Daniel Okulitch
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Daniel Okulitch is a Canadian Bass Baritone, (born, January 30, 1976). He first came to national attention on Broadway as Schaunard in Baz Luhrmann's production of La Bohème in 2002-03 - a role he repeated when the production traveled to Los Angeles the following year, for which he received the Ovation Award for Best Ensemble Performance from the Los Angeles Stage Alliance. He has since begun an international career with opera companies and orchestras throughout Europe and North America, and is admired for both his singing and powerful stage presence. He is sought after for many contemporary operas and world premieres, as well as the roles of Mozart, including Figaro and Don Giovanni.
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[edit] Education and Early Career
Okulitch was born in Ottawa, Ontario and was raised in Calgary, Alberta, where he had his operatic debut at the age of 12 while still a boy soprano in the role of Amahl in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Calgary Opera, followed by one of the 3 spirits in Die Zauberflote. He continued to perform throughout his teens, and at age 19 transferred to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music to study with acclaimed pedagogue Richard Miller[1], where he received his Bachelor's of Music and a Master's in Opera Theater. He then continued his education at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of William McGraw. During these years he apprenticed with the Des Moines Metro Opera, the Cincinnati Opera, and in the San Francisco Opera Merola Program.
In 2002, Okulitch was cast as Schaunard in the Baz Luhrmann production of Puccini's La Boheme, which premiered at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, and performed on Broadway for 228 performances. He made his debut in 2003 at the San Francisco Opera in the role of Donald Gallup in The Mother of Us All, and in 2004 he performed again in Los Angeles as Schaunard in Luhrmann's La Boheme.[2]
[edit] Career
In 2004 Okulitch performed a season opening Gala for the Connecticut Grand Opera alongside international opera diva Veronica Villaroel. For his Carnegie Hall début in April of 2004, he performed Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, and was lauded for his performance of Lev Nikolaivich in the World Premiere of Guest from the Future by Mel Marvin at the Bard Festival.
Okulitch’s 2004-05 season began with his return to San Francisco Opera as The Bosun in Billy Budd, followed by a recording of Chausson’s Le roi Arthus with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, and by the roles of Fredrich Baeher in Little Women at Fort Worth Opera, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream with Utah Opera, Masetto in Don Giovanni with Opera de Marseille, and Laski in Chabrier’s Le Roi malgré lui at Avery Fisher Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra.
Okulitch’s 2005-06 season began with Schaunard in La Boheme with Manitoba Opera, immediately followed by Schlemil in Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Dallas Opera, the critically acclaimed title role debut of Joseph De Rocher in Dead Man Walking at the Calgary Opera,Masetto with Vancouver Opera, and Blitch in Susannah with the Boheme Opera in New Jersey. He closed the season with his long-awaited role debut as Don Giovanni at the French festival Lyrique-en-Mer.
In 2006-7 Okulitch was heard again as Giovanni with Opera Ontario and Hawaii Opera Theatre, and created the role of Inspector Gert Osterland in Pasatieri's world premiere of Frau Margot at the Fort Worth Opera.
Okulitch’s career continued to grow in the 2007-2008 season in which he made his role debut at the Michigan Opera Theater in Detroit in the title role of Le Nozze di Figaro, performed Schaunard in La bohéme in Phoenix, Colline in the same opus in Vancouver, and the world premiere of David Dichiera’s Cyrano de Bergerac in Detroit.
[edit] The Fly
In 2007 Okulitch was cast as the lead role in the new opera The Fly[3], composed by Howard Shore, libretto by David Henry Hwang, directed by David Cronenberg, and conducted by Placido Domingo. Based on the 1986 movie of the same name, the opera is a co-production between the Opera du Chatelet, Paris, where it will premiere in July of 2008, and the Los Angeles Opera, where it will have its North American premiere in September of the same year.
[edit] Future engagements
Other future engagements include the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro for the Dallas Opera, Escamillo in Carmen in Vancouver, Swallow in Peter Grimes for his debut at the Washington National Opera, the title role of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking in Ft. Worth, and his La Scala debut as Theseus in Robert Carsen's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
[edit] Awards and Accolades
Mr.Okulitch is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including First Prize from the George London Foundation in 2004, a grant from the Sullivan Foundation 2004, 2nd Prize from the Licia Albanese/Puccini Foundation Competition, First Prize from the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation in 2004, a Grant from the Singers Development Fund in 2003, 5th Prize in the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition in 2002, and was a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 2000 and 2001. He is a 2006 recipient of a Canada Council Grant for Professional Musicians and received the Andrew White Memorial Award and a Corbett Award while a student at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.
[edit] Recordings
- Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme (Highlights from the 2002 Original Broadway Cast) Dreamworks 2002
- Le Roi Arthus-Chausson Telarc 2005
- Frau Margot-Thomas Pasatieri Albany Records 2007
