Opera, Voice Hires

NEC Announces Faculty Appointments, Visiting Artist Masterclasses for Voice and Opera Studies

Joshua Major To Become Chair of Opera Studies; Tenor Bradley Williams Joins Voice Faculty

Two Wagnerian Greats, Dramatic Soprano Jane Eaglen and Bass-baritone Greer Grimsley to Lead Week-long Residencies in Fall, Spring Semesters

New England Conservatory has announced further enhancements to its Voice and Opera Studies programs including the hiring of two new faculty members and the addition of two visiting artist residencies for the academic year 2012-13.

Stage director Joshua Major (in photo right), who has already guest-directed several productions and performances at NEC, will become Chair of Opera Studies. Tenor Bradley Williams, who has sung leading roles in both Europe and the United States, will join the voice studio faculty. 

Dramatic soprano Jane Eaglen, who has been praised for her Brunnhilde, Isolde, and Senta as well as other non-Wagnerian roles like Turandot and Norma, will lead the first of two artist residencies in October.  Bass-baritone Greer Grimsley, who is in demand to sing Wotan in the Seattle Opera, Metropolitan Opera, and Deutsche Opera Berlin Ring cycles, will lead the second residency in March 2013. Each residency of six to eight days will include three public masterclasses and individual coaching sessions with graduate students selected by audition. The design of the program is that nearly all of the graduate students will have an opportunity to participate in either one of the classes or coaching sessions by the end of the year. This initiative is completely underwritten by a member of NEC’s Opera Committee, comprised of board members and other donors with an interest in opera.

Joshua Major, who has directed NEC students in recent productions of the Prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos, Dido and Aeneas, and La Perichole, will teach, direct at least one mainstage production a year, and manage the day-to-day operations of the Opera Studies Department. He will also collaborate with the current leadership, Luretta Bybee and Stephen Lord in determining curriculum, repertoire, and casting. A member of the University of Michigan faculty for 20 years, Major began his opera stage directing career at the age of 23 with La Cenerentola for Opera Omaha. Soon after, he worked as an assistant to Rhoda Levine at Juilliard, Cynthia Auerbach at both Chautauqua Opera and New York City Opera, and William Gaskill at the Welsh National Opera.

Major has worked as a stage director for over 25 years throughout the U.S. and abroad, developing an impressive repertoire of productions. Recent engagements include The Cunning Little Vixen for the Cape Town Opera; Lucia di Lammermoor for the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, L'Impressions de Pelleas in Tel Aviv, La Traviata for the Jacksonville Symphony; L'Elisir d'amore for Cleveland Opera; The Tales of Hoffmann and Lucia di Lammermoor for Indianapolis Opera.

At the University of Michigan, he has overseen the Opera Program, both teaching and directing, and staging productions including Falstaff, Armide, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Eugene Onegin, L'Amico Fritz, and Postcard from Morocco.

Joshua Major has proudly been the Artistic Director of the Pine Mountain Music Festival since 2003. As well, he continues to be a stage director and faculty member with the Israel Vocal Arts Institute, where he has directed annually since 1993, and the Institut Canadien d’Arts Vocal based in Montreal, where he has directed since 2005.

One of opera's most sought-after tenors in the bel canto repertoire, Bradley Williams has appeared in Europe with the opera companies in Barcelona, Malaga, Spain, Torino, Genoa, Bordeaux, Catania, Royal Danish Opera, Wexford Festival, Opera du Rhin in Strasbourg, and Opera Ireland. In North America, his extensive credits include appearances with Seattle Opera, Anchorage Opera, Atlanta Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Baltimore Opera, Dayton Opera, Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Opera Orchestra of New York.

Notable conductors with whom he has collaborated include Julius Rudel, , Donald Runnicles, John Fiore, Joseph Rescigno, Eve Queller, John DeMain, Will Crutchfield, Robert Spano, Joel Revzen, John Crosby, and Christopher Keene.

He may be heard on disc as Salvini in Bellini's Adelson e Salvini on the Nuova Era label and as Scott in Harvey Milk on the Teldec label.

In addition to his performing career, Bradley Williams has served as the General Director of Cimarron Opera in Oklahoma and as an Associate Professor of Voice at the University of Oklahoma. His students have won national competitions and currently perform in the U.S. and Europe. Williams is regularly sought after as a masterclass presenter and adjudicator around the United States.

The Conroe, Texas native obtained his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at the University of Texas at Austin, and also pursued graduate studies at the College/Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He is a recipient of a major grant from the Sullivan Foundation, and was an apprentice with the Santa Fe Opera prior to making his professional debut with the Metropolitan Opera Guild as Ernesto.

Jane Eaglen is a two-time winner of the Seattle Opera Artist of the Year award—in 1994 for Bellini’s Norma (her U.S. opera debut) and in 1999 for Wagner’s Isolde. Her other roles with the company have included the title role in Puccini’s Turandot and Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio, and, most recently, Senta in Wagner’s Fliegende Holländer. Wagner’s Brünnhilde is a signature role for Eaglen, who has sung the Valkyrie at Seattle Opera (2000, 2001, and 2005), the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Vienna State Opera, and Den Norske Opera in Oslo. Among her many other roles are Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (Seattle, New York, Barcelona, Chicago, Puerto Rico), Norma (with Seattle, the Met, Paris Opéra-Bastille, and the Ravenna Festival), and Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (New York, Vienna, Los Angeles, and Bologna). Eaglen’s extensive discography includes a Grammy award-winning recording of Wagner’s Tannhäuser. Eaglen is the recipient of an honorary Doctor of Music degree from McGill University and University College Lincoln, UK, and has served as principal vocal instructor for Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program.

Greer Grimsley made his Metropolitan debut as Captain Balstrode in Peter Grimes, and has subsequently returned in performances as Escamillo in Carmen, Jokanaan in Salome, Scarpia in Tosca, Telramund in Lohengrin and Amfortas in Parsifal. He first came to international attention as Escamillo in the Peter Brook production of La Tragédie de Carmen, which he has sung in venues around the world, including his Italian debuts at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.

In the 2011-2012 season, Grimesley's performances include Wotan in Die Walküre and Das Rheingold at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Jokanaan in Salome at San Diego Opera, Scarpia in Tosca at the Oper der Stadt Köln and at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center, Japan, A Florentine Tragedy and Der Zwerg at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and Mephistopheles in a new production of Faust at the Arizona Opera.  In concert he will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Seattle Symphony and San Antonio Symphony, High Priest in Samson et Dalila with Washington Concert Opera, and the title role in Der Fliegende Holländer at Opera Lyra Ottawa.

For further information, check the NEC Website  

ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY

Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory in Boston, MA offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 720 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world.  Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars.  Its alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide.  Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.

The oldest independent school of music in the United States, NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions.  On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, contemporary improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Programs and Partnerships Program, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors.  Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music, jazz, and contemporary improvisation.

NEC presents more than 900 free concerts each year, many of them in Jordan Hall, its world- renowned, century-old, beautifully restored concert hall.  These programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to jazz, contemporary improvisation, and opera scenes.  Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre or Paramount Theatre in Boston.

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of From the Top, a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.

Contact: Ellen Pfeifer
Public Relations Manager
New England Conservatory
290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
617-585-1143
Ellen.pfeifer@necmusic.edu