KCH's PASSING THE TORCH
featuring renowned tenor George Shirley
and rising mezzo-soprano Olivia Johnson
Sunday, Decmber 12th @ 7:30 PM
The Passing the Torch series is
made possible with support from the
Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation.
Kerrytown Concert House concludes the Fall/Winter edition of Passing the Torch with a presentation that pairs world-renowned tenor and National Medal of Arts recipient, George Shirley, with rising mezzo-soprano, Olivia Johnson.
George Shirley has won international acclaim for his performances in the world’s great opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera, Deutsche Oper, and more. Shirley was the first African-American to be appointed to a high school teaching post in music in Detroit, the first African-American member of the United States Army Chorus in Washington, D.C., and the first African-American tenor and second African-American male to sing leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera, where he remained for eleven years.
Olivia Johnson is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned a Master’s degree while studying under George Shirley. She has performed with the Michigan Opera Theatre, Rackham Choir, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Shirley and Johnson will perform classic and new works for voice, shed light on their respective careers, and discuss the deep significance of intergenerational relationships in music. We hope you’ll join us as we continue to connect area master musicians with young, promising artists through this community mentorship project, made possible with support from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation!
COVID-19 Safety Policy for Indoor Concerts
- Moving forward, all patrons and artists who wish to attend or present performances indoors at KCH must provide a valid, complete COVID-19 vaccination card OR proof of a negative COVID-19 test performed within the previous 72 hours prior to entry. Such proof must be presented at concert check-in, may be displayed on a smartphone OR presented as a physical copy, and must also be accompanied by a matching, valid ID for verification.**
- Additionally, according to current CDC recommendations, masks are required for audiences inside the House and can only be removed when seated with a beverage (when available). When performing, artists may wear a mask, or not, at their own discretion.
**Proof of vaccination exceptions will be made for children under 12 and people with a medical condition or closely held religious beliefs that prevent vaccination. These guests must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within the previous 72 hours prior to entry.
George Shirley is in demand nationally and internationally as performer, teacher and lecturer. He has won international acclaim for his performances in the world’s great opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera (New York), Royal Opera (Covent Garden, London), Deutsche Oper (Berlin), Téatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Netherlands Opera (Amsterdam), L’Opéra de Monte Carlo, New York City Opera, Scottish Opera (Glasgow), Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington Opera (Kennedy Center), Michigan Opera Theater, Glyndebourne Festival, and Santa Fe Opera.
He has recorded for RCA, Columbia, Decca, Angel, Vanguard, CRI, and Philips and received a Grammy Award in 1968 for his role (Ferrando) in the RCA recording of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.
In addition to oratorio and concert literature, Mr. Shirley has, in a career that spans 49 years, performed more than 80 operatic roles in major opera houses around the globe with many of the world’s most renowned conductors (Solti, Klemperer, Stravinsky, Ormandy, von Karajan, Colin Davis, Boehm, Ozawa, Haitink, Boult, Leinsdorf, Boulez, DePriest, Krips, Cleva, Dorati, Pritchard, Bernstein, Maazel, and others).
Shirley was the first African-American to be appointed to a high school teaching post in music in Detroit, the first African-American member of the United States Army Chorus in Washington, D.C., and the first African-American tenor and second African-American male to sing leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera, where he remained for eleven years.
Mr. Shirley has served on three occasions as a master teacher in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Intern Program for Young NATS Teachers. He was also a member of the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School for ten years.
Olivia Johnson, born in Jacksonville, NC, is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned her Master’s degree while studying under Professor George Shirley. This year she is the resident mezzo-soprano at Toledo Opera in Toledo, Ohio for the 20/21 season. In October 2020, Ms. Johnson appeared with Michigan Opera Theatre as the second Rheinmaiden, Wellgunde, under the direction of Sharon Yuval in his re-imagining of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in the modern adaptation, Twilight: Gods. After performing the comprimario role of the Girlfriend in Daniel Sonenberg’s The Summer King at MOT in 2018, Ms. Johnson made her second appearance with MOT in the role of La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi) followed by Buoso’s Ghost by Michael Ching. Wherein she was reviewed in Opera News as “…the intriguing mezzo-soprano Olivia Johnson and her cool, stylish demeanor as La Ciesca.” She performed Mathilde in Opera MODO’s innovative re-telling of Poulenc’s Dialogue of Carmelites.
Vocal coach and pianist Timothy Cheek joined the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD) in 1994, and serves as music director of Opera Workshop, as an instructor of lyric diction classes, and as a coach for opera productions. From 2000–2006, Cheek worked as a pianist/coach at U-M’s spring term vocal program in Sesto Fiorentino, Italy, serving the last two years as director of the program. He is also an associate faculty member of the University’s Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES), and teaches a Czech Vocal Literature course for singers and pianists.
