LEGENDARY TENOR JON VICKERS TO GIVE DRAMATIC READING AT MANNES COLLEGE OF MUSIC

For Immediate Release
Contact: Gloria Gottschalk, New School University
             (212) 229-5667, ext. 239
              Patricia Ann Neely, Mannes College of Music
              ( 212) 580-0210, ext. 228

LEGENDARY TENOR JON VICKERS TO PRESENT
A DRAMATIC READING OF TENNYSON WORK
ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24 AND A MASTER CLASS
ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27 AT MANNES COLLEGE OF MUSIC

(New York, NY- September 8, 2000) Legendary tenor Jon Vickers will present a dramatic reading of Tennyson’s epic poem, Enoch Arden, with incidental music by Richard Strauss, performed by pianist Richard Woitach, on Tuesday, October 24 at 8 PM.

Mr. Vickers will also work with selected voice students in a master class at Mannes on Friday, October 27 from 7 – 10 PM. Both events are free and will take place at Mannes College of Music, 150 West 85^th Street, NYC. Tickets for the performance of Enoch Arden are $25 at the door; tickets for the Master Class are $20 at the door. For further information, call the Concert Office at Mannes at (212) 496-8524. For further information on Mannes College of Music, call (212) 580-0210.

Jon Vickers is a heroic tenor who holds a unique place in the history of the vocal art of the 20^th Century. No other artist combines the extraordinary size and individual timbre of the vocal instrument with the intensity of a theatrical imagination. Mr. Vickers himself has stated that Enée in Berlioz’s Les Troyens was his finest achievement, but it the title role in Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes which is most remembered by those who were fortunate to have seen it. Other notable achievements include Tristan, Otello, Florestan, and Sigmund in Die Walküre.

Jon Vickers was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan on October 26, 1926. Mr. Vickers is close to his Canadian roots and has always been an active farmer. His musical studies were at the Toronto Conservatory of Music, and he began his professional career in Toronto. The Royal Opera Company in London engaged him in 1957 for many of the major roles in the dramatic tenor repertory and Convent Garden was to be his artistic home for many years. Among the many roles Mr. Vickers sang in those years were Radames, Enée, Don Jose, Don Carlos, Sigmund, Canio, Jason in Médée, Parsifal and Samson.

At the Met in 1960, Vickers assumed the role of Florestan, along with other staples of his repertoire and added Andrea Chenier in Vienna in 1961. Mr. Vickers first performed Otello in Buenos Aires on 1963. Jon Vicker’s signature role, Peter Grimes, was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1967, and not since Chaliapin and Callas had any artist brought to the stage such riveting emotional and intellectual intensity.