Wednesday, October 30th | 6:00pm Get Tickets
OC ALL-STAR MASTERCLASS CONCERT
Join Opera Columbus for an opera masterclass concert with Dr. Everett McCorvey, Principal Guest Conductor of Opera Columbus. Learn all of the behind-the-scenes techniques that opera singers master, and experience incredible performances.
MEET DR. EVERETT MCCORVEY
Everett McCorvey, tenor, is a native of Montgomery, Alabama. He received his degrees from the University of Alabama, including a Doctorate of Musical Arts. He has performed in many cities around the world and theaters across the country, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Kennedy Center, Aspen Music Festival, Radio City Music Hall, Birmingham Opera Theater, Teatro Comunale in Florence, Italy, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, England, as well as performances throughout Spain, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Austria, Japan, China, Brazil, Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Hungary, Mexico, Peru and France. He joined the Tony Award winning Sherwin Goldman Production of PORGY AND BESS at Radio City Music Hall in 1982 and was also part of the Metropolitan Opera’s Debut Production of Porgy and Bess in 1985.
McCorvey’s career has spanned all areas of the performing arts business from performer to musical director, stage director, voice teacher, producer, impresario, orchestra conductor, union representative, administrator and mentor.
McCorvey recently conducted the World Premiere of Stella Sung’s Opera THE SECRET RIVER with Opera Orlando in December of 2021. The Librettist for the opera was Pulitzer Prize Winner Mark Campbell. He was also featured in Taromina, Sicily conducting the Grand Finale Opera Gala at the Mythos Opera Festival 2018 and in December of 2019, he conducted the Dvořák Symphony #9 in Prague’s Smetana Hall with the North Czech Philharmonic. Upcoming concerts includes Musikverein Golden Hall in Vienna conducting the Boshualave Martinu Philharmonic and in Haydn Hall Vienna with the Euro sinfonietta as well as an upcoming Word Premiere with the Santa Fe Opera’s Opera for All Voices in performances of THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE by Chandler Carter with the libretto by Diana Solomon Glover. Later in 2022, McCorvey will serve as Chorus Master with the Santa Fe Opera production THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE and Music Director and Conductor for the Kentucky Opera performances of the same work. McCorvey served as the Music Director and Conductor of the World Premier of BOUNCE, The Basketball Opera, conceived and directed by Gretha Holby with the lead composer Glen Roven and author and librettist Charles R. Smith, Jr. Additional music for BOUNCE was written by Tomas Doncker and West Side Story Film Star Ansel Elgort. https://bouncethebasketballopera.org
This past September 11, 2021 on the 20th Anniversary of the attacks, he conducted the National Chorale and the US Army Field Band in New Jersey’s 9/11 Commemoration at Liberty State Park.
He has also appeared in television movies and feature films including The Long Walk Home. Dr. McCorvey’s operatic roles include Don Jose in Carmen, Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Fenton in Falstaff, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Puck in La Grande Duchess de Gerolstein, and many others. Orchestra and Oratorio works include the Beethoven Symphony #9, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Mass in B Minor and the St. Matthew Passion, among others.
Vocal Excellence is a hallmark of Dr. McCorvey’s work. As a teacher he has given masterclasses and vocal workshops throughout the United States, Europe, South America, China, Japan, and Poland. Dr. McCorvey is the founder and Music Director of the American Spiritual Ensemble, www.americanspiritualensemble.com a group of 24 professional singers performing spirituals and other compositions of African-American composers dedicated to keeping the American Negro Spiritual alive. In its 27-year history, the group has presented over 600 concerts including 20 tours of the United States and 17 tours of Spain. Presently the American Spiritual Ensemble is the only professional ensemble of its kind dedicated solely to the American Negro Spiritual. The Ensemble has released twelve CD’s: On My Journey Now – The American Spiritual Ensemble on Tour, Ol’ Time Religion, Lily of the Valley, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot; The Spirituals; The Spirit of the Holidays; The Duke Returns; Duke Ellington Sacred Concerts; Mosaic, featuring Metropolitan Opera Star Angela Brown; Stand the Storm, Featuring American Soprano Jeryl Cunningham; Been in the Storm Too Long featuring American Baritone Kenneth Overton as well as two CD’s featuring the music of John Jacob Niles produced by McCorvey featuring American Soprano Hope Koehler. McCorvey recently produced a CD Anchored in the Lord featuring singers from the Bay View Music Festival’s American Negro Spirituals Intensive program, where McCorvey serves as Director.
