The Glimmerglass Festival Welcomes Eric Owens as Artistic Advisor

The Glimmerglass Festival has appointed acclaimed bass-baritone Eric Owens as Artistic Advisor.

As Artistic Advisor, Owens will consult closely with Artistic & General Director Francesca Zambello and Music Director Joseph Colaneri on matters of Festival repertoire and casting and will serve as an ambassador for the company, which offers new productions of opera and musical theater, as well as concerts, lectures, a youth opera and more. He will perform roles on the mainstage during the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

Known for his roles of both classic works and new music, Owens's international career has brought him to major opera houses around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera and LA Opera to Royal Opera Covent Garden, English National Opera and more.

Owens made his Glimmerglass debut in the 2001 production of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia. Subsequent Glimmerglass roles include Stephen Kumalo in Lost in the Stars, Amonasro in Aida and the title role of Macbeth. He served as the company's 2012 and 2015 Artist in Residence, coaching and mentoring members of the Young Artists Program, the company's apprenticeship for rising artists. Owens also serves as Chair of the company's Artistic Advisory Board.

"I believe passionately in artists continuing their craft while giving back to the industry," Owens said. "This new role is a natural progression for me after years of serving as chair of the Glimmerglass Artistic Advisory Board, and I'm particularly looking forward to working with Francesca at Glimmerglass where they work very hard to nurture their artists and to use their art to stir conversations in the community and beyond."

In addition to his busy performance schedule, Owens has worked with young artists at the Merola Opera Program and Washington National Opera's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program. He also serves as a community ambassador at Lyric Opera of Chicago and on the Board of Trustees of both The Crossing Choir in Philadelphia and the Curtis Institute of Music. He was also recently announced as a visiting artist at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where he has been coaching voice students and leading master classes during the year.

"Eric is the quintessential artist," Zambello said. "And I say that because not only does he bring a certain magic to the stage, but he carries this energy offstage into everything he does. I'm certain his talent, along with his dedication to Glimmerglass and our industry as a whole, will help our Festival continue to produce a quality of performance and experience you can't find anywhere else."

A native of Philadelphia, Mr. Owens began his musical training as a pianist at the age of 6, followed by formal oboe study at age 11 under Lloyd Shorter of the Delaware Symphony and Louis Rosenblatt of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He studied voice while an undergraduate at Temple University, and then as a graduate student at the Curtis Institute of Music. Owens was recently honored with Musical America's 2017 "Vocalist of the Year" award and has been the recipient of many more, including the Marian Anderson Award, ARIA award, second prize in the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions finalist, and the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition.

The Glimmerglass Festival is a one-of-a-kind summer destination. The scenic campus lies on the shore of Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York, nestled between the Adirondack and Catskill mountains. Each season, the company presents new productions of opera and musical theater, concerts, lectures, guest appearances and a youth opera. As its core offerings in 2017, Glimmerglass presents new mainstage productions of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, Donizetti's The Siege of Calais and Handel's Xerxes. Mainstage events also include appearances by Stephen Schwartz and David Sedaris, as well as performances of Derrick Wang's one-act comic opera, Scalia/Ginsburg, starring William Burden. The Festival is completed by additional concerts, a film screening, cabarets and two world-premieres - Ben Moore and Kelley Rourke's youth opera Robin Hood and Victor Simonson and Paige Hernandez's hip-hopera Stomping Grounds. For more information, visit www.glimmerglass.org.

Pictured: Adina Aaron as Aida and Eric Owens as Amonasro The Glimmerglass Festival 2012 production of Aida. Photo by Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival.

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