Justin Vickers — Tenor
biography
The American lyric tenor Justin Vickers has been lauded for his “beautiful, crystalline tone” and “a marriage of both supple voice and striking good looks.” He has been likened to a young Nicolai Gedda and The Washington Post declared him “a pliant Mozartian tenor.” In 2006, he assumed his first staged Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia for Opera Boston where he was celebrated in the Boston Globe as “tall and swaggering, his singing sensitive and elegant… with a ringing tone!” Based on the success of that role, he was invited by The Washington National Opera to cover the role of Gennaro at the last minute for their 2008-2009 performances of Lucrezia Borgia with Renée Fleming, under the baton of Maestro Plácido Domingo. Also, in 2008, the tenor portrayed the tragic Roméo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette for Illinois Opera Theatre. In 2005, Mr. Vickers made his international operatic debut at the Arbat Opera in Moscow, creating the title role of Italian painter Amedeo ‘Dedo’ Modigliani in the world premiere of Jerrold Morgulas’ Anna and Dedo. Moscow’s Musical Zhizny celebrated him “a hero of the Russian stage,” and the wife of the late Russian tenor Sergei Lemeshev said she had “not witnessed a combination of such grand singing or passionate acting since Sergei stood onstage at the Bolshoi.” In 2009, he returns to Moscow to portray the title role in the world premiere of Morgulas’ symphonic poem, The Demon, for the Pokrovsky Opera and Moscow Chamber Opera. Mr. Vickers has many projects in the works with composer Jerrold Morgulas, with whom the tenor has a close association. Forthcoming Moscow appearances include the world premieres of Maskerad, as well as the weighty role of Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. While in Moscow, the tenor will make his international recital debut at The Pushkin Museum. Among his modern-opera roles, Mr. Vickers has recorded (Albany Records) and portrayed the title role of Mario in the professional premiere of Francis Thorne’s Mario and the Magician for the Center for Contemporary Opera in April 2005, for which The New York Times praised his “sweet and mellow tenor.”
Mr. Vickers will celebrate the end of 2008 on Hainan Island, China, in gala New Year’s Eve concerts with the Chinese National Opera Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Gianluca Marcianò. In January 2009, he sings Ernesto opposite the Don Pasquale of the renowned bass Paul Plishka, led by Maestro Anton Coppola. Thereafter, the tenor returns to Illinois Opera Theatre for performances of Daniel Catán’s Spanish-language opera La hija de Rappaccini, with the conductor of its premiere, Eduardo Diazmuñoz.
The tenor was also invited to perform as tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and the Haydn Nelsonmesse at the Klassische Musik Festspiele in Eisenstadt, Austria in 2008, culminating in performances at in Vienna’s Stephansdom and Haydn’s own church, the Bergkirche, in Eisenstadt. Mr. Vickers also returned to his home state and appeared with The Prairie Ensemble in Illinois in an evening of opera arias and duets in February 2008. 2007 performances saw the tenor soloist with the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, where he performed Einhorn’s Voices of Light, in ancient French. Recently, the tenor caused audiences to swoon in an evening of opera arias and scenes in Songs from the Heart with Illinois’ Danville Symphony Orchestra. He returns home with the Danville Symphony Orchestra in 2009 for an evening of Broadway favorites.
During the fall of 2001, he made his debut with The Washington National Opera, covering the roles of Ferrando in Così fan tutte and Lennie in Of Mice and Men, while his debut role at The Kennedy Center was the Ballad Singer in Of Mice and Men. Of his debut, The Washington Post reviewed that “as the Ballad Singer, Justin Vickers has a voice that stands out for its beauty.” Thereafter, Mr. Vickers sang Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus under Anton Coppola with the Tampa Opera, and made his Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center debut as Eisenstein in a gala Christmastime performance. The tenor was again heard at Carnegie Hall in April 2001 with Opera Orchestra of New York as Tavannes in Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots, which is scheduled for commercial release. His portrayal of Tavannes was cited as a standout and he was regarded as “a fine young tenor,” by The New York Times.
Mr. Vickers made his Carnegie Hall debut in November 1999 with Maestro Eve Queler and the Opera Orchestra of New York in the American première of Donizetti’s Adelia, singing the role of Comino. He made his Minnesota Opera debut in January 2000 singing the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier. Mr. Vickers returned to Carnegie Hall on Valentine’s Day of 2000 singing Rustighello alongside Ms. Renée Fleming and Mr. Marcello Giordani in Lucrezia Borgia. As a Young Artist with OONY, he has performed the leading tenor roles – in Adelia and in Lucrezia Borgia – for OONY’s Young Artist Performance series. He also performed on OONY’s gala Benefit Musicale with Mr. Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Mr. Vickers made his international concert debut as Cassio in Verdi’s Otello with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México in March 2000, also under the baton of Maestro Queler. The summer of 2000 marked Mr. Vickers’ Merola Opera Program debut as Gabriel von Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, a role he subsequently performed across the nation with San Francisco Opera’s national touring company, the Western Opera Theatre. The tenor added the boisterous Italian, Alfred, to his repertoire for Connecticut Opera’s spring 2002 Die Fledermaus, under Maestro Willie Anthony Waters, to critical acclaim. He returned to Connecticut Opera to sing Narraboth in Salome in 2003. Also in 2003, the tenor made his Hawaii Opera Theatre debut as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, a role also performed for Opera Festival of New Jersey.