The US Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) has produced six Documentaries featuring McCorvey’s work, including It’s a Grand Night for Singing: 10th Anniversary (1992); Impresario (2002); A Tribute and a Toast to Opera (2005); The Spirituals (2007); The American Spiritual Ensemble in Concert (2017); and It’s a Grand Night for Singing 25th Anniversary (2017).
Dr. McCorvey is also in his seventh season as the Artistic Director of the National Chorale of New York City www.nationalchorale.org. Celebrating 54 years of great choral singing, the National Chorale is a symphonic choir which performs at Lincoln Center in New York City. The National Chorale is well-known in New York and around the region for its performances of the great choral titans as well as for the popular New York Messiah Sing-In at Lincoln Center! The Sing-In is one of the oldest sing-in’s in the country.
Dr. McCorvey has served on the faculty of the New York State Summer School of the Arts in Saratoga Springs, New York where he was Artist-in-Residence and Associate Conductor and is also a frequent advisory panelist and on-site reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts Opera/Musical Theatre program in Washington, D.C. He also served on the faculty of the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria. He is on the opera faculty in the summers at the Bay View Music Festival in Petoskey, MI, www.bayviewassociation.org/performingarts/musicfestival, and is co-director of the Bay View Music Festival’s American Negro Spirituals Intensive program, a program dedicated to helping young singers learn about the American Negro Spirituals.
Dr. McCorvey is a teacher and vocal advisor to many singers in the profession. Dr. McCorvey has been the recipient of several awards highlighting his teaching, research and service. Recent awards include the SEC (South Eastern Conference) Faculty Achievement Award, given to a faculty member from each of the 14 SEC Athletic Conference schools. He was also the recipient of the UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement in 2018. This award is one of UK’s most prestigious awards given to one Kentuckian, it recognizes high intellectual achievement by a Kentuckian who has made a contribution of lasting value to the Commonwealth. The award also promotes education and creative thought. Other awards include the Lexington Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award (2020); two Regional Emmy Awards for UK Opera Theatre’s summer production of “It’s A Grand Night for Singing” (2018); the Notable African-Americans in Lexington Award given by the Lima drive Seventh-Day Adventist Church (2018); the Central Music Academy Lifetime Achievement Award (2015), the Alabama Governor’s Artists Award, the highest arts award given to an artist from Alabama (2015), the Salvation Army Community Service Award (2014) and the Camp Horsin’ Around Community Service Award (2014). In 1998 he was the Acorn Award Recipient given by the Kentucky Advocates for Higher Education. This prestigious Award goes to only one Professor in the state of Kentucky who exemplifies excellence, innovation and creativity in teaching and research. Dr. McCorvey was also the recipient of an outstanding faculty award from the University of Kentucky Lyman T. Johnson Alumni Association for 1998 and was selected to receive the Outstanding Alumni Award in the Arts from the Society for the Fine Arts at the University of Alabama, his Alma Mater, in February of 1999.
Dr. McCorvey produced only the second full-length recording of The Tender Land by Aaron Copland with the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre recorded in Zlin, Czech Republic and released January 2002, featuring singers from the University of Kentucky Opera Program with Kirk Trevor conducting the Boshuslave Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra. Two other CD’s released in 2008, were a world premiere of a new opera, The Hotel Casablanca, by Thomas Pasatieri, produced by Dr. McCorvey and performed by the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre and a collection of songs by John Jacob Niles, performed by soprano Hope Koehler and produced by McCorvey. Both recording were released by Albany Records. In the spring of 2010 UK Opera released a new CD of Die Fledermaus with Maestro John Nardolillo conducting and in December of 2010 a World Premiere CD of Thomas Pasatieri’s new opera God Bless Us Everyone which premiered in New York at DiCapo Opera with students from UK Opera and which received a rave New York Times Review.
