Donald Palumbo

Last updated

Donald Palumbo is an American choral conductor and vocal coach. He is the former chorus master of the Metropolitan Opera based in New York City and a member of the Vocal Arts faculty at the Juilliard School. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Palumbo is from Rochester, New York and graduated from Boston University with a BA in chemistry (1970). He did not attend a conservatoire but learned his skills by singing in opera choruses in Austria under conductors including Herbert von Karajan and Karl Böhm, accompanying opera rehearsals on the piano, and working with other chorus masters: "every time I had the opportunity to do something — say, play rehearsals for a small opera company or prepare a small chorus for a regional opera company — I just said, 'Yes, I'll be glad to do that.' " [1] He was assistant to the Robert Benaglio, chorus master at La Scala, and has been chorus master at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and the Dallas Opera. He was music director of the Boston Chorus Pro Musica from 1980 to 1990. [3]

From 1991 to 2007 Palumbo was chorus master of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. [5] In 1999 Palumbo was the first American to be appointed chorus director of the Salzburg Festival. [3] In autumn 2007 he was appointed chorus master of the Metropolitan Opera of New York, in which capacity he prepares the chorus for some 25 productions each year. [6] [5] When his appointment was announced in 2006, Peter Gelb, the opera's general manager, said: "Donald Palumbo is widely regarded as the greatest chorus conductor in the world today". [3]

He is a seven time Grammy winner for his recordings with the Metropolitan Opera.[ citation needed ]

Since 2014 he has also been the vocal coach for the apprentices of the Santa Fe Opera, and he works with young artists at the Glimmerglass Festival. [5]

In 2016 he was appointed to the faculty of the Juilliard School's Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts [7] [5]

Palumbo retired from the Metropolitan Opera in June of 2024. He and his husband, John Hauser, split their time between homes in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Wildwood Crest, New Jersey.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Fe Opera</span> Opera company in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located 7 miles (11 km) north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After creating the Opera Association of New Mexico in 1956, its founding director, John Crosby, oversaw the building of the first opera house on a newly acquired former guest ranch of 199 acres (0.81 km2). The company has presented operas each summer festival season since July 1957, and is internationally known for introducing new operas as well as for its productions of the standard operatic repertoire. Five operas are presented each season during the summer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Conlon</span> American conductor

James Conlon is an American conductor. He is currently the music director of Los Angeles Opera and principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacobs School of Music</span> Public school in Bloomington, Indiana

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music. It has more than 1,500 students, approximately half of whom are undergraduates, with the second largest enrollment of all music schools accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephanie Blythe</span> American mezzo-soprano

Stephanie Blythe is an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active international career in operas and concerts since the early 1990s. She is particularly associated with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, with whom she has performed annually since her debut with the company in 1995. In 2014 she starred as Gertrude Stein in the world premiere of 27, an opera composed by Ricky Ian Gordon with libretto by Royce Vavrek, and commissioned for her by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. She currently serves as Artistic Director of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Levine</span> American conductor and pianist (1943–2021)

James Lawrence Levine was an American conductor and pianist. He was music director of the Metropolitan Opera from 1976 to 2016. He was terminated from all his positions and affiliations with the Met on March 12, 2018, over sexual misconduct allegations, which he denied.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Gilbert (conductor)</span> American conductor and violinist

Alan Gilbert is an American conductor and violinist. He is Principal Conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and Music Director of Royal Swedish Opera. He was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic from 2009 to 2017.

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) is an American summer opera festival held in St. Louis, Missouri. Typically four operas, all sung in English, are presented each season, which runs from late May to late June. Performances are accompanied by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, which is divided into two ensembles, each covering two of the operas, for the season. The company's performances are presented in the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Webster University.

