Teacher

Jan Opalach, bass-baritone, has won the Kosciuszko Foundation’s Marcella Sembrich Award, prestigious Walter M. Naumburg Vocal Competition, Metropolitan Opera National Auditions, s’Hertogenbosch International Vocalisten Concours as well as a National Endowment for the Arts Soloist Recital Grant. He has been heard in recitals at Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall (NY), Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie), Kosciuszko Foundation (NY), Music Mountain (CT), Miller Theater (Columbia University), Bruno Walter Auditorium, Morgan Library, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Edmonton Chamber Music Festival (Alberta, Canada), Library of Congress, Ambassador Auditorium (Pasadena), Cape and islands Festival (MA), Hudson River Museum (NY), Rockport (MA) Chamber Music Festival, Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum (Boston), Lehigh, Pennsylvania State, Brandeis and Harvard Universities, NATS National Convention in Minneapolis, MN, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and at the Eastman School of Music.

Mr. Opalach, is one of America's most versatile performers on the

musical stage today. Combining serious musicianship with excellent acting skills, Mr. Opalach is highly regarded for his superb understanding of a broad range of musical styles and eras. He is also well known for a repertoire that includes both serious and comic character roles.

Mr. Opalach was a principal artist at the New York City Opera for thirty years.

Among the many roles he has performed during his long association there, are Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, Leporello in

Don Giovanni, Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, The Forester in The Cunning Little Vixen,

Sancho Panza in Don Quichotte, Capellio in I Capuleti e i Montecchi; the King Fisher in Michael Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage and the title role in Verdi’s masterpiece, Falstaff. He has also appeared with the Seattle Opera (Musik Lehrer in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte; the Florentine Opera of Milwaukee (Bottom in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream) and Schaunard in La Bohême with the Santa Fe Opera. He has performed with the Metropolitan Opera (World Premiere of The Voyage by Philip Glass; Prokofiev’s War and Peace; V. Gergiev, cond.), Washington Opera (Pandolfe in Cendrillon opposite Frederica von Stade), Cincinnati Opera, Atlanta Opera (Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier and Opera Theater of St. Louis (Kissinger in new production of John Adams' Nixon in China.

He has also achieved international recognition, appearing with the

Canadian Opera Company, English National Opera (Wesener in the British premiere of Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten; Netherlands Opera (Taddeo in Dario Fo's production of L'italiana in Algeri (Live TV Broadcast), Scottish Opera, Teatro Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and Sweden's Drottningholm Royal Court Theater

(Plutone in Luigi Rossi's Orfeo; Paul O’Dette, Steven Stubbs; Live TV Broadcast).

Mr. Opalach has been a featured soloist, singing with the acclaimed orchestras

of Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, St. Louis, Seattle, and National Symphony. Among the many conductors with whom he has collaborated are Marin Alsop, Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Charles Dutoit, Gunther Herbig, Christopher Hogwood, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Roger Norrington, Christof Perick, Sir Simon Rattle, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, Edo deWaart, and David Zinman.

A winner of the prestigious Walter M. Naumburg Vocal Competition,

the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions, and the International Vocalisten Concours of s'Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, as well as the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Soloist Recital Grant, he has had an active career as a recitalist. Some notable recital venues in which he has appeared include Alice Tully Hall, Ambassador Auditorium (Pasadena), the Library of Congress, Harvard University, and the Morgan Library (NYC). In addition, he has collaborated with many new music ensembles, including Speculum Musicae, Continuum, Parnassus, and the American Composers Orchestra.

Mr. Opalach has made recordings for a number of labels including Argo, Bridge, CRI,

Decca, Delos, EMI, Koch International, L'OiseauLyre, Nonesuch, Telarc, and Vox Unique.

Recorded Works include: Igor Stravinsky's Renard/Pulcinella (St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; Hugh Wolff)Solo Cantatas 56, 82, 158 by J.S. Bach (Bach Ensemble; Joshua Rifkin) Stefan Wolpe's Quintet with Voice ; Elliot Carter's Syringa (Speculum Musicae) Robert Beaser's Seven Deadly Sins (Premiere Recording, American Composers Orchestra; Dennis Russell Davies) G.F. Handel's Acis and Galatea (Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz) Pulitzer Prize winner Aaron Kernis' Mourning Song, and selected lieder of Franz Schubert.

Mr. Opalach is a tenured Associate Professor of Voice at Eastman School of Music .