PSC Brahms Program - Portland Symphonic choir

Falstaff in Portland at PSU Opera directed by Tito Capobianco. He appeared
at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall with American Symphony Orchestra in
the lead role of Signor Rivière in Dallapiccola’s opera Volo di notte and at
Lincoln Center Jazz with Deborah Voigt and the Collegiate Chorale as Grand-
Pretre/Hercule in Gluck’s Alceste. Mr. Zeller’s concert engagements during
that season included Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Seattle Symphony,
Louisiana Philharmonic, and Spokane Symphony, and Carmina Burana with
the Buffalo Philharmonic at Artpark.
Mr. Zeller’s opera engagements have included 12 seasons at the Metropolitan
Opera; in 2002/03 Mr. Zeller appeared at the Met in three new productions;
as Ernesto in Bellini’s Il Pirata with Renée Fleming; in the lead role of Eddie in
William Bolcom’s opera, A View from the Bridge, based on Arthur Miller’s play;
and as Chorebe in Berlioz’s Les Troyens, conducted by Maestro James Levine.
His other performances and assignments at the Met have included the title role
in Verdi’s Macbeth, the title role in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Marcello in
Puccini’s La Bohème, Barak in R. Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten, Enrico in
Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Carlo in Verdi’s Ernani, Rangoni and Schelkalov
in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov in two different productions, Thoas in Gluck’s
Iphigenie en Tauride, Kothner in Wagners’s Die Meistersinger, Sprecher in
Mozart’s The Magic Flute, as well as performances of smaller roles in other
operas including Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, Gounod’s Faust, and Verdi’s
Rigoletto.
Mr. Zeller was featured in Scottish Opera’s widely heralded, award-winning
production of Macbeth, directed by Luc Bondy at its Edinburgh Festival
premiere in 1999/00 and its revival at the Vienna Festival. Other highlights of
past seasons include performances in Chicago Lyric Opera’s Boris Godunov and
Andrea Chénier, Gluck’s Alceste at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and Gluck’s
Iphigenie en Tauride in Madrid. He has also sung the title role of Rigoletto in
many venues, including New York City Opera. Mr. Zeller also appeared as
Athanaël in Massenet’s Thaïs with the English National Opera at the Barbican in
London and in the title role in Verdi’s Macbeth with Opera de Bordeaux, Opera
de Vichy and Portland Opera.
Mr. Zeller has sung the role of Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata with
Hamburgische Staatsoper, San Diego Opera, Scottish Opera, Deutsche Oper
am Rhein, Portland Opera, and in many other opera and concert venues with
orchestras in Europe and the US. His frequently performed Verdi baritone roles
include Falstaff, Rigoletto, Macbeth, Conte Di Luna, Amonasro, Rodrigo, Don
Carlo, Renato, and Simon Boccanegra.
He has appeared with many regional opera companies in the US, including
the Chicago Lyric Opera, New York City Opera, Philadelphia, Minnesota,
Cincinnati, San Diego, Portland, New Orleans, and New Jersey Opera
companies.
Mr. Zeller is highly regarded in the concert field and has sung with virtually all
the major orchestras in the US, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago
Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, National Symphony,
and the symphonies of San Francisco, Dallas, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Minnesota,
Baltimore, Seattle, Oregon, and San Diego, to name a few.
International orchestra credits include Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony,
Vancouver Radio Orchestra, Winnipeg, Ottowa, the Nord Deutscher Rundfunk
(Hanover), MDR Symphony Orchester (Leipzig), Dresden Staatskapelle,
Czech Philharmonic (Prague Autumn Festival), Tokyo Philharmonic, Cesky
Krumlov Festival (Czech Republic), Korea Philharmonic, Rotterdam, Bergen
Philharmonic Orchestra (Norway), Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-
Carlo (in a command performance for Prince Rainier and Prince Albert of
Monaco), as well as a performance for the Spanish Royal Family in Madrid with
conductor Helmut Rilling.
Handel’s Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Bloch’s Sacred Service,
Catalani’s La Wally, and many others. Richard Zeller’s recordings include
the critically acclaimed Merry Mount by Howard Hanson for Naxos, Deems
Taylor’s Peter Ibbettson with Naxos, and the world premiere of Henri Lazarof’s
Fifth Symphony on Centaur Records – all recorded with Gerard Schwartz and
the Seattle Symphony. He has recorded Dvorak’s Te Deum with Zdenec Macal
and the New Jersey Symphony for Delos, and David Schiff’s Gimpel the Fool
for Naxos, as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for Centaur Records, and
Virgil Thompson’s Lord Byron and Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land for Koch
International.
Jeffrey Work
Jeffrey Work joined the Oregon Symphony
as Principal Trumpet in the fall of 2006,
following 13 years as an active freelance
musician in the Boston area. Since 1999,
he has also served as Principal Trumpet
of the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder
during its six week long summer seasons.
As an orchestral musician, Work can be
heard on several recordings, most notably
as a featured performer on the Oregon
Symphony’s acclaimed 2011 release Music
for a Time of War. Other performances
include Stravinsky’s Petrouchka and
Mahler’s Sixth Symphony with the Boston Philharmonic, as well as
performances with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Pops, and the Boston
Modern Orchestra Project.
In addition to his orchestral duties in Portland and Boulder, Jeffrey Work
performs concerto and chamber repertoire as his busy schedule will allow.
His reputation has grown steadily, the press frequently praising him for playing
with an artistry not often associated with his chosen instrument. Discovered by
Mstislav Rostropovich in January, 1992, Work appeared as soloist on a series
of four National Symphony Orchestra subscription concerts later that year.
Rostropovich subsequently invited him to perform at the 1993 Rencontres
Musicales d’Evian in Evian, France. There, Work made both concerto and
chamber music appearances and returned in the same capacity in 1997. He
was also offered his November, 1994 Paris debut by the Director of Music of
Radio France. He has given solo performances with the Oregon Symphony,
the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the Boston Chamber Music Society,
the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and The United States Army Band, as
well as regional, community, and festival orchestras throughout the country. In
1997, during his third solo engagement with the Missouri Chamber Orchestra,
Work recorded the Haydn Trumpet Concerto. In 1998, the Pro Arte Chamber
Orchestra of Boston featured him in the world premiere of Eric Ewazen’s
Concerto for Trumpet and String Orchestra and in 2003 that orchestra joined
Work in premiering the Concerto for Trumpet by James M. Stephenson.
Always sharp, never flat.
Zeller is celebrated for his interpretation of the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah
which he has sung with the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and
many others throughout the US, Europe, and Asia, and he has given over 100
performances each of Orff’s Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony,
and Handel’s Messiah.
Highlights of past seasons include appearances with the Boston Symphony
Orchestra under the baton of James Levine in Berlioz’s Les Troyens and the title
role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, with both the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia and in
a nationwide radio broadcast with the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as Handel’s
Messiah with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Zeller was also featured in 2001
in a nationwide TV Broadcast of “Live from Lincoln Center” singing the Mozart
Requiem with the Mostly Mozart Festival, conducted by Gerard Schwarz. His
performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall include Orff’s Carmina Burana,
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