Teacher

Richard Kosowski

Office: (478) 301-4167

E-mail: rkosowski01@gmail.com

Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance and Voice Science University of Houston

Master of Music in Vocal Performance University of Miami

Bachelor of Music Education Truman State University

Tenor Richard Kosowski's performance career includes a varied repertoire encompassing over 50 opera and oratorio roles, representing music from the early 17th century through the 21st century. On the opera stage, Kosowski appeared in the New York City premieres of Stephen Paulus' operas Summer (Reverend Miles/Nettleton Man) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (Nick Papadakis) with The Center for Contemporary Opera. Other New York City debuts include Idomeneo at Avery Fischer Hall as the Gran Sacerdote and Tonio in La fille du régiment with the New York City Opera National Company. Additional operatic roles include Count Almaviva (The Barber of Seville), Don Narciso (Il turco in Italia), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Tamino (The Magic Flute), Fisherman (Guglielmo Tell), Orfée (La descent d'Orfée aux enfers), Des Grieux (Manon), Fenton (Falstaff), Bégearss (The Ghosts of Versailles), Triquet (Eugene Onegin) and Don Octave (The Stoned Guest). His operetta roles include Sid el-Kar (The Desert Song), Detlef (The Student Prince), Captain Dick (Naughty Marietta), Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus) and the Gilbert and Sullivan roles of Frederick, Nanki Poo, Ralph, Luis, and Lord Tolloler.

Kosowski's oratorio credits include: Bach's Johannes-Passion (Evangelist and soloist), Mass in B minor, Magnificat and Kaffe-Kantate; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; Britten's St. Nicolas and Rejoice in the Lamb; Haydn's Creation and Lord Nelson Mass; Handel's Messiah and Chandos Anthem 8 - O, Come Let Us Sing Unto the Lord; Orff's Carmina burana; Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle; Schubert's Mass in E-flat and Mass in G; and Brubeck's La Fiesta de la Posada (performed with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and the Morristown Symphony Orchestra).

As a professional chorister, he has sung with the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera National Company, the Opera Orchestra of New York, the National Chorale, the Atlanta Opera, the Choral Guild of Atlanta and most recently in the Atlanta-based ensemble, Coro Vocati.

Kosowski recordings include P.D.Q. Bach's Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities (Telarc) and A Christmas Potpourri with the Choral Guild of Atlanta (Newport Classics), and he can be seen on DVD in a delightful operatic version of A Room with a View (Burnside).

Kosowski currently serves as Director of Graduate Studies, Chair of Vocal Studies, and Professor of Music at Mercer University's Townsend School of Music. He teaches applied voice, lyric diction, vocal techniques, vocal pedagogy, and various graduate classes in opera history, informed vocal performance practice, and comprehensive examination preparation.

As music director and conductor for Mercer University Opera, recent conducting assignments have included Purcell’s tragic opera Dido and Aeneas, the scenes program Orpheus in Opera (2019: Act I of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s La descente d’Orfée aux enfers, and Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld), Pauline Viardot’s Le dernier sorcier (2021), and Donizetti’s comic romp Viva la Mamma! (2020). He has led performances of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! (2016), Loesser’s Guys and Dolls (2018), Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers (2017) and Iolanthe (2013), Mozart’s Così fan tutte (2018) and The Magic Flute (2014), and in January 2015, he conducted Handel’s Alcina. In fall 2017, he led performances of the children’s opera The Trial of Goldilocks for 2,500 children and adults in Macon and in neighboring Monroe County. Earlier in 2017, he led the premiere of extended orchestral scenes from the new opera Hugh Smalling, which recounts the life and events of a local Macon hero who lost his life in a bombing raid during World War II. As stage director and music director, he has prepared student productions of the scenes program An Evening of Operatic Gems, which included the Act I finale of Rossini’s Le comte Ory with orchestra (2019), English versions of Mozart’s Idomeneo (2011), Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, and Nelson’s Tickets, Please (both 2010), and numerous other operatic scenes programs. As chorus master, he has prepared student productions of The Merry Widow (2010), and Amahl and the Night Visitors (2007).

Active in the Middle Georgia community, Kosowski currently serves as the Director of Music for Highland Hills Baptist Church. Before joining HHBC, he served as the Director of Music Ministries Riverside United Methodist Church, the interim Director of Music for Mulberry Street United Methodist Church, leading the Ainsworth Choir (adult choir) and the Wesley Choir (1st – 5th grades) and overseeing the musical activities of the church. At Mulberry, he led choral – orchestral performances of Bach’s Sleepers, Awake! (BWV 140) and the Easter portion of Handel’s Messiah. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Middle Georgia Opera Guild. He served as the Chair of the Macon Symphony Orchestra Education Committee and served on the MSO board. For the Georgia chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, he recently served on national sub-committee regarding the teaching of pedagogy in undergraduate and graduate studies and on the Georgia chapter’s presidential nominating committee. Past service for the organization includes as registrar and repertoire consultant for the chapter's annual student audition.

Kosowski began his teaching career as an elementary music specialist with Atlanta (GA) Public Schools. He has also served as choral clinician for the Georgia Music Educators’ Association District 7 Elementary Honor Chorus, the Houston County Schools (GA) 5th Grade Honor Choir, and the Rome (GA) Public Schools Elementary Honor Choir. He is frequently asked to lead workshops and serve as guest clinician with area school choirs and church choirs. From 2010 – 2020, Kosowski was music director of Mercer University Youth Choirs.

Prior to coming to Macon, Kosowski was a Teaching Fellow and Affiliate Artist at the University of Houston, Moores School of Music and served on the voice faculty at the University of Miami, Frost School of Music. Additionally, for eight seasons he has been a member of the performing faculty of the Berkshire Choral Festival in Sheffield (MA), Asheville (NC), Baltimore (MD), Fullerton/Los Angeles (CA), and in Prague, Czech Republic.