Dr. McCorvey is of the belief that every citizen in the country should find ways to give back to his or her community, city or country. He has been very active in his volunteer activities working to keep the arts as a part of the civic conversation and currently serves on many local, regional and national boards. In his home state of Kentucky, he is Chairman of the Kentucky Arts Council Board and nationally he is on the Sullivan Foundation Board of Trustees, www.sullivanfoundation.org, an organization dedicated to supporting young professional singers with career grants and study awards for continuing development. He holds an Endowed Chair in Opera Studies/Director of Opera and Professor of Voice at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. www.ukoperatheatre.org.
In September of 2010, Dr. McCorvey served as the Executive Producer of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Alltech 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games held in Lexington, Kentucky. The Opening Ceremony was broadcasted on NBC Sports and was viewed by over 500 million people worldwide. The Alltech 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games was the largest equestrian event to ever be held in the United States. He is married to soprano Alicia Helm. They have three children.
DR. EVERETT MCCORVEY
Principal Guest Conductor
MEET THE OC ALL-STARS
Hailing from Columbus, Ohio, Hannah Marie Bullock is an exciting emerging artist making her footprint in the opera world. This season, Ms. Bullock is thrilled to return to Opera Columbus for a debut performance of Lucy Brown in The Threepenny Opera. The 2023-2024 season brought Ms. Bullock’s debut as Second Lady in The Magic Flute (Opera Columbus) and a reprise of Micaela in Opera Columbus’ new production of Carmen. During this season, Ms. Bullock was also a finalist in the James Toland Foundation Elizabeth Greenfield Award Competition. In the 2022-2023 season, Ms. Bullock made her debut performance of Micaela (Carmen) in a co-production between Camerata Bardi and Teatro Grattacielo in Heraklion, Crete. She also performed the role of Countess Ceprano in Opera Columbus’ Rigoletto. Previous season engagements include a young artist position with the inaugural Opera for Peace Academy in Rome, Italy in Summer 2022. Spring 2022 also brought Ms. Bullock’s debut in contemporary opera with the role of Moremi in Vanqui (Opera Columbus). In Summer 2021, Ms. Bullock had the pleasure of performing Contessa Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro) with the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia. Ms. Bullock is a graduate of Capital University with Bachelor of Music in Music Technology and of Ohio University with a Master of Music in Vocal Performance. In addition to performing, Ms. Bullock is the founder and Creative Director of SimplySing Studios, whose mission is to support the young artist community by providing recording services with a specialty in recording the operatic voice Known for his stage savvy, Robert Kerr’s foundation in opera began in musical theater. Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times wrote of his Falstaff: “He made words matter and conveyed the self-delusion of this likable laughingstock… “. Known to Opera Columbus audiences, Robert Kerr returns this season in Tosca and Fellow Travelers. His past performances with the company include the King in Aida; the world première of The Flood by Korine Fujiwara with libretto by Stephen Wadsworth; the title role of Gianni Schicchi; and, Tonio in Pagliacci. Notable credits include a return to Rose Theater with Atsushi Yamada conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra of New York in an all-Verdi concert; he was Pooh-Bah in The Mikado with Performance Santa Fe!; the title role of Rigoletto with Opera Projects Columbus in addition to the title role in Gianni Schicchi with the company. He has been heard as Germont in La traviata with the Philharmonia Orchestra of New York at Lincoln Center and as soloist in Mozart’s Requiem; and, has appeared with the local symphonies on numerous occasions. In prior seasons, Mr. Kerr returned to Japan for engagements in performances of Requiem by Minoru Miki in Natori and reprising the work at Rose Theater at Lincoln Center; he has covered the role of the King in El Gato con Botas with Gotham Chamber Opera; and, was soloist with the New York City Opera Orchestra in a Japan tour of Carmina Burana. Other engagements include his appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors with Sondra Radvanovsky and Joseph Calleja in an Aida tribute to honoree, Martina Arroyo. Equally at home in musical theater, Mr. Kerr has sung King Hildebrand in Princess Ida with So. Ohio Light Opera; the role of Peachum in The Threepenny Opera with Amarillo Opera; and Pooh-Bah in The Mikado. Cynthia López-Olaya is a Xicana soprano originally