UGA Opera Theatre warmly welcomes guest artist Maestro Hilary Griffiths as conductor for Mozart's masterwork, Don Giovanni, coming to the UGA Fine Arts Theatre on February 10th, 11th, and 12th, 2017. Maestro Griffiths is a British conductor living in Germany. During the last twenty years he has held appointments as General Music Director of the city of Regensburg, Music Director of the City of Oberhausen, Chief Conductor of the Prague State Opera, Principal Conductor at the Cologne Opera, where he conducted over 300 performances, Music Director of the Eutin Opera Festival and Professor at the Mannheim University of Music. He works as a guest conductor throughout Europe, has made several recent visits to the Far East, Australia and South America, and has appeared at the festivals of Edinburgh, Camden, Schwetzingen, Wiesbaden, Würzburg, Gmunden, Prague, Litomyšl, Miškolc, Tenerife, Hong Kong and Perth (Australia). From 2009 to 2012 he was also Chief Conductor of the Opera of Wuppertal. Hilary Griffiths was born in Leamington Spa. He was a chorister at King’s College, Cambridge and later took a degree in mathematics at Trinity College, Oxford. After postgraduate work at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the London Opera Centre he completed his studies at the Conservatorio G. Verdi in Milan. After winning prizes at the Marinuzzi competition in San Remo and the IADEM competition in Florence he moved to Germany. His repertoire of more than 100 operas includes the complete middle and late Verdi and all the regularly performed operas of Mozart, Rossini and Puccini. He has also specialised in the German repertoire (Wagner, Strauss, d’Albert, Zemlinsky, Berg, Schoenberg, Henze) and in the Czech repertoire (Dvořák, Smetana, Janáček, Martinů). He conducted the first European performances of three operas by the Scottish composer Thea Musgrave, the world premieres of Das Gauklermärchen by Gerhard Konzelmann and the ballet Lulu (Nino Rota) at the Cologne Opera House, and of La porta della legge (Salvatore Sciarrino) in 2009 at Wuppertal, with which he made his U.S. debut in July 2010 at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York. At the State Opera, Prague, he has conducted more than 250 performances of 25 different operas. Among his twelve premieres there were La finta giardiniera, Eine florentinische Tragödie and Der Zwerg (Zemlisky), Salome, Erwartung, Cavalleria & Pagliacci, the first Czech performance of Death in Venice, and, most recently Tannhäuser. He has also been a regular guest at the Tenerife Opera Festival and for the Colombian Opera in Bogotá. He has conducted Don Giovanni with the Prague State Opera, at the Perth International Festival (Australia), at the State Opera, Hannover and at the City Theater, Regensburg He conducted the first modern performances of symphonies by Pokorny (in his own edition) and his own orchestrations of the French songs by Wagner. He has recorded CDs of works by Jommelli and Weber and complete recordings of Tiefland, La Bohème (Leoncavallo) and I vespri siciliani. His DVD of Il matrimonio segreto is available on Euro Arts, his performance of Der Freischütz was televised by NDR (North German Television) and his DVD of Bluthochzeit (Fortner) was recently released on the WERGO label. In 2017 he conducts Nabucco and Rigoletto in Prague, makes his debut with English National Opera (The Barber of Seville) and conducts Otello at the Teatro Colón, Bogotá. You will not want to miss Maestro Griffiths as he brings this Mozart opera to life at UGA. Grab your tickets and join the conversation!
UGA Opera Theatre is thrilled to welcome back Professor Mark Cedel as conductor of Puccini's classic comedy, Gianni Schicchi. Prof. Cedel brings a wealth of professional experience to his position as director of orchestral activities at UGA, a post he has held for 20 years. Prior to his appointment at UGA, he was associate conductor of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. In his four seasons with that orchestra, he conducted over 200 performances, appearing on every series offered by the orchestra. Before joining the Charlotte Symphony, Cedel was principal viola and assistant conductor of the Charleston (SC) Symphony Orchestra for nine years. While in Charleston, he served for two seasons as that orchestra's acting music director. From 1986-1990, he was a member of the artist faculty at the Brevard Music Center and was principal conductor of the Brevard Repertory Training Program. In addition to directing orchestral activities at UGA, Cedel served as professor of viola from 1994-2002. During that period he performed, toured, and recorded regularly as extra viola with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, including its northeast tour with concerts in Carnegie Hall. He returned to teaching viola for the 2009-2010 academic year, while a seach was conducted to fill the position. Cedel earned a bachelor of music degree in viola performance from the Curtis Institute of Music where he was a student of Joseph dePasquale, and studied chamber music with members of the Guarneri Quartet, Budapest Quartet and Beaux Arts Trio. He holds a master of music degree in conducting from the North Carolina School of the Arts. Don't miss this comic double bill, The Impresario & Gianni Schicchi, coming this Thursday and Friday, October 20-21. Buy your tickets online through the Performing Arts Center box office. UGA Opera Theatre is thrilled to welcome guest artist and mezzo-soprano Heather Witt to the stage for the upcoming production of Gianni Schicchi. She will be performing the role of Zita in this one-act Puccini classic, which will be presented as part of a double bill with Mozart's The Impresario on October 20-21, 2016. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called mezzo-soprano Heather Witt, “the kind of singer you hope to hear - talented, alert... a singer with a future.” Ms. Witt is known for her portrayal of a wide array of opera’s most notable mezzo-soprano characters, including: Gertrude in Romeo et Juliette, Giulietta in Les contes d’Hoffman (FIO, Brazil), Dryad in Ariadne Auf Naxos, Principessa in Suor Angelica, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Second Lady and Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Elmire in Tartuffe, Mauya in Riders to the Sea, Mrs. Nolan in The Medium, Mrs. Herring in Albert Herring, Meg in Falstaff, Sally in Hand of Bridge, and Dorabella in Cosí fan tutte, among many others. Most recently Heather Witt performed in the debut of a fully staged production of Hans Eisler's Hollywood Songbook (Songfest). The L.A. Times called her performance "...uniformly impressive." She has also performed the roles of Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Phobia in La Pizza con Funghi, and Madelena in Rigoletto with Northwinds Symphonic Band (Gainesville, GA), and Handel's Messiah with the Greater Anderson Musical Arts Consortium (Anderson, SC). Ms. Witt won first place in Georgia State University’s Bauru Atlanta Competition (2011), was an Emerging Artist at St. Petersburg Opera (FL) in 2011, and also attended the prestigious Opera Division at La Musica Lirica in Novafeltria, Italy (2005). In 2013, Ms. Witt made her South American debut with Festival of International Opera of the Americas in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Grab your tickets for The Impresario & Gianni Schicchi, presented in the Hodgson Concert Hall in the UGA Performing Arts Center. Performances are sung in the original languages with supertitles and will take place at 7:30pm on October 20th and 21st. |