The Oswego Opera Theater is presenting a pleasant holiday season surprise for the Oswego area.
The "Welcome Back" concert, scheduled for 2 p.m., Sunday, Nov.11, in Waterman Theater at SUNY-Oswego, will feature six Oswego High School (OHS) graduates, an OHS teacher, two students with ties to SUNY-Oswego, and three artists making their Oswego debuts.
Our community has an opportunity to attend this once in a lifetime concert featuring young singers who may have performed in Oswego while teenagers and are now college students studying music. Some of the performers are young singers who are now professionals who have been on many stages throughout the world and all are coming to Oswego to share their talents with us.
Robert Dumas
Robert Dumas, originally from Malone, NY, is our new chorus director at Oswego High School. He achieved high honors from Ithaca College of Music and
SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music. Additionally, Dumas has an Italian Language diploma from Centro Studi – Urbania, Italy, and had private voice instruction at Ithaca College, Crane School of Music and also Eastman School of Music. He was the vocal music director at Southside High School in Elmira and director of music at the Presbyterian Church of Elmira. Dumas was the music director for "Mame," "Lucky Stiff," "Seussical, A Ceremony of Carols," "Choir for a Cause – Commission," "Once on this Island" and "The Wiz." He has been an All-County guest conductor, and conductor for "My Fair Lady." He has been the bass soloist with the Crane Chorus and Orchestra and has been a member of Crane Opera Ensembles.
Tamar Greene
Tamar Greene, a 2009 alumnus of SUNY Oswego, is a recent recipient of a master of music degree in vocal performance and literature from the Eastman
Opera Theater in performing roles of principal comedian from "The Bartered Bride" and a role in two original compilation performances titled "The Juliet Letters" and "Genius Child." In the summer of 2011, Greene had the opportunity to work in Italy with internationally renowned performers and coaches in the music and language program "Si parla, si canta." There he studied and performed scenes from Mozart's "Idomeneo," "Verdi's La Traviata" and Gluck's "Paride ed Helena." In the fall of 2011, he was one of only eight vocalists chosen to compete in the finals of the Friends of Eastman Opera (FEO) Voice Competition. Greene has also performed the role of El Dancairo in the Oswego Opera's Carmen.
Andrew C. Richardson
Andrew C. Richardson, a 2010 graduate of DePauw University and master ofmusic in vocal performance from Indiana University, Jacobs School of Music is the recipient of Artistic Excellence Fellowship, 2012. His extensive list of roles in operas include "Serse, Der Rosendavalier," "UnBallo in Maschera, LaBoheme," "Faust, Don Giovanni," "Macbeth," "Le Nozze di Figaro," "Cosi fan tutte," "Gianni Schicchi," "Carmen," "The Marriage of Figaro," and "Amahl and the Night Visitors." Richardson had roles in theater and musical theater including "Eurydice," "Einstein and the Roosevelts," "South Pacific," "The Pajama Game, Oklahoma!" and "Once Upon a Mattress." Richardson was the bass soloist for Mozart's "Coronation Mass," featured soloist for Teacher of the Year Ceremony as well as the featured soloist at the Enshrinement Ceremony, College Football Hall of Fame at South Bend, Indiana. The National Association of Teachers of Singing Vocal Competition awarded Richardson second place in 2006 and first place for 2007, 2008 and 2011.
Dan Williams
Dan Williams is a vocalist with training as a graduate of SUNY Oswego's School of Communication, Media and the Arts ('09) with a music major and theater
minor. While there, he was highly active in both departments as well as in opera theater. Notable productions included "Amahl and the Night Visitors," "Carousel," "The Fairy Queen," "The Roasted Swan," "Twelfth Night" and "Cabaret." Upon graduating he has also immersed himself in the Syracuse theater community with favorite roles in "The Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" for Wit's End Players, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" for Appleseed Productions, "Assassins" for Red House theater and "Disenchanted" for Rarely Done Productions. Williams is also a chorister for Syracuse Opera Chorus, having been in their concert version of "Man of La Mancha" and also "Carmina Burana." You can look for him in the ensemble of their "Sweeney Todd" coming this February. In his spare time, Williams enjoys roles in stage productions with the Oswego Players and is a member of the Oswego Opera Board.
