Donald George

Style: Opera; Classical; Musical Theatre

Title: Professor, SUNY Potsdam, The Crane School of Music

Bio:

Donald George, Biography

Donald George a full Professor at The Crane School of Music, State University of New York in Potsdam, Honored Professor with Shenyang (China) Conservatory and was Guest Artist at West Virginia University. He is a lyric tenor. He graduated With Honor from Southeastern Louisiana University and was named Alum of the year in 2014. He received his MM from Louisiana State University where he was made a member of the national music honor society of Pi Kappa Lambda. He is the recipient of the 2014 SUNY Potsdam Presidential Award for Research and Creativity, in addition to the 2014 Award for Research Mentorship from The Potsdam Center for Student Research. His student research projects on opera, song and performance have been selected from over 3,500 applicants for three United States National Council of Undergraduate Research conferences at Ithaca College, Weber State University in Utah and The University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse. His students appear consistently in leading opera roles at The Crane School of Music and have appeared with the Lake George Festival, Stephanie Blythe’s Fall Island Festival, Utah Festival Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Saratoga, Kentucky Opera, and Lafayette Symphony Orchestras, The Rochester Philharmonic as well as first places at Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the Munich Prince Regent Prize (Prinzregenten Preis) and the Civic Morning Musical Competition in Syracuse, among others. His soprano Yvonne Trobe won the Renee Fleming Prize 2015, his student tenor Jordan Davidson won 2nd at the prestigious Lotte Lemya Prize 2015, tenor Sean Fahy, Yvonne Trobe and D’Nasya Jordan won 1st at the NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) competition in 2015. D’Nasya Jordan, soprano, also won first at the MTNA compstition. His student Marco Cammarota is singing the lead of Candide in Bernstein’s Candide and MacDuff in MacBeth at the Glimmerglass Festival also in 2015. His tenor student Patrick Tombs will make his New York Broadway debut August 16th in a concert performance. As Board Member for Performance for the College Music Society (CMS) North East, he hosted the Regional Conference at The Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam last year. His academic publications include recent articles for Die Tonkunst (in Germany), American Music Teacher, Society of American Music Bulletin, National Opera Association Opera Journal and Classical Singer Magazine. His book for Oxford University Press entitled Master Singers: Advice from the Stage, which consists of interviews with current opera stars such as Jonas Kaufmann, Christine Goerke, Stephanie Blythe, Joyce DiDonato, Joseph Calleja and Thomas Hampson, was published in February 2015 in hardcover, paper back and on-line editions such as Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook. A continuing blog on Master Singers will be appearing in the Oxford educational on line site: oup.blog.com, as well as a Facebook Site. The book has been positively reviewed on the Metropolitan Opera’s Opera News, Classical Singer and Germany’s Opernwelt, among other print and on line sites and blogs. Donald George is a tenor, and has performed at La Scala, Milan; San Carlo, Naples; La Fenice, Venice; Teatro Regio, Turin; Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa; the Paris Opéra Bastille and Théâtre du Châtelet, the Royal Opéra of Brussels, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the State Operas of Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna and Copenhagen, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the New National Theatre of Tokyo, New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, the Salzburg Festival, BBC Proms, The Flanders Festival, the Perth Festival (Australia), the Blossom Festival (USA) among others. He has sung with such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Yehudi Menuhin, Jeffrey Tate, Steven White, Vladimir Jurowski, Simone Young and recorded for CD and DVD with Sony, Naxos, Phillips Classics, Teldec, Discover International, and Bavarian Radio, among others, His recordings include Mendelsohn’s Elijah, Verdi’s Requiem, Rossini’s Aurelieano in Palmira, the world premiere recording of Rossini’s Le Nozze di Teti e Peleo and Bernstein’s Candide. He filmed Carmina Burana scenically with Daniel Nazareth and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. This film has been broadcast internationally including PBS and CBC. His Film with l'Opéra Royal de Wallonie of Rossini’s Cenerentola has been shown throughout Europe and on CBC. His recording of the songs of Margaret Lang Love is Everywhere was Music Web International’s CD of the Year and together with Volume 2 New Love Must Rise nominated for a Grammy Award. His CD The Songs and Arias of Joseph Weigl (1766-1843) was released at the Esterházy Festival in Eisenach, Austria. His newest CD of the music of Irish composer Mary McAuliffe with songs composed for Donald George, was released by Delos International June 2015 to positive reviews. He produced a recording of the complete extant choral works of Margaret Lang at The Crane School of Music with the combined choirs and orchestra, entitled All the Heart of Me. The Metropolitan Opera’s Opera News wrote in November that this CD makes a “strong case for Lang’s…music. ” and that “George is the accomplished soloist on two tracks,” He has received various honors in addition to the Alum of the Year for Southeastern Louisiana University in 2011 including: honored by the Louisiana State House of Representatives, an honored professor at Shenyang Conservatory of Music, being made a Colonel of the Arts in 1990 by Governor Buddy Roemer, and is an honorary citizen of Varna, Bulgaria and Bath, England as well as his hometown of Franklinton, Louisiana. He is presently preparing a performance and recording of the complete songs of Nadia Boulanger, the famous French pedagogue. He has obtained copies of the manuscripts from the Boulanger Foundation of Paris, which have been transcribed for performance. This performance will take place in December 2015 at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich with Donald George and Professors, soprano, Christiane Iwen and mezzo, Rachael Wilson singing, Donald Sulzen on piano and will be recorded by the Bavarian Radio and Television Network. In addition Donald George will direct a symposium on Boulanger at Crane in April 2016. This season he will be singing Carmina Burana with the Grand Rapids Symphony and Beethoven 9th Symphony with the Rhode Island Philharmonic under Maestro Larry Rachleff and Leoš Janáček’s Diary of One Who Vanished (Zápisník zmizelého) at The Crane School of Music. In addition he is a guest master singer at The University of Buffalo where he will give master classes a recital and talks on the tenor voice. He is currently touring and giving talks on his book Master Singers: Advice from the Stage, having presented the book in Italy at the Scuola Italiana in St. Angelo in Vado and will present it at Eastern Michigan University among others. Donald George has extensive videos on Youtube of his various performance worldwide, along with many recordings on Spotify and other sites. His book Master Singers: Advice from the Stage and his many recordings are also available on line and on major sites such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and others. His websites are: www.donaldgeorge.de, www.duodrama.net, and www.operissimo.com.

Voice Type: Tenor

Music Styles Taught: Opera; Classical; Musical Theatre

Availability: I am available as a performer; I am currently accepting private students; I am available as a clinician or presenter; I accept students through a college or university program

Contact Information