Rod Gilfry
Associate Professor of Vocal Arts and Opera
Instruments/Expertise: Voice
rodgil@mac.com
Personal site: http://www.rodgilfry.com
Instruments/Expertise: Voice
rodgil@mac.com
Personal site: http://www.rodgilfry.com
Biography
Rod Gilfry has performed all the world's music capitals, including Vienna, Paris, London, Munich, Zurich, Milan, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Best-known as an opera singer, he is equally acclaimed as a recitalist and concert artist. He also has extensive experience as a Master of Ceremonies and as a cabaret artist. This Grammy-nominated singer’s discography includes 23 audio and video recordings, and the DVD and CD of his one-man show My Heart is So Full of You has just been released. His radio show, Opera Notes on Air, aired on Los Angeles’ largest Classical station, K-Mozart 105.1 FM for over three years. With a 40-role repertoire, Gilfry sings music from the Baroque to that composed expressly for him. He was brought to worldwide attention when he created the role of Stanley Kowalski in the 1998 premiere of André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire with the San Francisco Opera. Last fall, he created his fifth world premiere role as Jack London in the new opera Every Man Jack in Sonoma, California. Other appearances last season included Lionel in the San Francisco Opera production of Tchaikovsky’s Joan of Arc, Prospero in the American premiere of Thomas Ades’ The Tempest at the Santa Fe Opera, and Nathan in the American premiere of Nicholas Maw’s Sophie’s Choice in Washington D.C, a role he created in London in 2002.
In February, he sang De Guiche in Alfano’s Cyrano in Valencia, Spain,opposite Placido Domingo; in March he performed his one-man show at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, where he also gave a master class. In May, Gilfry appeared with the Los Angeles Opera as Count Danilo in Lehar’s operetta The Merry Widow. In June, he adjudicated the first annual José Iturbi Competition in Los Angeles and in July he appeared as Joe in Loesser’s musical The Most Happy Fella at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. In September, he was host and special guest artist in Concert Under the Stars at Cal State University Fullerton and taught a master class for the Classical Singer’s association. The 2007-08 season also saw Gilfry as baritone soloist in Carmina Burana with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zürich (October), Danilo in the Dallas Opera production of The Merry Widow (November/December), Papageno in Die Zauberflöte at Opera Pacific in Costa Mesa, California (January/February), a recital at the Barclay Theater in Irvine, California (January 8), an appearance in the Marilyn Horne Foundation Gala in Zankel Hall in New York’s Carnegie Hall (January 25) and Robert Storch in the Zürich Opera production of R. Strauss’ Intermezzo. Gilfry then went to Amsterdam to sing the title role in Messiaen’s monumental work Saint François d’Assise, and concluded the 2007-08 season in Japan with a five-city tour as Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus under the direction of Seiji Ozawa.
