Submitted by Saint Martin’s University
Opera tenor Thomas Harper will be performing a selection of musical works by German artists at the next Music @ 11 event Tuesday, March 18, at 11 a.m. in Kreielsheimer Hall, on the Saint Martin’s University campus, 5000 Abbey Way. The event is free and open to the public.
The pieces Harper is presenting include Robert Schumann’s Widmung, Richard Strauss’ Zueignung and Hugo Wolf’s Der Tambour. Harper will also take time to talk about performing and he will share his reflections on life as a professional, full-time singer.
Harper has been a member of the voice faculty at the University of Washington since 1998. Before moving to Seattle to work at the University of Washington, Harper sang primarily in Germany. He was a resident singer at Dortmund Opera and was named Artist of the Year there in 1993. Harper also sang at Theater Hagen, Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, and Landestheater Coburg. His roles with those companies include the Duke in Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto, Loge in Richard Wagner’sRheingold, Eléazar in Fromental Halévy’s Juive, Canio in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, the title role of Wagner’s Parsifal, and Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème. Harper is currently the head of the voice department at the University of Washington.
In addition to the Music @ 11 event, Harper will be hosting a master class at 1 p.m. for Saint Martin’s student singers who are working with German songs. “Primarily, I will be helping them with German diction and interpretive delivery of the texts,” Harper notes.
Harper made his U.S debut in 1991 singing as Mime, a character in Richard Wagner’s The Ring Cycle, at the Seattle Opera. He returned for the role in 1995, 2000, 2001, and 2005. Harper has reprised Mime with many other companies, including Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Hamburg, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Dortmund Opera, RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana (Turin), Teatro Municipal in Santiago, and Dallas Opera. Other Seattle Opera roles for Harper include Grigory in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and the Witch in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, a role he has sung with Hamburgische Staatsoper (four seasons), Cologne Opera, and Staatstheater Darmstadt, among others.
The “Music @ 11” recital series, now in its ninth year, was created by Saint Martin’s University Associate Professor of Music Darrell Born, M.M., chair of the University’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts, to raise awareness of the musical arts and provide opportunities for students and the community to experience various kinds of music in a recital setting.
