User:Cristr1

Richard Crist, Basso Cantante/Artist Teacher of Voice/Opera Director
Richard Crist is an American bass of diverse repertoire, equally at home in opera, oratorio, the voice studio and stage direction. While completing his graduate studies at Boston's New England Conservatory, he made his operatic debut with Sarah Caldwell's Opera Company of Boston in the US stage premier of Berlioz’s Les Troyens. Gaining experience with that company, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Goldovsky Opera Theater, he went on to have a successful national and international performance career. Highlights include principle artist with: Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Diego, Opera de Lyon, Большой опера (Bolshoi Opera) – Moscow - and the Wexford and Edinburgh Opera Festivals. He sang in 34 productions for the legendary Sarah Caldwell at the Opera Company of Boston. Among his many PBS "Great Performances" appearances was Gian Carlo Menotti's video production with the Philadelphia Opera of Tchaikovsky's Pikovaja dama (Queen of Spades). He was on the roster of the Hamburgische Staatsoper and made his debut in Rossini’s Semiramide with Montserrat Caballé, Marilyn Horne, Samuel Ramey, and Francisco Araiza – with conductor, Henry Lewis. This historic live recording from 1985 was released in June 2009 on Live-Rare-Opera - Private Collector Label. He has created the roles of the Judge in Di Dominica's The Balcony; the King in Lutyen's The Light Princes; Rev. Hooper in The Minister's Black Veil; and Haman in Sosin's Esther. He has also appeared in the US premiers of Sessions’ Montezuma, Shchedrin's The Dead Souls, Reimann’s Melusine, Villa-Lobos’ Yerma, and Zimmermann's Die Soldaten - also the French premier of this work - and the Italian and British premiers of Henze's The English Cat.

Mr. Crist's concert appearances include the major orchestras, oratorio societies and festivals, among them the Orchestras of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, St. Louis, San Francisco, Minnesota, Denver, the Washington Chamber Symphony and Kennedy Center Handel Festival, the American and National Symphonies. His international appearances include Radio Telefis Éireann Orchestra, the London Sinfonia, Nord Deutsche Rundfunk, Sver d lovsk филармонических  (Sverdlovsk Philharmonic) - Yekaterinburg, Russia,  Orchestre National de Lyon and Orquesta Sinfónica de Maracaibo. Numerous US performances have been broadcast over NPR and PBS. For twenty-five years he lived in New York City, where he appeared as soloist dozens of times at Carnegie, Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Halls with organizations including New York Philharmonic, Musica Sacra, Little Orchestra Society, Opera Orchestra of New York, American Symphony, Clarion Concerts, Voices of Ascension, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center. During that time, he was bass soloist under the direction of John Weaver at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, and he was also active in Jewish music. His London debut was at the Barbican Centre's Thirty-fifth Anniversary Rossini Festival in Stabat Mater with Richard Hickox, the London Sinfonia and London Symphony Chorus; and he also recorded Strauss' Liebe der Danae with Lauren Flanagan, Richard Lewis, and the American Symphony Orchestra live at New York's Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall for TELARC/ New Millennium Series release.

Before coming to Ohio he was a member of the voice faculties of Elizabethtown, Messiah, and Smith Colleges, the University of Arkansas - Fayetteville as Artist-in-Residence/assistant to Sarah Caldwell in the Opera Theater, and at University of Oklahoma – Norman. He maintained a voice studio in New York City for fifteen years and Harrisburg, PA for five years. Mr. Crist has taught master classes at the following institutions: University of Cincinnati College – Conservatory of Music, OH; Iona College, New York, NY; Kent State University, OH; Messiah College, Grantham, PA; SUNY-Rutgers, New Brunswick, NJ; SUNY-Buffalo, NY; Southern Methodist University – Dallas, TX; University of Arkansas – Fayetteville, AR; University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory of Music, MO; University of Missouri – Columbia, MO; University of Oklahoma – Norman, OK; University of Wisconsin – Madison, WI; Voice Institute, Sacramento, CA; Ryder University - Westminster Choir College, NJ; Ball State Muncie, IN. Among others, he has directed productions of La Bohème, La Traviata, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Hansel and Gretel, A Hand of Bridge, The Turn of the Screw, Trouble in Tahiti, The Telephone, Comedy on the Bridge, Gianni Schicchi, Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience and Die Zauberflöte. His former students are active in classical, pop and jazz, on Broadway and also as pedagogues at university, college, secondary and private education.

BS—Music Education (vocal/instrumental), Messiah College MM—Voice/Opera, New England Conservatory of Music Diploma—Goldovsky Opera Institute Special Student—Opera, Curtis Institute of Music

Osmin in Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio