (Tony Honor; Cast Recording) and Enjolras in Les Miserables.