From Los Angeles to the District of Columbia, and cities in
between; from England to Austria, and countries in between - if Eric
Owens hasn't been there, he soon will be. His deep, cavernous voice
has taken this Philadephia native to many lofty places.
American bass Eric Owens was recently named as the recipient of the
2003 Marian Anderson Award. The 2003-4 sees a number of important debuts
for him as well as ongoing relationships with major opera companies
and orchestras. He will make his debut at the Grand Theatre de Genève
as the Voice of Neptune in Idomeneo and will sing his first
Leporello in Don Giovanni at Florida Grand Opera for his debut
there. He will also return to Minnesota Opera as Sparafucile in Rigoletto.
In great demand in the concert world, he will return to the National
Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under
Leonard Slatkin including tour performances at the Kennedy Center and
Carnegie Hall. He returns to the Cleveland Orchestra in Messiah
and to the Seattle Symphony under Andreas Delfs in Brahms Ein Deutsches
Requiem. He will sing Mozart’s Requiem under Delfs
with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (to be recorded) and with the Madison
Symphony under John DeMain. He will also sing Rambo in The Death
of Klinghoffer with the Brooklyn Philharmonic under Robert Spano
and Messiah for his Pittsburgh Symphony debut under Richard
Hickox. He also sings the Verdi Requiem at the Kennedy Center
with the Washington Chorus.
During the 2002/3 season, Eric Owens made his San Francisco Opera debut
as Lodovico in Otello conducted by Donald Runnicles and also
covered the demanding title role of Messiaen’s St. François
d’Assise there. His concert season included returns to the
Minnesota Orchestra (Beethoven's Ninth under Marek Janowski)
and the Cleveland Orchestra (the Friar in Don Carlo under Franz
Welser-Möst). Orchestral debuts included the Philadelphia Orchestra
(Beethoven's Ninth under Wolfgang Sawallisch in his farewell
concerts as Music Director), the Atlanta Symphony (John Adams’
El Niño under Robert Spano, repeated at the Ravinia
Festival), the Cincinnati Symphony (Rocco in Fidelio under
Paavo Järvi), the Milwaukee Symphony (Zimmermann’s “Ich
wandelte mich . . . “ under Delfs) and the Grand Rapids Symphony
(Mendelssohn’s Elijah). He appeared in solo recital in
Philadelphia and concluded the season with his New York Philharmonic
debut in Porgy and Bess excerpts conducted by Lorin Maazel
on tour in Cagliari, Italy.
Eric Owens made his Royal Opera, Covent Garden debut as Oroveso in Norma.
At Houston Grand Opera, he most recently sang Ramfis in Aida.
At Los Angeles Opera he has sung Sparafucile in Rigoletto,
Ferrando in Il Trovatore and Colline in La Bohème.
Other appearances include the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte
for his Paris Opera (Bastille) debut; Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra
and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte with the Washington Opera
and Rodolfo in La Sonnambula at the Bordeaux Opera;the King
of Scotland in Ariodante at ENO; Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor
and Alidoro at Pittsburgh Opera; Sparafucile in a new production at
the Oper der Stadt Köln; Banquo with Opera Pacific and Sarastro
and Banquo with the Opera Company of Philadelphia. He sang Collatinus
in a highly acclaimed new Christopher Alden production of The Rape
of Lucretia at Glimmerglass Opera.
Eric Owens is a regular guest of the major American and European orchestras.
His appearances have included the San Francisco Symphony, under the
baton of Michael Tilson Thomas, in Bruckner's Te Deum; the
Cleveland Orchestra in Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible, conducted
by Yuri Temirkanov; Brander in La Damnation de Faust under
Christoph von Dohnányi; Schmidt’s Book of the Seven
Seals under Franz Welser-Möst and Bach's Magnificat
conducted by John Nelson; the Seattle Symphony with Gerard Schwarz in
the Verdi Requiem; the National Symphony Orchestra in Messiah;
the Baltimore Symphony in Beethoven's Mass in C and Choral
Fantasy under Alan Gilbert and Mozart’s Requiem
under Temirkanov; the Minnesota Orchestra in Mendelssohn's Die erste
Walpurgisnacht under Jeffrey Tate; the Toronto Symphony in The
Creation under Helmuth Rilling; the Detroit Symphony under Neeme
Järvi in Beethoven’s 9th and Missa Solemnis;
the Indianapolis Symphony under Harry Bicket in The Creation;
the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under Nicholas McGegan in Bach’s
St. Matthew Passion; Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in The
Creation and Bach's Christmas Oratorio; the Bachakademie
Stuttgart in Messiah and Jeptha, as well as numerous
appearances at the Oregon Bach Festival under Rilling. He made his debut
at the Salzburg Festival in the world premiere of Philip Glass' Symphony
No. 5 conducted by Dennis Russell Davies and now available on commercial
recording. He sang Messiah with the Handel and Haydn Society
in Boston and Bach's B minor Mass with the Oregon Bach Festival.
He appeared in concerts with the BBC Wales in excerpts from Porgy
and Bess and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time. He has
sung solo recitals at the Châtelet in Paris and at the Curtis
Institute of Music, as part of their Distinguished Alumni series.
A former member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, he has sung Sarastro,
Mephistopheles in Faust, Frère Laurentin Roméo et
Juliette, Angelotti in Tosca and Aristotle Onassis in
the world premiere of Jackie O (available on the Argo label)
with that company. With the Opera Orchestra of New York he has performed
Alidoro, Giorgio in I Puritani, the High Priest in Massenet's
Hérodiade and Lord Talbot in Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco.
In addition to being a winner of a 1999 ARIA award, Mr. Owens also won
the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition, the Metropolitan Opera
National Council Auditions and the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice
Competition. Other awards include First Prize in the MacAllister Awards
Voice Competition, First Prize in New York's Opera Index Career Grant
Auditions, First Prize in the Palm Beach Opera National Voice Competitions,
and First Prize in the Mario Lanza Voice Competition.
He has also won grants from the George London Foundation, the Sullivan
Foundation, the Puccini Foundation, a Jacobson Study Grant from the
Richard Tucker Music Foundation, the Jay Speck Foundation Award, the
Richard F. Gold Career Grand from the Shoshana Foundation, and is an
ARTS Awardee in The National Foundation for Advancement in Arts' 1988
Arts Recognition and Talent Search.
A native of Philadelphia, Eric Owens studied voice at Temple University
and the Curtis Institute of Music. He currently studies with Armen Boyajian.
With his expanding repertoire and a growing demand for his performances
the world over, there can be no question that Eric Owens is on his way
to becoming a bass for all seasons.
GO TO: performance calendar
Eric Owens' Management: IMG Artists - Matthew Horner |
