Introducing American barihunk Tim Murray

Tim Murray preparing for his Merola Grand Finale (right)

Wisconsin-born barihunk Tim Murray will perform in the Grand Finale concert at the prestigious Merola Opera Program in San Francisco tonight. He'll be performing the Act III mother-son duet  from Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet with Alice Chung. He also recently performed the role of Paul with Merola in the world premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s new opera If I Were You.

The concert is the final event in the Merola Opera Program's intensive summer training program for some of the world's most promising operatic talent. Tickets for the August 17th concert are available online.

In March, Murray made his debut with the Arizona Opera as William Dale in Kevin Puts’ Silent Night. He has already appeared three times with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City where he was part of their Resident Artist Program, performing Marullo in Verdi's Rigoletto, Guy in Talbot's Everest and the Captain in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

Harve Presnell, Edward Laurenson and Thomas Hampson

Also appearing tonight will be New Zealand born baritone Edward Laurenson, who we introduced to readers back in 2014 and featured again when he took off for the Guildhall School of Music and again when he first came to San Francisco to study.

A number of the world's greatest baritones have come through Merola, including Broadway legend and film star Harve Presnell (1957), Thomas Hampson (1980), Mark Delavan (1985), David Malis (1982, 83),  John Del Carlo (1977), Lucas Meachem (2003), Allan Monk (1966), Burak Bilgili  (2001), John Chest (2009), Richard Paul Fink (1983, 84), Ao Li (2010), Daniel Okulitch (2002), John Relyea (1995), Philippe Sly (2011) and Hadleigh Adams (2012).  

Edward Laurenson to sing Tarquinius in San Francisco

Edward Laurenson

The last we featured New Zealand barihunk Edward Laurenson three years ago, he was off to London to commence his Masters in Music studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has now landed across the globe in California, where he's studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has now studied on three continents in three years!

On December 8th and December 10th, he'll be performing Tarquinius in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at the Conservatory. He'll be joined by fellow barihunk Jorge Ruvalcaba as Junius, Brandon Bell as Collatinus, Molly Boggess as Lucretia, Esther Tonea as the Female Chorus, Ricky Garcia as the Male Chorus, Jessie Barnett as Bianca, and Meagan Rao as Lucia. [Click on the dates for tickets].

The fully-staged production is part of the Conservatory's thematic programming surrounding the institution's centennial celebrations for the 2017-18 season, which is comprised of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire.

Jorge Ruvalcaba (left and center), Edward Laurenson and Brandon Bell

Laurenson was an Emerging Artist with The Dame Malvina Major Foundation, as well as Vocal National Young Performer of the Year at Performing Arts Competitions Association of New Zealand, won the Lieder prize at the New Zealand Aria competition, won the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Award, the Australian Opera Awards Committee’s Sheila Prior Memorial Prize, the Phoebe Patrick Award and the David Harper Award.

Mexican baritone Jorge Ruvalcaba is new to this site. He was the winner of the Coppel Prize VIII in the  Concurso Internacional de Canto Sinaloa in 2016, the Edgar Mason Kneedler Memorial Prize Opera San Miguel 2015, won special prizes for best interpretation of Mozart and for the best interpretation of aria at the XIX Maritza Alemán Singing Contest. He has performed Marcello at Opera de Oazaca, the title role of Don Giovanni a the Escuela Superior de Música and Papageno at the Teatro Alameda.

ONLY 29 DAYS LEFT TO ORDER our 2018 Barihunks Calendar, which includes 20 of opera's sexiest men is now available for purchase HERE. In response to reader demand, we've also added a Barihunks Photo Book this year, which includes additional photos that don't appear in the calendar. You can purchase that HERE. The New Year is approaching faster than you think!

Edward Laurenson says farewell to New Zealand with two concerts

Edward Laurenson

New Zealand barihunk Edward Laurenson, who we just introduced to readers last month, is featured in two concerts on August 12 and 13 at the Auckland Grammar's Centennial Theatre. The concerts are both a fundraiser and his farewell as he travels to England to commence his Masters in Music studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. The money from the concerts will help him cover his living expenses while living in London.

This concerts will include performances by James Doy and the National Youth Theatre Company, Rebekkah Schoonbeek-Berridge and the Fusion Dance Studio, soprano Emma Sloman and his accompanist Rosemary Barnes.

In August 2013, Laurenson was the only New Zealand finalist in the prestigious IFAC Australian Singing Competition in Sydney. Among the prizes he won for gaining second place was a scholarship for a year of study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, which begins in September.

Edward Laurenson

In March 2013 he received rave reviews for his role in sold-out performances of The Factory at Auckland’s Q Theatre as part of the Auckland Festival. At the end of 2013 Edward sang to over 200,000 people in the Auckland Domain at the Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park. This year Edward won the Becroft Grand Opera Aria at the North Shore Competitions and was named the recipient of the Circle 100 Scholarship and was a finalist in the 2014 Lexus Song Quest.

Tickets for both concerts are available online.

Reader Submission: Edward Laurenson from New Zealand

Edward Laurenson

25-year-old New Zealand native Edward Laurenson is our latest reader submission. He graduated from the University of Auckland in 2010 with a Bachelor of Commerce, and completed his Honours in 2011. The lyric baritone was influenced to become a singer listening to Freddie Mercury of Queen.

In 2012-13, he was selected to be an Emerging Artist with The Dame Malvina Major Foundation, and subsequently performed in the New Zealand Opera production of Puccini's Madame Butterfly. He has also been a regular performer with the Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus, where he performed major roles.

Before pursing a career in opera full-time, he performed in a number of musicals, including Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music, he Tin Man in The Wiz, Tony in Bernstein's West Side Story and Danny in Grease.

Edward Laurenson talks about his career:

In 2012, he was awarded Vocal National Young Performer of the Year at Performing Arts Competitions Association of New Zealand, and the Lieder prize at the New Zealand Aria competition. He has also won the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Award, as well as the Australian Opera Awards Committee’s Sheila Prior Memorial Prize, Phoebe Patrick Award and the David Harper Award.

 Edward Laurenson sings "Hai già vinta la causa!" from Marriage of Figaro:

He is currently one of six finalists in the 2014 Lexus Song Quest competition, with winners being announced on July 26th. The Lexus Song Quest has launched the careers of some of New Zealand’s most celebrated opera stars including Dames Kiri Te Kanawa, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Amitai Pati, Malvina Major, Jonathan Lemalu, Madeleine Pierard and Phillip Rhodes.