kurt ollman, baritone

Kurt Ollmann has established a wide-ranging career on the concert stage, in opera, oratorio and musical theatre. He first came to prominence singing Riff on the Deutsche Gramophon recording of West Side Story under Leonard Bernstein. He has since sung Pélleas at La Scala, Milan under Abbado, the Count in Figaro at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Don Giovanni in the original Peter Sellars production at Pepsico Summerfare. He has also performed with the opera companies in Vienna, Rome, Brussels, Seattle, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Wexford and recently made his debut at New York City Opera in Ravel’s L’heure Espagnole. In 2003 he will return to the Seattle Opera for the role of Orrin in Levy’s Mourning Becomes Electra.

A distinguished orchestral soloist, Mr. Ollmann has appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, L’Orchestre de Paris, Rome’s Accademia di Santa Cecilia, the New York Philharmonic, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra as well as with the orchestras of Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and San Francisco among many others. Recent oratorio engagements include Britten’s War Requiem, the title role in Elijah and Jesus in the St. Luke Passion of Penderecki and the St. Matthew Passion of Bach.

Kurt Ollmann has presented song recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall and in Paris, Milan, Geneva, Stuttgart, Barcelona, Montreal, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, at Tanglewood and various other European and North American cities. He also sings regularly with the New York Festival of Song. His recent work with American Voices, a Netherlands-based group dedicated to spreading American music to developing countries, has taken him to Kuwait, Lebanon, Honduras, El Salvador and Bolivia. This spring he was featured at the Cleveland Art Song Festival.

His most recent recordings include Ravel’s L’heure Espagnole on DG with André Previn, works of Ned Rorem on New World Records and Newport Classics and songs of Richard Faith for eDream as well as a new release of his La Scala debut as Pélleas with Frederica von Stade. His long association with the music of Leonard Bernstein also includes recordings of Candide, On The Town, and A Quiet Place for DG. Other recordings include Gershwin’s Oh, Kay (Nonesuch), Haydn’s Creation (DG), Gounod’s Romeo Et Juliette with Placido Domingo (BMG), and songs of Schumann (Koch) and Albert Roussel (EMI).

A champion of new American music, Kurt Ollmann has collaborated with such composers as Leonard Bernstein, Ned Rorem, Michael Torke, Richard Danielpour, Ricky Ian Gordon, and William Bolcom and was one of the original performers of The AIDS Quilt Songbook.