The tenor’s oratorio appearances at Carnegie Hall have included Handel’s Messiah, Bruckner’s Te Deum, and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor.
Mr. Vickers has performed the title role in Idomeneo and Taminoin Die Zauberflöte with the Wolf Trap Opera Company during the 1999 Festival Season. Opera News wrote, “As Idomeneo, tenor Justin Vickers displayed a well-molded voice, his clear diction and emotionally charged delivery in the recitatives establishing the character. From his first aria, ‘Vedrommi intorno,’ into Act II's ‘Fuor del mar,’ Vickers offered distinct character development.”
Mr. Vickers rang in the New Year of 2002 opening the second largest opera house in China: Shenyang’s Grande Theatre. After several concerts with the Liaoning Symphony Orchestra, he performed in the Concert Hall of Beijing’s Forbidden City.
Highly in demand for modern opera interpretations, he joined Encompass New Opera Theatre again at Symphony Space in June 2005 for a Gertrude Stein Trilogy showcasing the world premiere of William Banfield’s jazz-fusion opera Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On, creating the role of Leo Stein; Ned Rorem’s Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters, in which he essayed Samuel; and Virgil Thomson’s Capital Capitals, taking on the verbose Capital II. The New York Times called Vickers’ interpretations in the Stein Trilogy “playfully operatic” and his “crisp diction suddenly made whole lines of Stein’s patter start to make sense!” In 2004 he created the role of Tom Cobb for Encompass in the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize winning composer Seymour Barab’s A Perfect Plan at Symphony Space in New York City to riotous reviews! He was asked by Russian composer Alexander Zhurbin to interpret the role of Konstantin Treplev in Seagull (an operetta based on Chekhov’s play) for the 2005 New York Musical Theatre Festival on Broadway under the direction of Lewis J. Stadlen and alongside Judith Blazer.
In 2007, the ever-active and capably diverse young tenor was also thrilled to return to work with Theatre International (a company he helped found in 2004) in Tirana, Albania. There, he directed a new production of the hit Broadway musical CHICAGO… in which he also sang and danced the role of Billy Flynn! Also in Albania, the tenor assumed a new role at the end of 2004, as both Music Director and Principal Soloist for an original full-scale Broadway revue, Bravo! A Century of Broadway, in which he directed twelve dancers and eight other singers, which was recorded for television and broadcast for national New Year’s Eve celebrations on Vizion+Plus, Albania’s international television channel.
The young tenor has been a favorite of The National Arts Club galas for some of Broadway’s living legends. In 2008, he premiered the song “On Wings of a Dream,” by composer Jerry Bock for a Gala in his honor. He not only shared the stage with Kristin Chenoweth and Harvey Fierstein, but performed for an auspicious gathering including the composer, Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, and Sheldon Harnick. In 2006, he was a guest artist for the Charles Strouse Gala and he was also invited to perform for Sheldon Harnick in 2004 on the occasion of his 80th Birthday Gala Celebration at the National Arts Club, sharing the stage with an awe-inspiring group of artists, including Glenn Close, Barbara Cook, Marlo Thomas, Charlotte Rae, Alfred Molina and Alan Alda.
Mr. Vickers’ concert performances have included appearances with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Opera Orchestra of New York, the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México, the Liaoning Symphony Orchestra, the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra, the Jupiter Symphony, the New England Symphonic Ensemble, and the Lexington Philharmonic. His concert repertory includes a recent appearance in Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall under Maestro John Rutter with the New England Symphonic Ensemble. Additionally, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, Die Jahreszeiten, and Lord Nelson Mass, Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes and Zigeunerlieder, Gounod’s Messe Solenelle de Sainte Cécilie, J. S. Bach’s Magnificat and the solo Kantate Nr. 189, Meine Seele rühmt und preist, and Kantate Nr. 160, Ich weiß, daß mein Erlöser lebt, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings and Canticle I, My Beloved is Mine, Canticle II, Abraham and Isaac, Canticle III, Still falls the Rain, and Canticle V, The Death of Saint Narcissus, as well as the Bruckner Te Deum, which he performed with the New England Symphonic Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in May 2000. While at the University of Illinois, Mr. Vickers was also a participant in the Songs of Franz Schubert: A Six-Year Cycle with renowned pianist Mr. John Wustman, with whom he has studied since 1993 and was also a student of noted American Bass-baritone Ronald Hedlund.
Mr. Vickers is a prize winner of the 2000 Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition, and has been a recipient of the Bagby Foundation for the Musical Arts career grant. He has received top awards from the George London Foundation, the National Opera Association, and the Palm Beach Opera National Voice Competition.
Mr. Vickers is a native of Danville, Illinois, and holds a Master of Music Degree in Voice from the University of Kentucky, as well as a Bachelor of Music Degree in Voice from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Mr. Vickers has a residence in New York City, where he has maintained a private voice studio since 2001 and is a member of the New York Singing Teachers’ Association as well as NATS. In 2008, Vickers accepted a University Fellowship appointment at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to pursue his Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance and Literature. In addition to the DMA in Voice, Mr. Vickers is a doctoral candidate for the PhD in Musicology at Urbana-Champaign, studying the cyclical works written by Lord Benjamin Britten for his partner, Sir Peter Pears. Mr. Vickers will also explore the vast recital repertoire performed by the two artists from the late 1930s until the 1970s. He balances his time between the Midwest and New York City, his teaching, and an active performing career.