The Faculty Artist Series presents bass-baritone Jan Opalach, Associate Professor of Voice, Friday, October 4th, at 7:30 p.m. in Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music. Professor Opalach, along with piano DMA student Peter Klimo, will be performing a program of German lieder by Liszt and Schubert. and Lizst piano transcriptions of Schubert lieder.
Jan Opalach was a principal artist of the New York City Opera for thirty years, performing the title roles in Le nozze di Figaro and Falstaff, Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Bartolo (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Wesener (Alois Zimmerman’s Die Soldaten), and the Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen). He has also appeared with the Metropolitan Opera (Philip Glass’s The Voyage, War and Peace), Opera Theater of St. Louis (Nixon in China), Santa Fe Opera (La Bohème), Seattle Opera (Cosi fan tutte, Xerxes, Ariadne auf Naxos), Washington Opera (Cendrillon), Canadian Opera Company (Il barbiere di Siviglia, Xerxes), and English National Opera (British premiere of Die Soldaten). He has collaborated with such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Semyon Bychkov, Charles Dutoit, Christopher Hogwood, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Sir Simon Rattle, Helmut Rilling, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, and David Zinman, and heard in recitals in Alice Tully Hall, Morgan Library, the Concertgebouw, the Library of Congress, Harvard University, and the Eastman School of Music, where he has been a faculty member since 2008.
Mr. Opalach has made many recordings of music from Bach and Haydn to Stravinsky and Eliliot Carter and can be heard on the Albany, Argo, Avie, Bridge, CRI, Decca, Delos, EMI, Koch International, L’Oiseau-Lyre, Lyrichord, Naxos, Newport Classic, Nonesuch, Teldec, Telarc, Virgin Classics, Vox Unique labels.,recording most recently, I. Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat, narrating [in English] all the voices, conducted by the Eastman Wind Ensemble’s Mark Davis Scatterday and performed by distinguished faculty members of The Eastman Virtuosi. He has also been an adjudicator for the Naumburg, Joy in Singing, and Concert Artist Guild competitions.
Hungarian-American pianist Peter Klimo has been studying piano since the age of nine. A Los Angeles native, he began his piano studies with Vicharini and Rosanna Marzaroli and continued with Dr. Tyler Tom. Peter earned his Bachelor’s Degree from the Eastman School of Music studying with Dr. Nelita True, his Master’s Degree from the Yale School of Music studying with Peter Frankl, and an Artist Diploma from Texas Christian University with Dr. Tamás Ungár. He has competed and won prizes at several international piano competitions, most recently third prize in the Bartók International Competition, and has had the opportunity to perform concertos with the Hungarian National Philharmonic, the Pheonix Symphony Orchestra, and many more. Peter is currently in his third year of his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Performance and Literature degree at the Eastman School of Music, studying with Alan Chow.
The Faculty Artist Series is generously supported by Patricia Ward-Baker.
Tickets for Eastman’s Faculty Artist Series are $10 for the general public and free to current Season Subscribers and UR ID holders. Tickets can be purchased at the Eastman Theatre Box Office, 433 Eastman Main Street, 9:30AM – 2:30PM., Monday-Friday; by phone (585) 274-3000; or online at http://eastmantheatre.org
# # #
About Eastman School of Music:
The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training. The current dean is Jamal Rossi, appointed in 2014.
More than 900 students are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music—about 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. They are taught by a faculty comprised of more than 130 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars, and educators. They are Pulitzer Prize winners, Grammy winners, Emmy Winners, Guggenheim Fellows, ASCAP Award recipients, published authors, recording artists, and acclaimed musicians who have performed in the world’s greatest concert halls. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members, and guest artists present more than 900 concerts to the Rochester community.