Distance Learning: Archive

ABOUT THE STUDENTS

Asian-American Baritone Kurt Sanchez Kanazawa (born Los Angeles, CA) is of Filipino and Japanese descent. He first received his bachelor’s diploma in the visual arts from Columbia University, before pursuing his master’s diploma in voice at the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Marlena Malas, and is a recipient of the prestigious President’s Award scholarship. He is the winner of the special prize from Concorso Riccardo Zandonai Internazionale in Riva Del Garda, Italy, as well as an international semi-finalist at the Teatro Colon Concurso in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has participated in master classes with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sherrill Milnes, Roberto Aronica, Sir Richard Bonynge, Marilyn Horne, and Lenore Rosenberg. He was an inaugural participant of ISINGBEIJING with Artistic Director Hao Jiang Tian, and recently performed with the NCPA orchestra in Beijing, China and New York City Opera Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall. He performs frequently at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival and the Chautauqua Music Festival.

Tenor Mingjie Lei is a second-year Master’s degree candidate studying with Joan Patenaude-Yarnell. Previous credits include Don Giovanni (Don Ottavio) with The Banff Centre Opera Theater, The Ghosts of Versailles (Leon) with the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theatre, Dido and Aeneas (Aeneas) with Central Conservatory of Music and Rent (Roger) with Peking University in Beijing, Lucia di Lammermoor (Arturo) with Opera Repertoire Ensemble at Manhattan School of Music. He also sang as Uriel in Die Schöpfung (The Creation) at Manhattan School of Music conducted by Kent Tritle.

Italian-American mezzo-soprano Gina Perregrino is a third year student under the tutelage of Mignon Dunn. Ms. Perregrino has performed as a featured soloist throughout Switzerland and Tuscany, where she studied under scholarship at the University of Siena. Previous credits include the title role in La Dolorosa, Die Zauberflöte (Third Spirit), Carmen (Mercédès), and Rigoletto (Maddalena). Scene work includes Vanessa (Erika) at the Manhattan School of Music and War and Peace (Sonya), and La Clemenza di Tito (Annio) at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Blacksburg, VA. Ms. Perregrino recently performed at the General Polish Consulate in New York City premiering the original work by Jan Roszkowski (The Aquarian Age) in the XIV Chopin & Friends Festival Gala. She was invited to sing Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Toscanini Symphony Orchestra at the centennial celebration of Casa Italiana in Washington, DC. Ms. Perregrino is a recipient of the Martha and Arthur King Scholarship at the Manhattan School of Music.

Soprano Margrethe Fredheim is a first-year Master’s degree candidate at Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Cynthia Hoffmann. Previous credits include Die Zauberflöte (Pamina) with Oslo Operafestival. Scene work includes Eugene Onegin (Tatyana), Le Nozze di Figaro (Susanna), La Cenerentola (Clorinda), Der Freischütz (Ännchen) and Cosi fan Tutte (Despina) with The National Academy of the Arts in Oslo, Norway. Upcoming engagements include Faust (Marguerite) with Prof. Thomas Muraco`s Opera Repertory Ensemble at Manhattan School of Music and Die Zauberflöte (First Lady) with The International Lyric Academy in Rome. She is a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship.

Tenor Aaron Short (Olathe, Kansas) is a second year Master’s degree candidate studying with Mark Oswald. Previous credits at Manhattan School of Music include Thaïs (Nicias), The Ghosts of Versailles (Bégearss) and Lucia di Lamermoor (Edgardo) with Tom Muraco’s Opera Repertory Ensemble. Additional credits include Die Zauberflöte (Tamino), Così fan tutte (Ferrando) and the title role in Albert Herring. Aaron was a Studio Artist at Wolf Trap Opera this past summer, and he will be an Apprentice Artist at Chautauqua Opera this upcoming summer. This spring he will appear as Jimmy in Manhattan School of Music Opera Theatre’s production of Aufsteig und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Thomas Hampson enjoys a singular international career as a recitalist, opera singer, and recording artist, and maintains an active interest in teaching, research, and technology. The American baritone has performed in all the world’s most important concert halls and opera houses with many renowned singers, pianists, conductors, and orchestras. Praised by the New York Times for his “ceaseless curiosity,” he is one of the most respected, innovative, and sought-after soloists performing today.