Neil Shicoff is an American opera singer and cantor and known for his lyric tenor singing and his dramatic, emotional acting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nico Castel</span> American opera singer and diction coach

Nico Castel was a Portuguese-born comprimario tenor and language and diction coach, as well as a prolific translator of libretti and writer of books on singing diction. Although Castel performed throughout Europe, North America and South America, he was best known for his nearly 800 performances at The Metropolitan Opera in New York City, where he also served as staff diction coach for three decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Morehead</span>

Philip David Morehead is an American pianist, conductor and vocal coach now retired as head of music staff of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center. His previous positions at the Lyric Opera of Chicago have included Music Administrator and Chorus Master.

Michael Maniaci is an American opera singer. Possessing a male soprano voice, Maniaci is noted for his claim to be able to sing into the upper soprano range without resorting to falsetto, an otherwise common phonation for men who sing in high registers, such as countertenors. Although this was possible for castrati because of the hormonal imbalance following castration, Maniaci claims that, for some unknown reason, his larynx did not develop and lengthen completely during puberty, causing his voice not to "break" in the usual manner. Maniaci claims that this physical particularity has given him the ability to sing in the soprano register without sounding like a typical countertenor or a female singer. There are, however, critics who claim that Maniaci actually sings in falsetto.

Anthony Dean Griffey is an American opera tenor. He is a regular presence on the stages of opera houses and concert halls around the world. Griffey has also been noted for his acting talent in addition to his voice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Beaser</span> American composer (born 1954)

Robert Beaser is an American composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Gossett</span> American musicologist (1941–2017)

Philip Gossett was an American musicologist and historian, and Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor of Music at the University of Chicago. His lifelong interest in 19th-century Italian opera began with listening to Metropolitan Opera broadcasts in his youth. Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera, a major work on the subject, won the Otto Kinkeldey Award of the American Musicological Society as best book on music of 2006.

John Harger Stewart is an American tenor, conductor, and voice teacher who had an active international singing career in concerts and operas from 1964 to 1990. He began his career singing regularly with the Santa Fe Opera from the mid-1960s through the early 1970s; after which he appeared only periodically in Santa Fe up through the mid-1980s. He was particularly active with the New York City Opera during the 1970s and 1980s, and with the Frankfurt Opera from the mid-1970s through 1990. He also appeared as a guest artist with several other important American opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera and the Washington National Opera, and at other European opera houses like the De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Grand Théâtre de Genève in Switzerland, and the Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland. Now retired from singing, he is currently the Director of Vocal Activities at Washington University in St. Louis where he also teaches singing and conducts student opera productions and choirs. He also serves as the opera conductor at the Johanna Meier Opera Theater Institute at Black Hills State University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Burden (tenor)</span> American opera singer

William Burden is an American opera singer (tenor). Since his professional debut at the San Francisco Opera in 1992, he has performed in lead roles in North America and Europe.

Raymond Hughes is an American conductor and choral director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black conductors</span>

Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.

Speranza Scappucci is an Italian conductor and pianist.

Tilman Michael is a German choral conductor. He has been choral conductor at Oper Frankfurt since 2014. There and in his previous position at the Nationaltheater Mannheim he led the opera chorus to be voted opera chorus of the year by the critics from Opernwelt. He is appointed to lead the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera from the 2024/25 season.

References

  1. 1 2 "How The Met Opera's Chorus Master Gets 150 To Sound Like One". NPR.org. April 22, 2015. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  2. Woolfe, Zachary (7 November 2014). "The Hand That Rules the Chorus". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Schweitzer, Vivien (October 17, 2006). "Metropolitan Opera Appoints Donald Palumbo New Chorus Master". Playbill. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  4. Duffie, Bruce (September 2001). "Conversation Piece: Chorus Master Donald Palumbo". The Opera Journal. Retrieved 22 July 2021 via www.bruceduffie.com.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "2019 Gala Honoree - Donald Palumbo". New Rochelle Opera. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  6. "Who we are: Chorus". www.metopera.org. The Metropolitan Opera. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  7. "Donald Palumbo". www.juilliard.edu. The Juilliard School. Retrieved 22 July 2021.