Cheek has performed recitals as a collaborative pianist in 18 countries on four continents and has been heard on radio and television programs around the world. He was a regular faculty member of the Moravian Master Class, a summer program in Náměšt’ nad Oslavou, near Brno, Czech Republic, dedicated to the study of Czech art song and opera roles. In 2007 and 2008, he was the music director of the Studio Giovani vocal program at the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy. He has also worked as pianist/coach at the Steans Institute for Young Artists, Chicago; Michigan Opera Theatre, Detroit; Teatro municipal, Santiago, Chile; Israel Vocal Arts Institute, Tel Aviv; Santa Fe Opera; Mozart Opera Studies Institute, Austria; Bay View Music Festival, Michigan; Bel Canto Northwest Vocal Institute, Portland, Oregon; and at various other programs, including the International Institute for Chamber Music, held in Munich, Germany, where, as a faculty member, he performed for five summers as master class pianist for Elly Ameling, Walter Berry, Thomas Grubb, and Jörg Demus. He has served as a guest coach at numerous schools and festivals around the world, such as the Eastman School of Music; Oberlin Conservatory; University of North Texas; Opera Nuova, Canada; Academy of Vocal Arts, Philadelphia; Cherubini Conservatory, Florence; Conservatory of Music, Prague, Czech Republic; Music Academy, Bratislava, Slovakia; Lawrence Conservatory, Wisconsin; Shenandoah Conservatory, Virginia; University of Cape Town/Cape Town Opera, South Africa; Notre Dame University; University of Maryland; Florida State University; and others.
For his book Singing in Czech, published in 2001, the journal Notes proclaimed: “Cheek sets a new and very welcome high standard for teaching lyric diction.” This standard continues with his educational DVD on Italian lyric diction, available in 2021. Utilizing computer animation, video, audio recordings of renowned Italian baritone Alessandro Corbelli, and interviews with other Italian diction specialists Nico Castel, Donna Brunsma, Anna Toccafondi, David Adams, and Gildo di Nunzio, the DVD promises to supplement traditional approaches to learning Italian diction with a dynamic approach that is called for by the rhythmic, physical language of Italian. Cheek is also the series editor for Rowman & Littlefield’s series of diction books on Greek, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Mandarin by a variety of authors.
Cheek holds a doctorate in collaborative piano and chamber music from SMTD, where he studied with Martin Katz. He also holds degrees in piano performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied with Gregory Allen. Cheek was the recipient of a Fulbright Award in 1990–1991, studying as an opera coach apprentice at the Teatro comunale in Florence, Italy under conductors Bruno Bartoletti, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, and Zubin Mehta.
Dr. Cheek has an affinity for Czech vocal music, founded on an internship at the National Theatre in Prague under the great Janáček conductor Bohumil Gregor. Cheek’s books, including Singing in Czech: A Guide to Czech Lyric Diction and Vocal Repertoire, with a foreword by Sir Charles Mackerras; a series on Janáček’s opera libretti; a book on Smetana’s The Bartered Bride; and a book on Dvořák’s Rusalka, are recognized internationally as authoritative resources for singing in Czech, and have been utilized and praised by singers, conductors, coaches, and opera houses around the world. Cheek’s championing of the works of Czech female composer Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915–40) led to his performing several world premieres of her songs; to his recording of the complete songs of Kaprálová with celebrated Czech soprano Dana Burešová on Supraphon records, nominated for the best recording of 2003 by the Czech journal Harmonie, and acclaimed by numerous critics in journals such as Fanfare and BBC Music Magazine; to lecture/performances on the composer around the USA and in Europe; to a critical edition of the songs of Kaprálová edited by Cheek for the Czech publisher Amos Editio in 2006; to organizing the most comprehensive festival of Kaprálová’s music in celebration of the centenary of the composer’s birth, in 2015, at the University of Michigan; and to an edition of the orchestral song Smutný večer/Sad Eveningwith Czech Radio publications, Prague, in 2016, that includes his orchestration of the final fourteen measures of missing orchestration. Cheek has served as the official pianist for the USA rounds of the American International Czech & Slovak Voice Competition since 2003. In 2010, famed Czech composer Sylvie Bodorová composed her song cycle Jabloňový vlak [Apple train] for Cheek, soprano Laurie Lashbrook, and dancer Bohuslava Jelínková. The performers premiered the work in Sydney, Australia the same year. In 2012, Cheek performed works by Dvořák, Kaprálová, and Hoiby with bass-baritone Stephen Morscheck at the historic Rudolfinum, Prague, for an audience that included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, as part of celebrations between the USA and the Czech Republic of the presentation of an inaugural Award for Democracy and Freedom. Cheek’s playing of Dvořák with the acclaimed men’s chorus Cantus was released in 2013 on their CD Song of a Czech, praised by Harmonie magazine, Czech Republic. In 2014, Cheek served on the jury of the 49th International Antonín Dvořák Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, the oldest continuous voice competition in the world. In 2015, Cheek served as pianist and coach for the South American premiere of Rusalka, at the Teatro municipal, Santiago, Chile. In 2019, Cheek performed an all-Czech recital at the historic Rideau Club, Ottawa, with famed Czech baritone Adam Plachetka.
