Fine Arts Division

Gerald Seminatore

 

Email: Gerald.Seminatore@pepperdine.edu

The American tenor Gerald Seminatore has many opera and concert performances in the United States and Europe to his credit. A scholarship for graduate study at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music was his passport to the opera stage, and he was an apprentice artist for two seasons with the Santa Fe Opera. Other American operatic engagements have been at the Glimmerglass, Chautauqua, West Bay, Oakland, and Dayton opera companies. He made his European debut at England’s Aldeburgh Festival, and he was a member of the solo ensemble at Germany’s Dortmund Opera (an “A” house). He was also a guest soloist at the Frankfurt am Main Opera, Kaiserslautern’s Pfalztheater, and the Bremen Opera.

Orchestral and oratorio work has included appearances with the San Antonio Symphony, the Chautauqua Symphony, the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus, the Cypress Masterworks Chorale, the Cincinnati Philharmonia, the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern.

Gerald also sang for several seasons with a number of America’s premiere choral ensembles, including The Handel and Haydn Society (Christopher Hogwood, Thomas Dunn), the Boston Early Music Festival (Roger Norrington, Andrew Parrot), the New England Bach Festival (Blanche Moyse), Emmanuel Music (Craig Smith), and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (John Oliver).

ARTIST RECITALS including the Longy School of Music (Boston), Boston Conservatory, Dreikönigskirche (Dresden), Carl-Maria von Weber Museum (Dresden), Nicolaikirche (Dortmund), Atelier Concert Series (Paris), Los Angeles Shakespeare Theater, California State University Fullerton, Biola University, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, University of Texas San Antonio, Glimmerglass Opera Young Artists, Chautauqua Opera Guild.

AWARDS: MacAllister Foundation for Opera Singers (finalist), the Metropolitan Opera National Council (Regional Finalist), the Oratorio Society of New York, and the American Aldeburgh Foundation.

CREDENTIALS: B.A. Degree in Philosophy and Politics, Boston University; M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in Vocal Performance and Opera Stage Directing, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. German language study at the Dortmunder Volkshochschule is credentialed by the Goethe’s Institute’s Zentrale Mittelstufeprüfung.

TEACHING: Gerald’s teaching was recognized in 2000 through a national internship from the National Association of Teachers of Singing. In 2003 he was appointed an Assistant Professor of Music at California State University Fullerton, where he taught voice, song literature, and acting for singers until he took early retirement in 2010. Gerald has also served as a course coordinator and artist teacher for the statewide California State University Summer Arts Festival. He was a visiting faculty artist for two years at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and has taught many master classes at colleges and universities around the United States and in Germany. A special area of interest is movement and characterization techniques for acting and singing.

PUBLICATIONS: Presentations and lecture/recitals for the College Music Society, article “A Modest Proposal: Teaching Poetry through Song” for the Journal of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

 

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