Kirk Dougherty
Kirk Dougherty is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music with a master of music and performer's certificate in voice. His professional training includes resident artist programs, summer programs and festivals. He was an apprentice artist at Central City Opera, a principal artist at Oberlin in Italy and performed at the Franz Schubert Institut in Baden-bei-Wien, Austria. Kirk has a vibrant career in concert and opera throughout the U.S. Critics acclaim his 'ringing clarity,' 'exceptionally beautiful tenor', and 'limitless iridescent instrument' which make him a versatile singer and actor. His repertoire comprises over 30 roles in standard opera, modern opera and beyond. He has worked with many professional organizations and opera companies, such as, Utah Festival Opera, Salt Marsh Opera, Opera Saratoga, Opera Louisiana and the Grand Canyon Music Festival.
Kathleen Magee
Kathleen Magee, soprano, has consistently caught the attention of critics with her "sparkling characterizations and her sweet singing." Her long list of performances: "LaRondine," "Le nozze di Figaro," "La Traviata, L'Elisir d'amore," "Carmen, Don Giovanni," "Patience," "Little Women," "The Glass Blowers," "I Pagliacci," "Orlando Paladino," "Old Main and the Thief," "La Cenerentola," "Alfred," "The Marriage of Figaro," "The Magic Flute," "Die Zauberflote," "Gianni Schicch," "The Pirates of Penzance" and "Fidelio." Her solo concert roles have included Bach's "Cantata No.199," Handel's "Messiah," Mozart's "Great Mass in C Minor," "Coronation Mass," "Exultate Jubilate," Poulenc's "Gloria," Rutter's "Magnificat" and Beethoven's "Mass in C Major." Magee has received many awards including being a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in Chicago. She received a BA degree in graphicdesign with a minor in music from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and her master of music degree in voice from Northwestern University. Magee is originally from Livermore, Calif. and presently lives in Syracuse.
Danan Tsan
Danan Tsan's musical career includes a five-year stint in the Soldiers' Chorus of the US Army Field Band, three years fronting a rock band in Baltimore, and
her own solo rock career in New York City. A classically trained graduate of The Eastman School of Music, Danan and her family live in Syracuse, NY where she is enjoying her time as a stay at home mom while continuing to pursue her passion for music. She has gotten involved in the local theater scene, starring as Philia in Appleseed Productions, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and the Witch in NATC's, Into the Woods.
Danan is also on the roster of the Syracuse Opera Chorus and leads the choir and writes and arranges music for The Dream Freedom Revival, a local musical theater/political action performance troupe.
Sarah Hasegawa
Sarah Hasegawa returns to the Oswego Opera , Theater, having last appeared as Grandma in "Little Red's Most Unusual Day" and as Elizabeth in "Never Tickle a Mule." Hasegawa often sings with her father, John Davies, a distinguished operatic baritone, in special appearances to open up the operatic world to young people through educational programs that have been put on by companies, symphony orchestras and children's museums. On Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Oneida Public Library, located on 220 Broad Street in Oneida, both Sarah and her father will make a special appearance in "Over the River and through the Woods," a potpourri of American popular songs for the season.
Hasegawa, a resident of Hamilton, N.Y., currently runs Kindermusik programs for preschool children in Hamilton and the Oneida Public Library. She is an accomplished soprano, who has sung at the library in Warriors of Madison County and on the library's literacy radio show Escapade.
Tickets (regular: $15; students/youth: $5) available at all SUNY-Oswego Box Offices, or call 315-312-2141, or e-mail tickets@oswego.edu or oswegoopera@aol.com.