Hampson has won worldwide recognition for his thoughtfully researched and creatively constructed programs that explore the rich repertoire of song in a wide range of styles, languages, and periods. He is one of the most important interpreters of German Romantic song, and with his celebrated “Song of America” project (www.songofamerica.net), a collaboration with the Library of Congress, he has become the “ambassador of American song”. Through the Hampsong Foundation (www.hampsongfoundation.org), founded in 2003, he employs the art of song to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding.

Hampson’s first opera engagement of the 2012-13 season is at the Santa Fe Opera, where he takes on the role of Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca (with conductor Frédéric Chaslin). He then returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he sings the title role of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra (led by Andrew Davis), a role he will also perform at London’s Royal Opera House (Antonio Pappano) and in concert at Vienna’s Konzerthaus (Nicola Luisotti) later in the season. Other operatic highlights include Scarpia in Tosca and Wolfram in Wagner’s Tannhäuser at the Zurich Opera (Fabio Luisi/Marc Albrecht), Giorgio Germont in Verdi’s La traviata at Vienna State Opera (Marco Armiliato), and his company debut as Iago in Verdi’s Otello at the Metropolitan Opera (Alain Altinoglu).

Hampson’s busy concert season begins at Germany’s Berlin Musikfest and the Ruhrtriennale International Festival, where he performs a selection of Ives songs with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Kent Nagano. Other season highlights include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Neeme Järvi), Strauss’s orchestral songs with the Pittsburgh Symphony (Manfred Honeck) and London Philharmonic (Vladimir Jurowski), and Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (Joana Carneiro). He will also perform in the New Year’s gala with Rolando Villazón and Natalie Dessay at Baden Baden’s Festpielhaus, and in the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s 125th anniversary gala in Amsterdam alongside Lang Lang, Janine Jansen and Mariss Jansons. Collaborative projects include a European tour with the conductorless ensemble Wiener Virtuosen – with whom he made a critically acclaimed recording of Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn in 2010 – and concerts with the Jupiter String Quartet in New York, Boston and Davis, featuring a new commission from Mark Adamo and songs by Hugo Wolf. Hampson also returns for master classes at the Heidelberger Frühling’s Lied Academy, of which he is the artistic director, and he performs recitals with long-time collaborators Craig Rutenberg and Wolfram Rieger at the Grafenegg Festival and in Munich, Basel, San Francisco and other cities.

Hampson began his 2011-12 season at San Francisco Opera, where he created the role of Rick Rescorla in the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’s Heart of a Soldier, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Hampson’s operatic engagements last season also included role debuts as Iago in Verdi’s Otello and the title role in Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler, both at Zurich Opera, and his house debut as Verdi’s Macbeth at the Metropolitan Opera. Among other season highlights were concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach, the Munich Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck and the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta. He also performed recitals in the U.S., Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, including at the Salzburger Festspiele, and was featured in CNN’s “Fusion Journeys” series, which filmed him in South Africa in a musical exchange with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Finally, the 2011-12 season saw the debut of the “Song of America” radio series, co-produced by the Hampsong Foundation and the WFMT Radio Network of Chicago. Hosted by Hampson, the series consists of 13 hour-long programs exploring the history of American culture through song; it has aired in more than 200 U.S. markets.

Hailing from Spokane, Washington, Hampson has received many honors and awards for his probing artistry and cultural leadership. His discography of more than 150 albums includes winners of one Grammy Award, five Edison Prizes, the Grand Prix du Disque, and most recently the 2011 “Singer of the Year” ECHO Prize. Having previously received an Opera News Award, Hampson was honored by the Metropolitan Opera Guild with its rarified Met Mastersingers event in 2012, and in 2011 he received the famed Concertgebouw Prize. In 2010 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he was distinguished with the Living Legend Award by the Library of Congress, where he serves as Special Advisor to the Study and Performance of Music in America. He received the 2009 Distinguished Artistic Leadership Award from the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, and was appointed the New York Philharmonic’s first Artist in Residence. Hampson holds honorary doctorates from Manhattan School of Music, Whitworth College, and the San Francisco Conservatory, and is an honorary member of London’s Royal Academy of Music. He carries the title of Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera, was named a Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Republic of France, and was awarded the Austrian Medal of Honor in Arts and Sciences.

For more information please visit www.thomashampson.com.

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