Joseph
Gaines, tenor, is a highly versatile and increasingly sought-after
operatic and concert artist. A winner of the coveted 2007-2008 William
M. Sullivan Foundation Awards, which includes a $10,000 career grant
and continuing financial assistance for five years, Gaines has steadily
been gaining recognition as an exciting and engaging young performer
in both the United States and Europe. The Dresdner Neuste
Nachrichten describes him as having “a wonderfully
clear lyric voice with a gently responsive upper range.” He
is especially known for beautifully sung, well-acted interpretations
of character roles, as noted by Opera News Online
in reviews of two 2007 performances at Indianapolis Opera: of Verdi’s
FALSTAFF, “the sweet-voiced Bardolfo of Joseph Gaines
could have been singing Fenton;” and of THE MAGIC FLUTE,
that he “sang Monostatos' music beautifully while cavorting
about the stage.” The Italian Voice
describes him as “a scene-stealing Goro. His fine, robust,
and secure tenor and amusing deportment…had the audiences’
attention at all times. He is naturally stage-worthy.”
He
has been a member of the young artist training programs of Sarasota
Opera, Central City Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera; his operatic
repertoire includes roles from MADAMA BUTTERFLY, THE MAGIC FLUTE,
FALSTAFF, ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD, L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA,
I PAGLIACCI, IL VIAGGIO A REIMS, ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO, THE
DANGEROUS LIAISONS, EURIDICE, THE BALLAD OF BABY DOE, EUGENE ONEGIN,
among others.
Also
often engaged as a concert artist, Gaines performed Handel’s
MESSIAH with the world-famous Choir of Men and Boys at New York
City’s St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in 2006, and again in
his debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2007. He has also
been a featured soloist with the Washington Bach Consort, Ars Lyrica
Houston, Mercury Baroque, the Houston Chamber Choir, the Houston
Bach Society, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, the Master Singers
of Westchester (Mozart’s GREAT MASS IN C MINOR), and the Bronx
Symphony Orchestra (Haydn’s HARMONIEMESSE), among others.
Gaines
is also a featured soloist on two commercially available recordings:
Handel’s MESSIAH (Mozart Orchestrations)
by the Choir of St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue (of the live performance,
the New York Times wrote that all the soloists “often
sang with dramatic flair and plenty of bite”); and the
first-ever recording of Scarlatti’s oratorio La Concettione
della Beata Vergine by Ars Lyrica Houston, to be released
by NAXOS in the Fall of 2008.
Other
grants and awards include: The Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship;
The Anna Sosenko Assist Trust; and The McGlone Award for Outstanding
Young Artist at Central City Opera.
The
year 2007 heralded several important debuts, including Indianapolis
Opera, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Glimmerglass Opera (Opera
Today described his Mercury in ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD
as “wonderfully fey, wonderfully sung.” ) In
2008, Gaines returns to the Young American Artist Program of Glimmerglass
Opera as Pontio Pilato in Wagner’s DAS LIEBESVERBOT, and also
will have his debut with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in two
performances of Handel’s ODE FOR ST. CECILIA’S DAY.
A
native of Houston, Gaines holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal
Performance from the University of Houston, where he studied with
tenor Joseph Evans. He also studied singing with Christina Wartenberg
at the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Hochschule für Musik und
Theater in Leipzig, Germany under the auspices of a Rotary Foundation
Ambassadorial Scholarship. He is presently based in Pittsburgh,
and studies with Leyna Gabriele in New York City, one of the two
original “Baby Does” from the opera’s world premiere
at Central City Opera in 1956.
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