from Los Angeles, California and based in Columbus, Ohio. She received her training from The Ohio State University and Boston Conservatory of Music at Berklee. As an emerging artist she has had the pleasure of combining her work in advocacy through her performance career, lectures, panel discussions and philanthropy with leading companies in the industry. Mrs. López-Olaya’s 2023-2024 season included Natalia (Caravana de Mujeres), a comedic opera about a Colombian immigrant family, where she sang the world premiere at Opera America’s New Works Forum with MassOpera and OperaHub, and Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) with the Boston Festival Orchestra and NEMPAC Opera Project. She then completed a residency with Hogfish Opera where she sang the role of Frasquita and covered Micaëla (Carmen) in a reimagined production that highlights conditions at the border between El Paso, Texas and Mexico. During her residency she also completed a recital highlighting Nahuatl songs, the most prevalent Indigenous language in Mexico. She then premiered the work Soul Echoes with Concertia HTX as the soprano soloist, a vocal drama elevating narratives of children detained at the US-Mexico border. Other credits include: Maria (West Side Story), and Mimì (La bohème) with MassOpera; Despina (Così fan tutte) and Blanche (Dialogues des Carmélites) with Boston Conservatory Opera; Nannetta (Falstaff) with Martina Arroyo Prelude to Performance; and Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) with The Ohio State University Lyric and Opera Theater. In addition to her classical music career she is also the vocalist for a professional contemporary Latin trio in Columbus, OH and she is the co-founder of Latina Women in Opera.Hannah Bullock
Robert Kerr
Cynthia López-Olaya
Justin T. Swain, baritone, serves as an Adjunct Professor of Voice at Ohio University (Athens), owns and operates a thriving music school in North Columbus (Musicologie Lewis Center), and is a graduate of The Ohio State University where he earned his MM and BM in Vocal Performance and MA in Vocal Pedagogy studying with Dr. Scott McCoy and Dr. Robin Rice. A Columbus native, Mr. Swain has served as Opera Columbus’ Teaching Artist (2018-2020) and was most recently seen playing the roles of Senator Joseph McCarthy, Interrogator, and Estonian Frank in Opera Columbus’ production of Fellow Travelers. Mr. Swain maintains an active performance career in the Central Ohio region having made appearances with the New Albany Symphony Orchestra, McConnell Arts Chamber Orchestra, Opera Project Columbus, Harmony Project Columbus, the Denison University Wind Ensemble, in a variety of productions with the Ohio State University Opera Lyric Theatre, the Ohio State University Wind Ensemble, the Ohio Wesleyan Chamber Ensemble, the Columbus Italian Festival, as well as a myriad of mainstage, education outreach, and chorister roles with Opera Columbus. Baritone Artega Wright is known for his vibrant, mellifluous, and authoritative voice. He is also a neurodivergent with adult ADHD, which he has learned to navigate and use to his advantage in his artistic pursuits. Wright earned his master’s degree in Vocal Performance from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor’s in Vocal Performance from Wayland Baptist University. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Wright is now based in the Midwest and has performed with some of Chicago’s most notable ensembles and storefront opera companies, including the Chicago Opera Theatre. He has had the honor of premiering in new works commissioned by the company such as Quamino’s Map and Freedom Ride. Wright has also made his New York debut with On Site Opera in Il Tabarro in the Spring of 2023. Recently, Wright served as an artist in residence with Dayton Opera, where he sang the role of Donner in an original production of Das Rheingold. He also honed his skills as a teaching artist, bringing “Who Wants to Be an Opera Star” to the Dayton Metro area, inspiring young people to explore their own artistic potential. Wright has covered the role of Sam in Grammy award-winner Will Liverman and DJ King Rico’s masterpiece, The Factotum, at Lyric Opera of Chicago. His talent has also earned him opportunities to perform with other prestigious opera houses, such as San Francisco Opera, where he will make his debut in the 2023-2024 season. He will also be returning to other amazing houses such as Opera Columbus. In the summer of 2022, Wright served as an Apprentice Artist at Des Moines Metro Opera, where he stepped in on short notice as the lead role in Porgy and Bess, impressing audiences and critics alike with his professionalism and talent. This demonstrated his versatility and reliability as a performer, while also earning him high praise and cementing his reputation as an up-and-coming singer in the opera world.Justin Swain
Artega Wright