rossini's Stabat Mater - The Grant Park Music Festival

Friday, July 20 and Saturday, July 21, 2012
Tenor René Barbera, born in Laredo, Texas and now a
third-year member of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Patrick G. and
Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, was awarded First Prize for
Opera, First Prize for Zarzuela and the Audience Prize at Plácido
Domingo’s Operalia competition in 2011 in Moscow, the first
artist to receive all three awards since the competition began
in 1993. Mr. Barbera’s additional honors include the Sullivan
Foundation Award (2011), Men’s First Place in the Union League
Civic & Arts Foundation (2009), Grand Finals Winner in the
Metropolitan National Council Auditions (2008), Grand Prize in the Charles A. Lynam
Vocal Competition (2007), First Place in the Charlotte Opera Guild Vocal Competition
(2006) and First Place in the Heafner/Williams Vocal Competition (2006). During the
2011-2012 season, he was heard with Lyric Opera of Chicago in Lucia di Lammermoor,
Ariadne auf Naxos and The Magic Flute; he earlier appeared with Lyric in Carmen, Un
Ballo in Maschera, La Fanciulla del West, Lohengrin and La Cenerentola. Mr. Barbera’s
additional opera credits include Vancouver Opera, Canadian Opera Company and
Opera Theatre of St. Louis. He has appeared in concert with the Apollo Chorus of
Chicago, Greensboro Symphony and Chicago Philharmonic. Mr. Barbera studied at
the North Carolina School of the Arts and had additional training at the American
Institute of Vocal Arts in Graz, Austria, Vocal Arts Symposium in Colorado Springs and
San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program. René Barbera appeared at the Grant
Park Music Festival’s Ryan Opera Center programs in 2010 and 2011.
American bass-baritone Ryan McKinny was the first
recipient of the Birgit Nilsson Prize for singing Wagner at
Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition, held in 2010 at the
Teatro alla Scala in Milan. In 2007, Mr. McKinny represented
the United States in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World
Competition, where he was a finalist in the Rosenblatt
Recital Song Prize. He was also a Grand Finalist in the 2007
Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was
featured in the film The Audition, recently released by Decca
on DVD. His many opera credits include appearances at New Orleans Opera,
Oper Leipzig, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Canadian Opera Company, Los Angeles
Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Utah Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Theater Basel,
English National Opera, Spoleto Festival (Italy), Semperoper Dresden, Hamburg
State Opera, Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Oper Leipzig. Mr. McKinny made his
Metropolitan Opera debut as Lieutenant Ratcliffe in Britten’s Billy Budd during the
2011-2012 season. In concert, he has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic,
Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra and
Aspen Music Festival, and made his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut in
2010 in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex. Mr. McKinny was heard in a special recital of
Schubert’s Die Winterreise during the Sydney Festival that was broadcast on ABC,
Australia’s public radio. He took his professional training at Pasadena City College
in California, the Juilliard School and Houston Grand Opera’s Opera Studio program.
Ryan McKinny makes his Grant Park Music Festival debut with these concerts.
2012 Program Notes, Book 3 A31