Andrew Richards
Visiting Assistant Professor: Voice
As a young musician, Andrew Richards was a jazz trombonist performing alongside icons The Hi-Los, The Four Freshmen, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen MacRae and Mark Murphy. His work with Frank DeMiero, Jon Hendriks, Mel Tormé and Ward Swingle took him in the direction of singing. With his interest in singing piqued, he attended Seattle Opera's La Forza del Destino. So struck was he by what he heard, he attended the Eastman School of Music to formally study singing. While there, he studied classical voice with Seth McCoy while also touring with his vocal jazz octet Octave One and Eastman's esteemed big bands.
Following his participation in several US young artist programs, Mr. Richards made his professional debut in the role of Pinkerton at New York City Opera in 1999. In 2004, he made his European debut in Trieste, simultaneously debuting the role of Don José in Carmen. This role would become his calling card, having performed it at The Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Opéra Comique in Paris, as well as stages in Verona and Berlin, in addition to being broadcast internationally on ArteTV.
From 2005-2009, Mr. Richards was a member of the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden ensemble, where he performed roles such as Radames, Cavaradossi, Rodolfo, Don José and MacDuff. His reputation grew into an international career singing in many new productions and premieres. His work at La Monnaie/De Munt (Brussels, Belgium) in the roles of Werther and Parsifal was met with great critical acclaim. His first Parsifal (for Staatsoper Stuttgart), directed by Calixto Bieito, was the subject of the movie "Die Singende Stadt". The Parsifal successes resulted in further exploration of the Wagner repertoire: Mr. Richards sang his first Siegmund in 2018 in Kyoto, Japan with Michael Hampe directing. He was also the author of the behind-the-scenes blog "Opera Rocks."
Conductor collaborators include Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Orin, Michele Mariotti, Hartmut Haenchen, Jacques Lacombe, Roberto Abbado, Jérémie Rhorer, Paolo Carignani, John Elliot Gardiner, Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Ettinger, among many others. His busy career took him to stages across the world, including those of the Opéra National du Rhin, Teatro Communale di Bologna, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Royal Danish Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Staatsoper Hamburg, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Fondazione Arena di Verona, Münchner Opernfestspiele, Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada, Bayerische Staatsoper, Oper Köln, Oper Frankfurt, Royal Opera House, London, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Festival Pucciniano, Torre del Lago, Opéra Nice, Semperoper Dresden, as well as the Bregenzer Festspiele.
In recent years, Andrew continues his foray into the heldentenor repertoire and made his debut as Tristan in Bari, Italy at the Petruccelli Theater. He then reprised the role with Polish Radio Symphony in a concert version. Andrew continues a busy teaching schedule and has become an advocate of young singers in his recording studio. Along with his wife, pianist Jeanne-Minette Cilliers, run Kudu Productions, an audio/video project incubator focused on multi-genre creative production, and recently produced the debut album of Raehann Bryce-Davis. Professors Cilliers and Richards now make Canton their home.