Polish barihunk Hubert Zapiór has won the 2018 Giulio Gari Foundation International Voice Competition in New York City. The award follows him recently winning the 2018 Career Bridges Award and First Prize at the 2018 Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition in New York.
In the 2015 competition, three barihunks won the trifecta, as Takaoki Onishi took 1st Prize (shared with tenor Andrew Stenson), while Andre Courville took 2nd Prize and Michael Adams took 3rd Prize.
Hubert Zapiór sings an aria from Moniuszko's "The Haunted Manor":
Giulio Gari was a tenor who sang throughout the US, Europe and Central America. He was invited to sing at the Metropolitan Opera by Sir Rudolf Bing, where he debuted as Lt. Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly alongside the legendary soprano Licia Albanese. He was a leading tenor at the old New York City Opera for eight seasons.
Zapiór graduated from Fryderyk Chopin University of Music and Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw, Poland and currently studies at Juilliard. This season he made his debut at the Teatr Wielki as Papageno in the Barrie Kosky’s production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and as Herr Fluth in Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor at the Juilliard Opera.
On June 1st, he will appear as the Beast in Beauty and the Beast at the Tauron Arena in Kraków, Poland. Tickets are available online.
Jonathan Blalock, Theo Hoffman, Robert Moody & Daniel Moody(Counterclockwise top left)
The Winston-Salem Symphony has assembled a hunky Handel's Messiah for the holidays featuring barihunk Theo Hoffman, tenor Jonathan Blalock, countertenor Daniel Moody, conductor Robert Moody and soprano Margaret Carpenter-Haigh.
There will be performances on December 13 and 14 at the Centenary United Methodist Church. Tickets are available online.
On the opposite coast, Hoffman joins composer/conductor Matthew Aucoin for a
concert on November 27th called "The Song: From Schubert to Springsteen," featuring
music from Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler, Francis Poulenc, Bruce Springsteen, Nick Drake and Radiohead. The concert will take place after the performance of Philip Glass' Akhnaten and is free to attendees. Non-attendees can purchase tickets for $5.
Hoffman has joined the Los Anegles Opera's Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program for the 2016-17 season. He will sing a number of roles with the company, including Hermann in Les Contes d'Hoffmann (no relation), the Second Nazarene in Richard Strauss' Salome, First Editor in Bernstein's Wonderful Town and Il medico in Verdi's Macbeth with fellow barihunk Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as Banquo.
Theo Hoffman sings Marc Blitzstein's "Stay in My Arms":
Hoffman completed his Bachelor of Music degree at The Juilliard School, where he was the winner of the 2015 Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital and was presented in recital at Alice Tully Hall. Additionally at Juilliard, he performed Bob in Menotti’s Old Maid and the Thief, the Count in Le nozze di Figaro, Lunardo in Le donne curiose, and covered Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia. He made his professional debut with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Thierry in Dialogues des carmélites.
Hoffman made his first public appearance on the Metropolitan Opera stage in March as a Grand Finalist in the 2016 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions after winning in the Eastern Region.
THE 2017 BARIHUNKS IN BED CALENDAR IS NOW ON SALE!!!
Bass-barihunk Cody Quattlebaum took home $5,000 for winning the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition in Oakland, California on Saturday. He also won another $1,000 for winning the audience prize.
The New York singer sang "Se vuol ballare" from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and "O du, mein holder Abendstern" from Wagner's Tannhäuser. Soprano Yelena Dyachek came in second, followed by tenor Arnold Livingston Geis.
Quattlebaum is earning is Master's Degree in Voice Performance at The Juilliard School of Music, where he has performed Der Lautsprecher in Viktor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Sylvano in Cavalli's La Callisto.
He is currently at the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, where he will perform Guglielmo in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. Performances are August 4 and 6 and tickets are available online.
The Region Finals for the MetOpera National Council Eastern Region will be held on Thursday, January 14th and half of the finalists are baritones or basses. Three baritones include Sol Jin, Theo Hoffman and Michael Gracco, and the three basses are Daniel Miroslaw, Joshua Arky and Onay Kose.
Onay Kose, Sol Jin and Michael Gracco
Joshua Arky was a 2014 Regional Finalist at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Eastern Region and won an Encouragement Award at the 2013 Auditions. He is a Master of Music candidate at the Manhattan School of Music, where he is a recipient of the President’s Award. He recently performed the roles of Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Colline in Puccini's La bohéme, and un vieillard in Bloch’s Macbeth all with the Manhattan School of Music. At the Central City Opera he performed Doctor Grenvil and Il Commissario in Verdi's La traviata, Merlin in Boismortier’s Don Quixote and the Duchess, and the Captain of the Inquisition in Man of La Mancha. In the Spring of 2016, he'll perform in Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Binghampton Symphony and the Sargeant in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance with Opera Louisiane.
Theo Hoffman
Theo Hoffman has become a popular singer on this site, having first featured him during his early years at Juilliard in 2013. We also featured a wonderful and candid Q&A with him in 2014. This season he made his debut with Atlanta Opera as Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème and is returning to the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2017 where he previously covered Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. This season he will sing Papagano at Juilliard, where he previously performed Le Directeur in Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tiresias.
He is his statement for the Met Audiions: “I was born and raised in the heart of Downtown Manhattan. My parents are chefs, and they taught me to create and experiment. I sing because I believe there is nothing more visceral and truthful than music produced by the naked human voice. What this broken world needs right now is truth.”
Daniel Miroslaw in Il Turco in Italia(Photo: Ken Howard)
Daniel Mirosław is an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies student at The Juilliard School. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from the Lodz Academy of Music in Poland and a Master’s degree from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He also studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Mannheim. His Juilliard performances have included Don Geronio in Rossini's Il Turco in Italia and Collatinus in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in May 2015 singing Don Fernando in Beethoven's Fidelio and the bass solo in the composer’s Mass in C major. In 2016 Mr. Mirosław will join the Oper Frankfurt’s ensemble.
Daniel Miroslaw sings Leporello's Catalog Aria:
The auditions on January 14th from noon to 5 PM and are open to the public, and are followed by a reception which all the singers are attending. More information and tickets can be found online.
