Barihunks form "boy band" Vox and advance on America's Got Talent

Vox members Kevin Blickfeldt and David Castillo (left)

Two barihunks who have been featured on our site are now part of Vox, the newest "boy band" to hit the airwaves. The twist is that they're all classically-trained opera singers. Baritones David Castillo,  Kevin Blickfeldt and DeMar Neal, along with tenor Arnold Geis. Castillo and Blickeldt are the Barihunks almuni. They are competing on NBC's “America’s Got Talent” and advanced past the audition round with a rousing rendition of Puccini's Nessun Dorma. The winner of the competition gets a $1 million prize.

In the five years since graduation, Castillo has performed Los Angeles Opera, New Orleans Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Green Mountain Opera Festival, Aspen Opera Theatre, Le Salon de Musiques, The Industry, USC Thornton Opera, and other major opera companies and orchestras. This season he's performing in two world premieres: one with The Industry in HOPSCOTCH and another in a work by Jeffrey Parola. He makes his European debut performing Winterreise with Francois Chouchan at the Mairie du Troisieme Arrondissement in Paris an next year performs Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd with Fresno Grand Opera and Townsend Opera directed by John De Los Santos.

America's Got Talent judge Howie Mandel comments on Vox

Kevin Blickfeldt is on the faculty of the 88 Keys Music Academy and performs in opera, musical theatre, oratorio, recital,  and concert works. Recent performance credits include El General in La Curandera, Maximilian in Candide with Opera Pasadena, and The Prodigal Son with LA Opera’s Britten 100/LA festival.  In 2011, Kevin won the Citadelle Aard at the 6th annual Alltech Voice Competition in Kentucky. For three seasons, Blickfeldt was an artist in residence at the Ohio Light Opera. Many of the productions he performed in were made into cast recordings on the Albany label, where he can be heard as a soloist. Kevin earned his doctorate degree from the University of Southern California.

DeMar Austin Neal IV is a graduate of Florida State University, the Boston Conservatory, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Neal has appeared as a soloist with symphonies and in festivals throughout North Carolina and abroad, including both the Raleigh and North Carolina symphonies and in the Tiber Sinfonia Festival in Monterchi, Italy. He was also seen as a featured soloist at the 2010 Robert Schumann Bicentennial Festival at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC, as well as at their 2012 Debussy Sesquicentennial Festival.

Reader Submission: David Castillo

David Castillo

We're wondering if the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music is the new barihunk breeding ground. Previously we featured Austin Thompson and Kevin Blickfeldt, who both created quite a bit of buzz when we posted them. A reader has now submitted David Castillo, a 2011  Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Finalist and a Masters student studying with fellow barihunk Rod Gilfry. Castillo was the 2012 Encouragement Award recipient from the Palm Springs Opera Gild Voice competition. 

As far as we can recall, he's our first Filipino-American singer featured on Barihunks. The New Orleans native received his Bachelor of Music from Loyola University New Orleans, where he made his professional debut in 2011 as Old Gypsy in Il Trovatore with the New Orleans Opera and Bill Bobstay in H.M.S. Pinafore with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.  In 2010 and 2011 he was with the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, where he has performed the roles of Marco in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, Le Fauteuil and L’Arbre in Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, and Liberto in Monteverdi's L’incoronazione di Poppea.

David Castillo with fellow barihunk Simon Keenlyside

On April 7th, Castillo will head south from L.A. to perform in the Palm Springs Opera Guild's 15th annual “Opera in the Park”. He will join other artists in a performance of arias accompanied by a live orchestra. He then returns to USC to perform the Second Commissioner in Poulenc’s The Dialogues of the Carmelites. Performances run from April 25-28. Fans on the East Coast can catch him this summer at the Green Mountain Opera Festival in Vermont. He'll be peforming Sid in Britten’s Albert Herring, covering fellow barihunk Michael Mayes in the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and performing as a soloist in the Emerging Artist recital and the annual gala concert. The Don Giovanni will also feature Tom Corbeil as Leporello and Jonathan Lasch as Masetto, both of whom have appeared on this site.

The other barihunk "The Tempest" at USC

Kevin Blickfeldt

There's been a lot of attention given to Thomas Adès' "The Tempest" at the Metropolitan Opera with barihunk Simon Keenlyside. But on the opposite coast, the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music is producing a barihunk-laden performance of Lee Hoiby's "The Tempest."

Austin Thompson plays the major role of Prospero and Kevin Blickfeldt plays Antonio. They are joined by a bevy of low voices, including David Castillo as Ferdinand, Steve Pence as Alonso, Cole Cuomo as Sebastian,  Travis Sherwood as Trinculo and James Hayden as Stephano, and Abram Poliakoff and Robin Wyatt Stone as courtiers. 

There are two more performances Friday night and Sunday afternoon. You can get additional information on the USC website.

Austin Thompson

Shakespeare's story has inspired 50 operas including Fromental Halévy's La Tempesta, Zdeněk Fibich's Bouře, Frank Martin's Der Sturm and Michael Tippett's The Knot Garden. Incidental music based on The Tempest has been written by Arthur Sullivan, Ernest Chausson, Jean Sibelius, Malcolm Arnold, Lennox Berkeley, Arthur Bliss, Engelbert Humperdinck, Hector Berlioz, Willem Pijper and Henry Purcell. You can see the second HD broadcast of Adès' "The Tempest" in theaters on November 28th.

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