Reader Submission: British Barihunk Harry Thatcher

British barihunk Harry Thatcher

Reader Submission Harry Thatcher is a British baritone based in London. He is a Betty Brenner Scholar at The Royal College of Music. He is currently performing at the Grange Park Opera, where he is singing Bello in Puccini's La Facciulla del West and the Flemish Deputy in Verdi's Don Carlo. On June 7th, he'll also be giving a recital at the The Royal College of Music, performing music by Rossini, Schubert, Britten and Bolcom.

On the concert platform Harry has performed with the likes of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of Opera North in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and the Birmingham Symphony Hall. He has sung the bass solos in Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation and various Bach Cantatas.    

Operatic roles for The Royal College of Music International Opera School include the High Priest in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Florian in Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida and Frank in Johann Strauss' Die Flederamaus . Harry has covered the role of Death in Holst's Savitri for British Youth Opera

Reader Submission: Corey Crider

Corey Crider

Our latest Reader Submission is Corey Crider, who is singing Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte at Sarasota Opera through March 12th. On April 23rd, he opens a run as Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City in a cast that includes some of opera's finest young artists, including Zanda Svede in the title role, Janai Brugger as Micaela and Rafael Davila as Don Jose.

Corey Crider sings "Is not his word like a fire?" from Mendelsohn's Elijah

Crider is an alumnus of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center and recently returned to the company as Malatesta in Don Pasquale. In the 2014-15 season Corey debuted the title role of Sweeney Todd with Madison Opera, sang Marcello in La bohème with Opera on the James, Scarpia in Tosca with the New Philharmonic, Escamillo in La tragédie de Carmen with Opera Naples, the Sacristan in Tosca with the Detroit Symphony, and Dulcamara in The Elixir of Love with Finger Lakes Opera.

Corey Crider sings "Urna fatale" from Verdi's La forza del destino:

Crider is a two-time national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a finalist in Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers, Corey took fourth prize in the Florida Grand Opera Young Patronesses of the Opera Voice Competition.

Reader Submission: Welsh Barihunk Matthew Tilley

Matthew Tilley

Our latest Reader Submission is Welsh barihunk Matthew Tilley who graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama as a recipient of the Laura Ashley Scholarship. 

Tilley has been a regular performer with the Welsh National Opera, with whom he has performed in Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, Puccini's Madama Butterfly and La Bohème and Verdi’s La Traviata. 

Matthew Tilley sings Loch Lomond and Shenandoah:

He'll be performing Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Heritage Opera from April 15-July 24. The production will be performed in Stirling, Scotland; Hatfield, Lancaster, Wiltshire, Oxford and Chesire, England; and Ruthin, North Wales. Additional information is available online. 

Tilley has also taught and given masterclasses at the Bentley Music Academy in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and is a vocal coach for the Musical Youth Theatre Wales.

Reader Submission: Eric Broker

Eric Broker

Our latest Reader Submission is 21-year-old bass-barihunk Eric Broker, who is a senior at St. Olaf College and a Communications and Social Media Intern with the Minnesota Opera. He performed his senior recital on April 11th, which you can watch online. He performed music by Handel, Poulenc, Mozart, Bolcom and others.

Broker recently won the Minnesota National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition and was a finalist the Schubert Club Song Competition last year. He is currently a member of the Minnesota Opera Chorus and is preparing for graduate school.

While at St. Olaf,  he sang the roles of Voltaire/Dr. Pangloss in Bernstein's Candide, Superintendent Budd in Britten's Albert Herring, Carl Olson in Weill's Street Scene, and the title role in James McKeel's Fabrizio's Comet, a world premiere opera. He has also performed Handel's Messiah with the Canon Valley Orchestra and patriotic anthems with the Northfield Band.

Broker is also a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, which is indicative of superior attainment in music, together with the personal qualifications pertaining to an outstanding exponent of the art. Membership acknowledges personal integrity, leadership, open-mindedness and intellectual stamina throughout one's time at St. Olaf College.

Reader Submission: Yu Di

Yu Di

Our latest reader submission comes from Paris, where Chinese barihunk Yu Di is competing in the Paris Opera Awards.

Born in 1981 in Zi Gong, China, he received his diploma from the Academy of Music in Shanghai. He attended master classes with Carlo Bergonzi, Eva Marton and Robert White and went on to became a singing teacher at the University of Shanghai and the Shanghai Theatre Academy.

He made his professional debut in 2005 at the 22nd International Spring Festival in Shanghai in a concert devoted to contemporary music. He was invited back to the festival to years later. I

In 2010 he sang at the Dublin City Hall in Ireland in a concert organised by the Spring Festival of Shanghai.

