Pianist Peter Dugan and barihunk John Brancy launch Indiegogo campaing

Pianist Peter Dugan with barihunk John Brancy (l-r)

Barihunk John Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan have launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund a recording based on their amazing live show A Silent Night: A WWI Centenary Tribute in Song, which premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2014. The took the show on tour to the University of Chicago, the Montreal Conservatory of Music in collaboration with Société d'art vocal, Opera Saratoga, the Joye at the Aiken Festival and St. John's College.

The two have been collaborative musical partners and friends since they met as students at the Juilliard School in 2007.

The program is a collection of classical and popular art songs written mostly by composers who lived through, fought, and died in the Great War. A Silent Night organizes these songs by the major countries involved in the war, beginning with British composers Gerald Finzi, George Butterworth, and Ivor Gurney, rarely heard lieder of German composer Carl Orff, songs by the great French composers Ravel, Poulenc, and Debussy, and the iconic American composer Charles Ives.

The recording will be available for sale on all online platforms including Amazon and iTunes, as well as on CD. Perks to support the campaign start as low as $5.00. You can support the campaign HERE.

Play "Secret Santa" to a barihunk

Images from the Marco Vassalli calendar

Ever wanted to play Santa Claus for a sexy barihunk? Well, now is your chance to give the gift of an American recital debut for Italian-German barihunk Marco Vassalli. He is selling calendars to raise funds for his much anticipated U.S. debut with Musica Marin in a concert that includes the world premiere of two Clint Borzoni songs. The calendar is available HERE and $10.40 of every sale goes towards his expenses to come to America.

The texts of these songs were selected by and written for the singer and are written for string quartet and baritone. Vassalli chose Hermann Hesse's Stufen and Hilde Domin's Margere Kost. Borzoni and Vassalli have never met in person and worked on the songs together over Facebook video and Skype. San Francisco's Bay Area Reporter broke the news in a recent article, which you can read HERE.

Marco Vassalli discusses why he chose two poems for his US debut:

The premiere is being funded with an Indiegogo campaign that launched today. Some of the perks include having one of the songs dedicated to you, a signed page from the composer's notebook, copies of Vassalli's CD of Italian songs and access to numerous private events and concerts. All of the proceeds will also be used to fund the world premiere of the Borzoni songs.

Marco Vassalli sings Mendelssohn's "Es ist genug":

If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can attend the concerts, which will be held in a private home in one of the City's most beautiful neighborhoods overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Tickets for the Friday, Janyary 22nd concert at 7 PM are available HERE and for the Sunday, January 24 matinee at 3PM you can click HERE.

One month until Chrismas! Have you bought your Barihunks calendar?

Malte Roesner (top), Gianluca Margheri (bottom left) and Eric Stokloßa/David Adam Moore (bottom right)

The 2016 Barihunks Charity Calendar is now available for purchase. Now in its fifth edition, the calendar features eighteen of the hottest singers in opera and musical theater hailing from nine different countries.

For each of the last four years, the charity calendar has donated all of the profits to young artists, young artist programs and projects featuring baritones. Some of the previous beneficiaries have included the Portland Resident Young Artist Program, Seagle Music Colony, the production of the West Coast Premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's Green Sneakers featuring Jesse Blumberg, and a concert featuring bass-barihunk Aaron Sørensen and hunkentenor Jonathan Blalock.

Trisatn Hambleton, Seth Carrico & Patrick Egersborg

This year the proceeds will be used to fund the creation of the Foundation for the Advancement of Baritones (F.A.B.), which will fund baritone and bass cash prizes at song competitions, commission music for baritones and basses, and be used to fund other projects featuring low male voices. New York-based composer Clint Borzoni has already been commissioned to write two songs for string quartet and baritone, which will be performed by Marco Vassalli in January.

The singers this year include Cyril Rovery and Romain Dayez from France; Malte Roesner, Eric Stokloßa and Marco Vassalli from Germany; Iurii Samoilov from the Ukraine; Tristan Hambleton from England; Duncan Rock from Australia; Patrick Egersborg from Norway; Jason Forbach, John Paul Huckle, David Adam Moore, Seth Mease Carico and Edward Miskie from the United States; Gianluca Margheri and Vittorio Prato from Italy; and, Iosu Yeregui from Spain. All of the singers are baritones or lower voices, except for Eric Stokloßa, who is the first tenor featured in the calendar (in a photo with baritone David Adam Moore from Peter Eötvös' Paradise reloaded.

Four of the singers were photographed this Summer in the Loire Valley in an official Barihunks photo shoot. 

The Barihunks calendar is available at LULU.com.

Marco Vassalli

Fans of Marco Vassalli can purchase his fundraising calendar, which will help fund his long-awaited US debut in San Francisco this January. Click HERE to purchase the calendar or HERE to learn more about the concert. You can also find additional benefits at his Indiegogo campaign, including his CD of Italian songs or the chance to have a newly commissioned song that he's performing named in your honor. 

Barihunks Calendar Model Marco Vassalli to make US Debut

Marco Vassalli and Clint Borzoni

Italian-German barihunk Marco Vassalli is making his much anticipated U.S. debut with Musica Marin in a concert that includes the world premiere of two Clint Borzoni songs. The texts of these songs were selected by and written for the singer and are written for string quartet and baritone. Vassalli chose Hermann Hesse's Stufen and Hilde Domin's Margere Kost.

Borzoni and Vassalli have never met in person and worked on the songs together over Facebook video and Skype. San Francisco's Bay Area Reporter broke the news in a recent article, which you can read HERE.

Borzoni recently completed his fourth opera, When Adonis Calls, based on the poetry of Gavin Dillard. The opera was presented at Fort Worth Opera’s 2015 Frontiers Showcase. He is currently working on his fifth opera, The Copper Queen, with librettist John de los Santos for Arizona Opera’s program, Arizona Spark.

Marco Vassalli

The premiere is being funded with an Indiegogo campaign that launched today. Some of the perks include having one of the songs dedicated to you, a signed page from the compoer's notebook, copies of Vassalli's CD of Italian songs and access to numerous private events and concerts. Vassalli also posed for a provocative new calendar that is now available for sale HERE. All of those proceeds will also be used to fund the world premiere of the Borzoni songs. We encourage our readers to help out with one of the two campaigns.

Vassalli is currently performing in Leonard Bernstein's Candide at the Staatsoper Hannover. A German singer born of Italian roots, he grew up on Lake Constance and began his studies at the Hochschule fur Musik in Cologne, where he studied with the famed soprano Edda Moser.

Tobias Greenhalgh raising money for kids with life-threatening illnesses

Tobias Greenhalgh

Three weeks ago, we posted about John Brancy and Tobias Greenhalgh appearing on the PBS NewsHour episode "Artists Learn Art of Business to Brave Tough Economic Times." The two singers were featured for their mutual involvement with "Operation Superpower," which uses their love of classical music to teach young students about their own unique superpowers.

Tobias Greenhalgh has decided to use his "superpowers" to good use on September 28th. He is going to run in the the Hamptons Marathon for the New York City based "Friends of Karen" charitable organization under the auspice of "Operation Superpower." The non-profit group "Friends of Karen" provides emotional, financial and advocacy support for children with a life-threatening illness and their families, in order to help keep them stable, functioning and able to cope.

The budding barihunk has set up a Indiegogo account to raise $1,000 for the cause. We're pitching in $100 and are encouraging our readers to help him reach his goal (and, hopefully, far exceed it).Click HERE and donate NOW!!!

Don't forget to check out his business partner John Brancy on YouTube with his winning performance from the Marilyn Horne Song Competition.