Curtis on Tour: Eric Owens and Singers from Curtis Opera Theatre

Curtis on Tour presents emerging professional artists from the Curtis Opera Theatre with bass-baritone Eric Owens, director of vocal studies and the Curtis Opera Theatre. Sharing the stage with their mentor, these rising stars of the operatic stage will perform gems from the lieder and song repertoire—anchored by Brahms’s lilting and pensive Neue Liebeslieder waltzes for four voices and four-hand piano—and favorite operatic arias and ensemble pieces.

Artists

  • Sarah Fleiss, originally from North Bergen, New Jersey, is a soprano currently studying with Julia Faulkner at the Curtis Institute of Music. This year at Curtis, she sang Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Monica in Menotti’s The Medium. This summer, Ms. Fleiss attended the Music Academy of the West, and looks forward to premiering a song cycle of Tania León, singing in the Pergolesi Stabat Mater, and performing as Dalinda in Ariodante this upcoming year. Prior to Curtis, she was a student at Columbia University and participated in the Juilliard Exchange program. Other roles include Pamina (The Magic Flute), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), and Annio (La Clemenza di Tito).

  • Lucy Baker, from Wilmington, N.C., entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2021 and studies with Julia Faulkner. All students at Curtis receive merit based, full-tuition scholarships, and Ms. Baker is a Curtis Institute of Music Fellow.

    A mezzo-soprano, Ms. Baker’s previous roles include Dorabella (Così fan tutte) and The Hostess (Triple-Sec) with Curtis Opera Theatre, Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), and Hansel (Hansel and Gretel) for DePaul Opera Theatre, Serse (Serse) with the Chautauqua Institution Online Voice Program, and the cover for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Scalia/Ginsburg) for Chautauqua Opera Company. Additionally, she appeared as a soloist with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in 2021 and performed the national anthem for the Chicago Bulls in 2019.

    Ms. Baker received a top prize from the National Association of Teachers of Singing Chicago Chapter and the Edith Newfield Award from the Musicians Club of Women. She has been a fellow with Ravinia Steans Music Institute and has attended the Chautauqua Institution and Music Academy International.

    Ms. Baker holds a Bachelor of Music from DePaul University. Her previous teachers include Amanda Majeski, Nicole Cabell, and Marlena Kleinman Malas.

  • Tenor Joseph Tancredi from Bayville, New York, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2019 and studies in the Opera Program with Jack LiVigni, adjunct faculty. All students at Curtis receive merit-based, full tuition scholarships, and Mr. Tancredi is the Alfred Greenberg Memorial Fellow.

    Mr. Tancredi’s recent credits include Roderick Usher (The Fall of the House of Usher) and the cover of Steuermann (Der fliegende Holländer) with Opera Maine, Ferrando (Così fan tutte) and Conte Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia) with Curtis Opera Theatre, Albert (Albert Herring) with both Curtis Opera Theatre and Manhattan School of Music, and Raimondo (I due timidi) with Manhattan School of Music. Joseph has participated in the Apprentice Singer Program at the Santa Fe Opera for two summers, where he sang the Peasant (Eugene Onegin) and covered Benjamin (The Thirteenth Child) and Jon Harker (The Lord of Cries). He has also participated in the Chautauqua Voice Institute where he sang Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) and Detlef (The Student Prince). Mr. Tancredi has garnered ample recognition in the competition circuit—he won the Rohatyn Great Promise 2nd Place Award in the Eastern Region Final of the MONC, an Encouragement Award in Memory of Alfred Hubay from the George London Foundation, and the Dr. David DiChiera Encouragement Award from the Premiere Opera Foundation. This season, Joseph looks forward to performing Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) and Lurcanio (Ariodante) with Curtis Opera Theatre.

    Mr. Tancredi holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music and a master’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music.

  • Bass-baritone Eric Owens has a unique reputation as an esteemed interpreter of classic works and a champion of new music. Equally at home in orchestral, recital, and operatic repertoire, Mr. Owens has brought his powerful poise, expansive voice, and instinctive acting faculties to stages around the world in the 25 years since his graduation from the Curtis Institute of Music.

    At the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Owens has appeared in leading roles in Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de Loin, Dvorák’s Rusalka, Mozart’s Idomeneo, Strauss’s Elektra, and John Adams’s Doctor Atomic; and as Alberich and Hagen in Wagner’s Ring cycle. He is in the midst of a Ring cycle as Wotan/Wanderer for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he has also appeared in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Dvorák’s Rusalka and serves as a Community Ambassador. He appears regularly in leading roles at LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival, where he is artistic advisor.

