Program Notes PDF - The Grant Park Music Festival

Friday, June 12, 2009
carlos kalmar’s biography can be found on page A2.
Christopher Bell’s biography can be found on page A3.
GRANT PARK MUSIC FESTIVAL
Hailed by Opera Now for his “believably heroic figure with a gleaming
ring at the top of his vocal register,” John Horton Murray has
recently added several new roles to his repertoire at the Nationaltheater
Mannheim where his performances included the title roles in Lohengrin,
Parsifal, and Otello, Jason in Medée, Alvaro in La forza del destino, Kaiser in
Die Frau ohne Schatten, Max in Der Freischütz, Siegmund in Die Walküre,
Sergei in Lady Macbeth von Mtsensk, and Canio in Pagliacci. Highlights of
his engagements in America include The Metropolitan Opera, Seattle
Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Utah Opera, Tulsa Opera, Santa Fe
Opera, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia.
Among his many international engagements are performances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin,
the Frankfurt Opera, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, the Scottish Opera, Opera North
Ireland, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro alla Scala. On the concert stage, John Horton
Murray recently performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Vancouver Symphony
Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Kansas City, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra,
the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Colorado Symphony and
the San Francisco Symphony. A frequent guest at festivals around the world, the tenor has
been featured at the Spoleto Festival, Antiken Fesitval, Bard Music Festival, the Baden-Baden
Festival and the Bellingham Festival. Mr. Murray has recorded on numerous labels including
Naxos, London, Decca and Sony.
Opera News hails Denis Sedov as “tall and commanding, gifted
with a splendid physique and a bass to match” and his ability to “seduce
with his voice as well as with his presence.” His engagements in the
2008-09 season include Washington National Opera, Al Ayre Español,
the Grant Park Music Festival and the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.
In future seasons, he returns to the Cincinnati, Atlanta and Vancouver
Symphonies and the Atlanta Opera. In the 2007-08 season he sang with
Seattle Opera, L’Opera de Montreal, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra,
and Quebec Symphony, as well as with L’Orchestre de Paris. Mr.
Sedov’s recent international engagements include his debut with the Royal Opera House
at Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala and the Paris Opera. He made his Metropolitan Opera
debut as Colline in La Bohème after having been one of very few non-American singers ever
invited to join the company’s prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development program.
Mr. Sedov is also a frequent guest of the world’s most noted summer festivals, such as the
Aix-en-Provence Festival, Italy’s Spoleto Festival and the Aspen Music Festival. Mr. Sedov is
also an equally engaging concert performer, having performed at the winter Olympics in Japan
in 1998, the Spoleto Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra. Many of Mr. Sedov’s recordings may be found on the Deutsche
Grammophon label.
Program Notes A19