FREE Guest Recital – DRAKE DANTZLER, TENOR and VICTORIA SHIVELY, PIANO

Featuring works by Tom Cipullo, Jennifer Higdon, John Luther Adams, Brad Mehldau and Dan Welcher

Drake Dantzler was recently hailed in Opera News as “a real find: he has a voice of molten silver, immaculate musicianship and an expressive stage persona.” His debut of the role of Mr. Bingley in Pride and Prejudice: the Musical for Chicago Chamber Opera was described as “honey-toned” (Steadystyle Chicago). Other opera credits include Ufficiale in Sarasota Opera’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Camille from The Merry Widow at the Breckenridge Music Festival, Ruiz in Il Trovatore with Austin Lyric Opera, and The Duke of Dunstable in Patience, recorded on Albany Records. Concert appearances include the Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with the Pontiac Oakland Symphony, Carmina Burana with the Warren Symphony, and Messiah with the Adrian Symphony.

Victoria Demaree Shively is a graduate of the Vocal Coaching an Accompanying studio of John Wustman (University of Illinois) and a junior-division winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Shively has played for master classes and in the studios of William Warfield, Mignon Dunn, Sherrill Milnes, and Martin Katz, and has accompanied the choirs of Robert Shaw, Don V Moses, and Donald Nally. Her collaborative work includes performances with Nathan Gunn, Fritz Kaenzig, Carl Kaiser, and Zheng Zhou, and recordings with Edward Bach (Infinity) and Nathan Daughtrey (Spiral Passages). In 1992, she was invited to become the first American coach/accompanist at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, by then principal conductor, Valery Gergiev.

Dantzler and Shively are colleagues on the music faculty of Oakland University.