Yu DI won the Second Special Prize in the International Singing Competition of Turandot at the Teatro Filarmonico de Vérone in Italy in 2009. The following year, he was awarded the CNIPAL Prize at the International Singing Competition of Marmande, which led to his professional performing career.

In October 2013, he participated in the Gala concert of the 30th Anniversary of CNIPAL at the Marseille Opera with the Marseille Philharmonic Orchestra singing Escamillo's aria “Votre toast...” from Bizet’s Carmen.

Reader Submission: Takaoki Onishi

Takaoki Onishi

Our latest Reader Submission is Japanese baritone Takaoki Onishi. He has won the Top Prize in the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, and the First Prize in both the Opera Index, Inc. Vocal Competition and the Licia Albanese - Puccini International Vocal Competition. He also received a prize in the 2013 Loren L. Zachary Competition, as well as two Grants from the Giulio Gari Foundation.

He made his Lincoln Center debut in the Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital at Alice Tully Hall. He has been awarded a fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival and he received the Makiko Narumi Prize for Outstanding Singer by the Juilliard School.

In 2013, Onishi created the leading male role in the world premiere of Marty Regan’s The Memory Stone, which was presented by the Houston Grand Opera’s East/West program. This spring in New York, he sang in two concerts in the Schubert & Company series, as well as appearing as baritone soloist in Franz Schubert's Mass No. 2 in G major, D.167 at Rockefeller University and in Brahms Requiem with West Village Chorale in New York..

In February, he performed the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin with Juilliard Opera and in March he performed Jesus in Bach's St. Matthew's Passion. He will also return to Japan to sing in several concerts of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, as well as a solo recital in Tokyo. On June 7th,  he sings at The Opera Ball at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Reader submissions are always welcome at Barihunks@gmail.com

Reader Submission: Alexander Elliott

Alexander Elliott preparing for Pirates of Penzance

The Portland Opera Resident Young Artist Program was one of the first recipients of a Barihunks Grant from our annual calendar proceeds. So we were particularly delighted when our latest reader submission was one of the young artists performing Samuel in Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance with the company.

Alexander Elliott is a second year young artist who has performed in recital with the company, as well sung the Shoe Salesman in Dominick Argento's Postcard from Morocco. He was also their cover for Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.  Our reader also shared this great photo of Alexander Elliott get used to his sword for the show, which opens on May 9 and runs through May 17. Tickets are available online. The Pirate King is being sung by one of the most famous barihunks in the world, Daniel Okulitch.

Elliott was previously an apprentice artist with the Central City Opera, where he sang the role of Frank in Ned Rorem’s Our Town. This summer, he joins the prestigious Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. They are performing Mozart's Don Giovanni and a reduced orchestral version of André Previn's Streetcar Named Desire.

Other career highlights have includes the Captain in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Périchaud in La Rondine with Des Moines Metro Opera as well as Count Almaviva in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro with the Tulsa Opera opposite fellow barihunk Seth Carico.

You can hear audio of him at his website.

Introducing Thomas "Tommy" Kittle

Thomas Kittle Photo: by Jessica Christie

Our latest reader submission is our favorite kind, as it came from a fellow singer. Meet Denver native Thomas "Tommy" Kittle, who is currently singing the role of Curly in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Denver. There are two performances remaining on October 31st and November 2nd.

Kittle is currently a masters degree student at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. He won first place in the 2013 Denver Lyric Opera Guild’s annual vocal competition, as well as the Young Artist Encouragement award at the 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. This summer he was part of the young artist program at Opera in the Ozarks.

He will be returning to the Newman Center in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni from April 17 – 20, 2014. In the meantime, you can catch him performing Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Boulder Symphony Orchestra on December 7th and at a free recital at the Newman Center on February 1st. Visit their website for additional information.

Reader Submission: Martin Häßler

We're not sure what is going on with our reader submissions, but they seem to either be coming from Germany or recommending German singers (which is fine by us!). The latest is Martin Häßler who began is vocal training at the Hochschule für Musik Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Leipzig, Germany. He is currently studying as a full scholarship awardee at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

He has done well at numerous singing competitions including the Thomas Quasthoff's Das Lied, International Song competition, taking first prize at the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin, and winning the Best Singer's Award at the Gerald Moore Competition London.



Martin Häßler, Bariton, 21 Jahre from Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin on Vimeo.


The 24-year-old singer has been making his mark as a recitalist having performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, at Deutsche Oper Berlin accompanied by Philip Moll, at Schloss Herten with Graham Johnson, at the Oxford Lieder Festival, at LSO St. Luke's London, the Vienna Musikverein with Marek Ruszczynski, and at the Schubert Festival accompanied again by Graham Johnson.

On June 21, he'll be making his Wigmore Hall recital debut performing the works of Schubert, Wolf, Mussorgsky and Finzi. Tickets are available online.