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Featured Performer Biographies
Daniel Belcher
Described as having a voice "of beautiful melting sweetness..."(Süddeutsche Zeitung) andthe theatrical talent "to create a first-rate portrayal that drew the listener more and more into the hopes and despair of his character" (The Houston Chronicle), it is not surprising that Daniel Belcher is in demand for leading roles at opera houses worldwide.
Recent notable engagements include several performances of Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Tokyo with Japan's New National Theater, and also performances of the Fauré Requiem to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima for Seiji Ozawa's Saito Kinen Festival. In Dublin, he made his debut with Opera Ireland in the title role of Handel's Imeneo, and later performed the role of John Brooke in Adamo's Little Women with Kentucky Opera. He created this role in Little Women at the Houston Grand Opera Studio, and he has sung it at several companies since then, including New York City Opera, Fort Worth Opera, and Central City Opera. (The Houston performance was taped for a Great Performances national telecast and for a release on the Ondine recording label.) In the winter of 2006, he performed the role of Jaufre in L'Amour de Loin by Kaija Saariaho with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and also at the Théâtre du Châtelet, and in Canada, he performed the title role Monteverdi's Orfeo with Opera Atelier, a company with which he has performed Mozart's Figaro, and the role of Orestes in Marshall Pynkoski's Iphigénie en Tauride. In the spring and summer of 2006, he then performed Rossini's Figaro with Utah Opera.
Also, he made his Paris debut at the Châtelet as Prior Walter in the Peter Eötvös opera Angels in America, based on Tony Kushner's play in December of 2004. In summer 2004 Mr. Belcher made his debut in the United Kingdom performing Guglielmo in Così fan Tutte at both the Garsington Festival and at the Barbican Mostly Mozart Festival. He also returned to the Houston Grand Opera to sing the role of Mercutio in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette.
Mr. Belcher has a very close relationship with Houston Grand Opera. He was a member of the HGO Studio as a young artist, and during that period, sang a number of various roles in several operas, including such works as Tod Machover's Resurrection, Billy Budd, A Little Night Music, Michael Daugherty's Jackie O (released by Decca on the Argo label), Carmen, Madama Butterfly, and Arabella. Additionally, he has performed the roles of Papgeno in Die Zauberflöte, Schaunard in La Boheme, and the title role in Monteverdi's Orfeo with that company.
Mr. Belcher is one of the premiere interpreters of Rossini performing today, and he is particularly closely associated with the roles of Dandini in La Cenerentola, and Figaro in Il Barbiere di Sivigla. He has performed Danadini with San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Opera Company of Philadelphia. He has performed Figaro with Arizona Opera, Lake George Opera, Opera Festival of New Jersey, and the Wolf Trap Opera.
In addition to these Rossini performances, he sings a wide repertoire at several opera companies such as Guglielmo in Così fan Tutte with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos with San Francisco Opera, Prince Paul in La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein with Opera Company of Philadelphia, Henry Cuffe in the American premiere of Britten's Gloriana, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus at Opera Columbus, Antonio in Reinhard Keiser's Masaniello Furioso at the Stuttgart Opera, marking his European opera debut, and Gunther in Oscar Strauss' operetta Sacre Siegfried at Opèra de Montpellier, which was the occasion of his French debut.
Active in concert work, Mr. Belcher has performed the baritone solos in Carmina Burana with the Pacific Symphony in a program that also featured Copland's Old American Songs. He has performed Gounod's St. Cecilia Mass and Vaughan Williams' Hodie in New York City. He was featured with the Houston Symphony Orchestra in 1997 and 1999 concerts of Opera Favorites and made his National Symphony Orchestra debut in a 1998 concert titled "A Night in Vienna." He returned to the National Symphony Orchestra in 1999 to perform an all-Bernstein concert. In the 2002-2003 season he performed Beethoven's Missa Solemnis for the first time with the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra, and appeared with his hometown orchestra, the St. Joseph Symphony, in a program of opera highlights.
Mr. Belcher is a recipient of a 1997 Robert Jacobson Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation, a 1998 Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation for his work with Wolf Trap Opera and a 1997 winner of the Sullivan Foundation Award. He received the Apprentice Grant Award from the Santa Fe Opera following his 1996 apprenticeship. While at Central City Opera in summers 1993 and 1994 he received the Young Artist Award and Outstanding Studio Artist Award.
Sarah Tannehill
Accomplished soprano Sarah Tannehill will perform with us during our second concert of the 2008-2009 season, Handel for the Holidays. Sarah has performed with the Boston Lyric Opera, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the Chicago Symphany Orchestra, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Fort Worth Opera, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, as well as the Saarländisches Staatstheatre in Saarbrücken, Germany.
Said by the Boston Metro to "steal every scene she's in" with her "bubbly and light" coloratura soprano voice, she has also been named by Symphony magazine in 2006 as an emerging artist to watch, and has additionally won three Emmy awards for "Best Host in a Documentary Other than News", as host of the children's educational series The Missouri Outdoors.