November 11, 2023 |

PROGRAM INFORMATION

 

Roy Hage

 

Saturday, November 11, 2023 | 7:00 PM
The Studio

 

 

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PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Please be considerate of others and turn off all phones and watch alarms. Photography and recording of any kind are not permitted. Thank you.

For the most immersive experience, I invite you to engage fully with the performance as it unfolds live. Translations of all vocal pieces will be displayed on monitors in front of the stage for your understanding and convenience. Please feel free to read our bios, but during the show, I encourage you to set aside the program and let the stories and songs speak for themselves.

Biographies

Tenor Roy Hage is humbled to have grown from a kid in Beirut, Lebanon, singing along with opera recordings in his room to drown out the sound of bombs, to a man, to collaborating with those very artists who first inspired his love for the art form.

Roy is a Multi-GRAMMY®-nominated Tenor who has performed over 70 operatic and symphonic works in 8 languages with the world’s leading orchestras, music festivals, and opera companies. He has appeared on national and international television and has worked intimately with every major living operatic composer.

Some of the ensembles Roy has performed with include the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera, Teatro Signorelli, Aspen Music Festival, Chautauqua Music Festival, and Miami Music Festival.

Roy has worked with conductors of historic importance including Maestro Yannick Nezet-Seguin at the Metropolitan Opera, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Richard Bonynge, Sir Corrado Rovaris, Christofer Macatsoris, Caren Levine, George Manahan, Rossen Milanov, Xian Zhang, Stephen Lord, James Gaffigan, David Robertson, and Michael Christie.

Some of the 40+ roles Roy has performed include the title roles in The Tales of Hoffmann, Roméo et Juliette, The Rake’s Progress, Candide, La Clemenza di Tito, and Pelléas and Melisande in addition to the Duke (Rigoletto), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Alfredo (La Traviata), Tamino (The Magic Flute), Le Chevalier des Grieux (Manon), Ruggero (La Rondine), Prunier (La Rondine), Judge Danforth (The Crucible), Jeník (The Bartered Bride), The Italian Singer (Capriccio), and Chevalier de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites). His performances have been broadcast on US and Lebanese television and radio.

A pioneer of non-traditional forms of vocal expression, Roy’s art consistently challenges expectations and pushes the boundaries of convention. One such example is his immersive adaptation La Traviata at New York City’s famous cabaret, The Box, in which he performed the leading role of Alfredo alongside celebrated Metropolitan Opera soprano Inna Dukach and star baritone, Paul La Rosa. Moreover, Roy created the role of Paul in Georgia Shreve’s Rock-Opera Love Sick which premiered at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust in Fall of 2018. Most recently, he produced and performed alongside Broadway veterans in Ms. Shreve’s latest musical-opera-play hybrid Dialogues of Travelers, also at National Sawdust.

Roy has worked intimately on the development of major artistic projects with artists who have been awarded Pulitzer Prizes, Tony Awards, GRAMMY® Awards, MacArthur Fellowships, Kennedy Center Honors, and the National Medal of Arts—including Bill T. Jones, Jennifer Higdon, Steven Stucky, Kevin Putts and Ann Hamilton—and has left his indelible mark on works that have become standard modern repertoire.

Roy won First Prize in the WRTI Broadcast of the 2017 Giargiari Bel Canto Operatic Competition, highest score in the 2016 Mario Lanza Competition, and Second Prize in the Grand Concours de Chant Competition. Roy is humbled to have completed his operatic training at the top program for each of his respective degrees: Interlochen Arts Academy, Oberlin Conservatory, Yale University, and Curtis Institute of Music. Following his time at Curtis, Roy completed a three-year artist residency at Academy of Vocal Arts and was awarded its noted Artist Diploma. Most recently, Roy, received his MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and aims to create the opportunities he had to leave Lebanon to pursue: to found Lebanon’s first national opera. www.royhage.com. .

Joel Balzun studied piano alongside his composition studies at University of Calgary with Charles Foreman and Vladimir Levtov, and at Biola University with George Boespflug, in addition to private studies with Donna Meyers. A proponent of the music of contemporary composers, he has given the regional and world premieres of works by Luis Serrano Alarcón, Christos Hatzis, Henry Kucharzyk, John Mackey and David Maslanka, among others. His performances of the piano music of Alexina Louie have won critical acclaim from the composer. He was a multiple prize-winner at the Calgary Kiwanis and Contemporary Showcase Festivals. As an enthusiastic orchestral keyboardist, he was the principal keyboardist for the Canadian Wind Orchestra from 2007 to 2010. He was also a featured soloist with the University of Calgary Wind Ensemble in Joseph Schwantner’s …and the mountains rising nowhere in a tour across Western Canada. Mr. Balzun has previously served as the vocal coach and rehearsal pianist for Biola Opera and is currently head vocal coach for California Baptist University Opera, where he also serves on voice faculty. He has also been a guest rehearsal pianist with Pacific Opera Project, in addition to freelance accompanying work in the Los Angeles area. His recent performance activities have focused on vocal performance, composing and teaching, with recent and upcoming appearances as a baritone soloist with Los Angeles Opera, Opera Las Vegas, Opera San José, Opera Saratoga and Santa Fe Opera, among others. www.joelbalzun.com.

 

We recognize that Stanford sits on the ancestral land of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. This land was and continues to be of great importance to the Ohlone people. Consistent with our values of community and inclusion, we have a responsibility to acknowledge, honor and make visible the university’s relationship to Native peoples.