Tenor Florin Olimpio was born in Transylvania, Romania. Following studies at the Orthodox Theological High School in Bucharest, he enrolled at the National University of Music in Bucharest, where he received his artist diploma in voice. Recently he received a master’s of the performing arts from Indiana University.
Olimpio won the Career Bridges Award in New York (May 2006) and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in the Indiana District (Oct 2006). In addition, he won the Ioan Holender (director of Vienna Staatsoper) Deutsche Bank Prize (2002), Pro Arte Vienna (2002), and both the Rotary International and Brasov Opera awards at the Traian Grozavescu International Voice Competition. This year Olimpio was selected for Operalia.
Olimpio performed Prince Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Alfred in Die Fledermaus in Bucharest, Romania. He made his debut with IU Opera Theater as Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia and this season he performed Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at the same theater.
What were some influential experiences in your youth that led you to a career in music?
I remember that when I was a little boy I had a very pure and high voice. My father is an Orthodox priest. He founded a children’s choir and I used to sing solos with that choir. We sang for God without any compensation. On Christmas day, Santa Claus came to hear our songs and poems. Everybody really put his or her heart into it. Those were really great days.
Later, when I was 15 years old, I went to the Theological High School. They had the best music school in Transylvania. We had a great teacher who brought me to Paris for the first time. I sang in Notre Dame de Paris and that was something I will remember forever.
My father loves opera. He has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve have ever heard and is very familiar with well-known tenors and the Italian tradition. His dream was to become an opera singer, but life under communism was difficult. When I wanted to become an artist, he was very happy and extremely supportive.
What is your favorite part about being an opera singer?
Having the chance to work with emotions, to exchange this spiritual energy with the audience.
How do you handle rejection?
Rejection is part of life and many times it actually brings about good results—maybe not immediately, but if you really have a talent, no rejection can stop you on the path to success. You realize later that it was just a stop at another intersection.
How do you balance career and family?
Career and family can be two good friends. Balancing the two contributes to the artist’s happiness. Sooner or later, people discover that this is a normal course of life.
What needs to happen in your career for you to feel you’ve finally made it?
I think that I make it every time I come home after a performance and I feel that I did the best for the audience. It is sharing that spiritual energy that is “making it.” “Finally making it” doesn’t exist in art. Many times, when I have a good result, I say to myself, “Finally, I arrived here, but moving forward begins again tomorrow.”
Award-winning lyric baritone Kenneth Mattice is making his mark on the operatic stage. The Chicago Tribune recently called him “outstanding,” and the San Francisco Chronicle described him as: “a charismatic and robust-toned Figaro.” A Wisconsin native and second-year resident artist with Opera San José, Mattice received rave reviews for his debuts last season as Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Mercutio (Roméo et Juliette), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), and Germont (La traviata). Other recent performances include Schaunard (La bohème) with Baltimore Opera, Escamillo (Carmen) at the Ravinia Festival, Malatesta (Don Pasquale) with the Newton Symphony (Boston), and the title role in Don Giovanni for the Opera Institute at Boston University. He has also performed with Chicago Opera Theater, Chautauqua Opera, the Pine Mountain Music Festival, and Opera Theatre North.
Mattice has been named a winner in the Palm Beach Opera Competition and the Bel Canto Italian Opera Competition, a finalist in the Liederkranz Competition and the Classical Singer AudComps, and a semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (New England Region). Future engagements include Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Albert in Werther, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and Marullo in Rigoletto with Opera San José.
What were some influential experiences in your youth that led you to a career in music?
I grew up on a small Wisconsin farm. My love of singing was developed and nurtured by family campfire sing-a-longs with my uncle and listening to Dad harmonize in church. I got my first taste of stage performing in the county 4-H music and drama festival and later in high school musicals.
My confidence grew when I was a sophomore music education major at Luther College and decided to spend a semester abroad at the Canberra School of Music in Australia. With only one previous year of voice lessons, my new teacher, Angela Giblin, began pulling out a voice I had never heard or used before. I began singing my first opera scenes, was hired for my first professional gigs, and began to trust my colleagues’ opinions and advice that I could succeed at it if I worked hard enough. One month before returning to the States, I dropped my music education major and picked up Italian, rep classes, and coaching. When I returned, I was cast in my first operatic lead and entered my first Young Artist Program.
What has been your career highlight to this point?
My debut as Figaro in “Barber” at Opera San José last season. I love the role and can’t wait for the opportunity to sing it again.
What is your favorite part about being an opera singer?
Embodying the emotion and drama of the music.
Who are some of the role models, mentors, or influential people in your life?
I would not be a singer without the support of my teachers along the way. Tim Scheer, Angela Giblin, David Judisch, and Karen Brunssen helped to draw out the voice within me. However, Sherrill Milnes and Maria Zouves’ VOICExperience program helped me realize the next steps in my career. Besides introducing me to Trish McCaffrey, my current teacher, Milnes’ guidance and support in coachings brought my performances to a more sensitive and dramatic level.
If you could sing any one role, what would it be?
Billy Budd would be amazing. Maybe in a few years.
How do you handle rejection?
I go into auditions knowing that if I do my best and they need someone like me, then I have a chance. The only thing I have control over is my own performance. I try to sing my repertoire the best I can and keep working to be better. Failures serve to increase my determination for the next time.
How do you balance career and family?
Right now it’s pretty easy. My wife, Rochelle Bard, and I are both employed as principal artists with Opera San Jose. We met as studio artists with Baltimore Opera a couple of years ago and are so blessed to be able to learn roles together and support each other on a daily basis. We know that the opportunities to perform together will be few and far between in the future, so we are making the most of it now. We are each other’s ears, eyes, and shoulders!
What needs to happen in your career for you to feel that you’re finally made it?
I think I’ll feel like I’ve “made it” when I am singing at one of the top-level companies with contracts for future seasons.
