Brandon Cedel wins Annenberg Fellowship Fund career grant

Brandon Cedel before Met's Manon Lescaust & stretching before Barber of Seville

Bass-baritone Brandon Cedel was one of nine early-career artists awarded a grant from the prestigious Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts. The Fund  awards $50,000 a year for up to two years to help promising artists make a breakthrough in their careers, broaden their skills, and achieve professional success.

In addition to Cedel, fellowships totaling $450,000 were awarded to violinist Robyn Bollinger; actors Jeremie Harris, Miriam Hyman and David Pegram; cellist and conductor Nico Olarte-Hayes; visual artist Nyugen Smith; ballet dancer Devon Teuscher; and musician and musicologist Daniel Walden.

The Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund has paid or pledged more than $5.5 million in career-development grants to artists, including the current group, over the last nine years. The funding has enabled promising artists with world-class talent to film a movie, record new music, experiment in performance, afford studio time or training, buy materials, pay for living expenses and pay down student debt. The fellows, selected in consultation with partners such as The Public Theater, American Ballet Theatre, and the Perlman Music Program, work with mentors chosen by the partners and the Leonore Annenberg Fund.

Cedel just appeared in the Pittsburgh Opera production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville with his husband, fellow barihunk Jonathan Beyer. Upcoming performances include Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Opera Philadelphia, Masetto in Don Giovanni at the Münchner Opernfestspiele, and Leporello at Glyndebourne.

Cedel will join Oper Frankfurt in 2016 when he completes his third year of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, which sponsored him. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Cedel won a Grand Prize at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (2013) and a Richard Tucker Career Grant (2015). The New Yorker's music critic Alex Ross wrote of Cedel: "Capable of singing anything from Cavalli to Wagner, he may be destined for stardom."  

Reader Submission: Vartan Gabrielian

Vartan Gabrielian

Armenian-Canadian bass-barihunk Vartan Gabrielian served as an alter boy at St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic church in Toronto and began voice lessons at age fourteen. He went on to study at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and has been studying at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia since 2012. He is currently part of the Russian Opera Workshop where he performed a concert of Rachmaninoff songs and arias earlier this year. In March, he performed Tchaikovsky's Don Juan Serenade and None But the Lonely Heart, along with O du mein holder Abendstern from Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser.

In July, he'll perform the King in Handel's Ariodante at the Chautauqua Music Festival's Fletcher Music Hall, followed by Colline in Puccini's La behème in August at the Chautauqua Amphitheater with the Music School Festival Orchestra.

Roles at Curtis have included Prince Gudal in Anton Rubinstein's The Demon, the Loudspeaker in Ullmann's Emperor of Atlantis, Mago and Eustazio in Handel's Rinaldo, Masetto  in Mozart's Don Giovanni, M. Javelinot in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites and the title role in Le nozze di Figaro.

Jarrett Ott sings Tony Solitro's "War Wedding"; Metropolitan Opera Auditions next week

Jarrett Ott

We recently introduced Jarrett Ott to readers when he advanced in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions.  On February 15, he'll be competing in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions at the Kennedy Center.

A reader alerted us to an amazing video of him performing Tony Solitro's "War Wedding" during a closed recording session at the Curtis Institute of Music. The songs of War Wedding chronicle the sensuous wedding night of two young lovers set against the backdrop of a savage and vicious war. After they part at daybreak, the young soldier dies from his wounds, and his bride is left alone.

The cycle was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, musicologist Justin Vickers.

He is finishing up his Master’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music where he has performed  Argante in Handel’s Rinaldo, Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Gregor Mittenhoffer in Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers, Valentin in Gounod’s Faust, Harašta in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, and Le Mari in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tiresias. This season he will also perform Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen with Mikael Eliasen at various venues, as well as perform Ralph Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony with the Riverside Symphonia. At Curtis he will sing roles in Poulenc's Dialogues des carmélites and Rossini's La Cenerentola. You can listen to some sound clip HERE.

Anthony Reed receives "Encouragement Award" at Met Regionals

Anthony Reed in the new Barihunks Charity Calendar

Anthony Reed, who is featured in the month of May in the new Barihunks Charity Calendar, received an Encouragement Award at the 52nd Annual Wisconsin District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions held last night at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Milwaukee.

Reed studied voice at the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire and during his senior year first competed in the Met Auditions. He won, advanced to the next round,  and was asked to sing a featured recital for the Florentine Opera, where he and two other winners sang aria selections.

In 2010, he performed Frère Laurent in four productions of Gounod's Romèo et Juliette at the Seagle Music Colony.  The following summer he returned to the prestigious summer program as a Lisa Reid scholar to sing Lindorf, Coppélius, Dr. Miracle, and Dapertutto in their production of Offenbach's Les Contes d’Hoffmann.  During the summer of 2012 he was a member of the Wolf Trap Opera Studio appearing in the chorus for both Don Giovanni and The Rake’s Progress.   

In 2013, Reed made his professional operatic debut at the Fort Worth Opera Festival singing Truffaldino in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, as well as being featured in the inaugural year of Frontiers, a new showcase of new opera works.​

Kangmin Justin Kim, Corrie Stallings, Caitlin Ruby Miller, Ian Koziar and Joe Shaddaay

Reed is currently attending the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He will be performing in two upcoming productions there this season. On November 22, he'll appear as Dr. Dulcamara in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore and then on May 2 & 4, 2014 as Don Magnifico in Rossini's La Cenerentola.
 
Winners at this years Wisconsin District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions were countertenor Kangmin Justin Kim, mezzo Corrie Stallings, soprano Caitlin Ruby Miller, tenor Ian Koziar and tenor Joe Shaddaay

Don't forget that money from this year's Charity Calendar will be determined from suggestions on our Facebook page or on Twitter using the hashtag #Barihunks2014. Money can go to young artist programs or any efforts involving young artists, including recording, recitals or performances. You can purchase a calendar and help out young artists by clicking HERE.

Reader submission Andrew Bogard to sing Messiah

Andrew Bogard

We were alerted to a barihunk that we haven't featured before, Andrew Bogard, who will be performing Handel's Messiah with the Marion Civic Chorus and Orchestra in Ohio. This will be the 71st consecutive year that the orchestra has performed the Messiah. The performance will take place at the Palace Theater in Marion on Sunday, November 25 at 7 pm. There is no admission price, but donations will be requested.

Bogard will be joined in the Messiah by mezzo Carolyn Redmond, soprano Lynette Burris and tenor Dan Doty.  

Bass-baritone Andrew Bogard, hails from central Ohio and is currently pursuing his master’s in from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he is a student of Marlena Malas, At Curtis, he performed the roles of Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust, Dr. Reischmann in Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers, and Capello in I Capuletti e i Montecchi.

In 2011, Bogard received his undergraduate degree in vocal performance from the Julliard School, where he performed the roles of Peter Quince in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cousin Brandon in Hindemith’s Long Christmas Dinner. In summers at the Chautauqua Music Festival, he sang the roles of Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Simone in Gianni Schicchi, Reverend Hale in The Crucible, Colline in La boheme, and Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro. Upcoming performances at Curtis include Sarastro in The Magic Flute, Spencer Cyle in Britten’s Owen Wingrave, and Argante in Handel’s Rinaldo.

From 2005-2007, Bogard attended the Interlochen Arts Academy where he graduated with distinction. In addition to voice, he has studied cello, double bass, clarinet and classical guitar.

If you know of an upcoming Handel's Messiah featuring a barihunk, please email us at Barihunks@gmail.com. Also, don't forget to buy your 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar: