Tenor Matthew Polenzani presented the final master class in the 2015-2016 Tichio Vocal Master Class Series on Sunday, May 1, in Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall.
Bienen students Michael Powell, tenor; Alexandra Urquiola, mezzo-soprano; Eric McConnell, bass; and Sam Grosby, tenor, performed as part of the master class. All are students of Professor W. Stephen Smith.
Polenzani also presented a recital on Saturday, April 30, in Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall, where he performed Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin. Alan Darling, lecturer and vocal coach at the Bienen School, provided piano accompaniment for both the recital and the master class.
Steve Winn of the San Francisco Classical Voice praises tenor Matthew Polenzani’s “torrent of magnificent sound…from the sonorous, deep pedal points of his low notes to the glittering, high shine at the upper reaches.” He is the recipient of the 2004 Richard Tucker Award and the Metropolitan Opera’s 2008 Beverly Sills Artist Award. His 2014-15 season included his return to London’s Royal Opera House for Idomeneo, productions of Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Metropolitan Opera, L’elisir d’amore and Die Zauberflöte at Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper, and his Opernhaus Zurich debut in La traviata. 2015-16 season highlights include appearances in Don Giovanni at Opéra national de Paris, productions of Werther in Munich and Vienna, and Les pêcheurs de perles and Roberto Devereux at the Metropolitan Opera.
The Robert M. and Maya L. Tichio Vocal Master Class Series, established in 2014, is made possible by a generous anonymous donation from a Bienen School Music Advisory Board member and named in honor of two fellow board members. In addition to Polenzani, the 2015-2016 season brought stars Lawrence Brownlee, Susanna Phillips and Marilyn Horne to the Bienen School of Music to coach voice and opera students. The inaugural 2014-2015 season featured opera stars Renée Fleming, Eric Owens, and Frederica von Stade.