    Mr. Owens has also appeared in concert with most of the leading U.S. orchestras. His international credits include the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and English National Opera; the Berlin Philharmonic and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; the Toronto Symphony and the Canadian Opera Company; the Swedish Radio and New Zealand symphony orchestras; and the Verbier Festival.

    A native of Philadelphia, Mr. Owens began his musical training as a pianist at the age of six, followed by formal oboe study at age eleven. He holds a bachelor’s degree in voice from Temple University and a master’s degree in opera from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he currently serves on the board of trustees. He joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2019.

  • Born in Bratislava, Slovakia and raised in France and Canada, pianist and conductor Miloš Repický is on the music staff of the Metropolitan Opera. At the Met he has played harpsichord continuo for Le nozze di Figaro and has led the musical preparation of Jenufa, Anna Bolena, The Death of Klinghoffer, and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, among many other operas. He has collaborated with the Cleveland Orchestra on productions of Pelléas et Mélisande and The Cunning Little Vixen, with the Lincoln Center Festival on Daphne, and with the Joffrey Ballet on Bluebeard’s Castle and The Miraculous Mandarin. He has also worked with the Canadian Opera Company, Houston Grand Opera, Orquesta Nacional de Galicia, Royal Opera House Muscat in Oman, San Francisco Opera, the Spoleto Festival, and the Kennedy Center’s World Stages Festival; and is co-artistic director of Music for Montauk.

    As a pianist, Mr. Repický has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, the Chicago Cultural Center, Montreal’s Jeunesses-Musicales de Canada, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. His performances have been heard on NPR, American Public Media’s Performance Today, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, New York’s WQXR Radio, and CUNY TV. He is the pianist on the Sundialtech Pictures multimedia DVD of Pierrot Lunaire, and conducted the score for the feature film The Bohemians, an adaptation of Puccini’s La bohème.

    Mr. Repický studied at the Manhattan School of Music with Warren Jones, and at the Music Academy of the West, the Merola Program at San Francisco Opera, and the Banff Centre. He joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2016.

  • Collaborative pianist Ting Ting Wong is a sought-after recitalist, coach, and assistant conductor.

    Ms. Wong made her debut at the Kennedy Center in 2016 and has performed in France, Hong Kong, and with Opera Philadelphia, Princeton Festival, ConcertOPERA Philadelphia, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, IlluminArts Miami, and the Castleton Festival. Currently, Ms. Wong is a collaborative pianist at the Academy of Vocal Arts, Curtis Institute of Music, Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia. Ms. Wong joined Ravinia Steans Music Institute as collaborative pianist this summer and Opera Philadelphia for their O22 Festival as an associate pianist. She has collaborated with James Valenti, Othalie Graham, John Matthew Myers, Anne Marie Stanley, and Burak Bilgili.

    Born and raised in Hong Kong, Ms. Wong holds a master’s degree in piano performance from Carnegie Mellon University, where she also earned a certificate in piano pedagogy; and a master’s degree in Piano Accompanying and Coaching from Temple University, where she studied with Lambert Orkis and Charles Abramovic.

Performances

Thursday, October 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Athens, GA
Hugh Hudgson Concert Hall, presented by University of Georgia

Friday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m. 
Macon, GA
Fickling Recital Hall, presented by Mercer University

Sunday, October 16 at 3 p.m.
Morrow, GA
Spivey Hall, presented by Clayton State University

Tuesday, October 25 at 7:30 p.m.
New York, NY
Kaufmann Concert Hall, presented by The 92nd Street Y, part of Curtis at 92NY

Thursday, October 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Lancaster, PA
The Trust Performing Arts Center, presented by The Trust Performing Arts Center

Saturday, October 29 at 8:00 p.m.
Washington, DC
Coolidge Auditorium, presented by The Library of Congress

Thursday, November 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Brevard, NC
Parker Concert Hall, presented by Brevard Music Center

Saturday, November 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Danville, KY
Norton Center for the Arts, presented by Centre College

Sunday, November 20 at 3 p.m.
Louisville, KY
Comstock Concert Hall, presented by Chamber Music Society of Louisville

Sunday, December 4 at 3 p.m.
Philadelphia, PA
Perelman Theater, presented by Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Repertoire

Programs to include: 

JOHANNES BRAHMS        Neue Liebeslieder Walzer, Op. 65

Additional lieder and song repertoire

Opera arias and ensemble pieces

Media

View selections from previous touring ensembles

 

Check out what the press are saying about Curtis on Tour