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Cantwell, Gregory

Bass-baritone who graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music with a degree in voice and went on to have a prolific career as an opera singer.

Some of the roles he has embodied over the years include:  Le comte Paris in Romeo et Juliette; Crebillon in La Rondine; Envy in The Indian Queen; Giorgio in La gazza ladra; Guccio in Gianni Schicchi; Hermann in Les contes d’Hoffmann; Mr. Gobineau in The Medium; Narumoff in Pikovaja Dama and The Woodpecker in The Cunning Little Vixen.

On 22nd February 1983, he helped premiere Daniel Dorff’s Stone Soup:  An Operatic Fable in One Act at Scenic Hills Elementary School in Springfield, Pennsylvania.

Fast-forward two decades—and past a lot of operatic performances not listed above—to April 2003 and the Easton Choral Arts Society’s presentation of Handel’s Messiah, this time featuring Gregory as the baritone soloist.  He fulfilled similar duties on 12th November 2004 at the Fulton Opera House in a live concert of Carmina Burana, in tandem with the Lancaster Symphony Chorus and Orchestra and the Pennsylvania Academy of Music Children’s Chorus.

In June 2006, he participated in the International Trumpet Guild Conference at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.

He reprised his role of the Coroner in the Opera Company of Philadelphia’s production of Porgy and Bess, a role he had played six years earlier with OCP, in February 2007.

Recordings on which he appears include The Philadelphia Singers’ 1987 stocking stuffer, Gloria!  Gloria!, and Michael Udow’s 2007 album, Footprints.

The Philadelphia Singers recordings
Adeste Fidelis (Frederick Oakeley/John Francis Wade)
RCA 6559-2-RC (Gloria!  Gloria!)
SopranoBenita Valente
Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
ConductorMichael Korn

Here’s  The Philadelphia Singers performing “The Plan of God”…

Sources:

  1. http://www.curtis.edu/about-curtis/history/full-alumni-listing/view-by-instrument.html?&group=Voice
  2. http://frankhamilton.org/ph/ph3.pdf
  3. http://www.presser.com/Composers/info.cfm?Name=DANIELDORFF
  4. http://frankhamilton.org/ph/ph4.pdf
  5. http://www.eastonchoralarts.com/02_03.htm
  6. http://www.highbeam.com/Intelligencer+Journal+Lancaster,+PA/publications.aspx?date=200411&pageNumber=8
  7. http://www.trumpetguild.org/2006conference/itg2006programbook.pdf
  8. http://www.operaphila.org/backend/News/csNews.cgi?database=press.db&command=viewone&id=6&op=
  9. http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Udow-Footprints-Eric-Werner/dp/B000TQEJ98