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Mount Desert Summer Chorale

2008 soloists




    Carole FitzPatrick, soprano

    Soprano Carole FitzPatrick received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Texas and two Master's degrees from Yale. In 1988, she went to Europe to pursue a full-time career in singing. After engagements in Dortmund and Osnabrück, Germany, she joined the ensemble of the State Theater in Nuremberg. Her extensive opera repertoire includes Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Strauss and Wagner, having sung over 50 major roles in German opera houses, including Hannover, Mannheim, Duesseldorf and Berlin, her concert work has been extensive as well, including the Brahms, Mozart, Dvorak, Fauré and Verdi Requiems, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, and Handel's Messiah, Israel in Egypt and Judas Maccabeus. Ms. FitzPatrick has also done concert tours in France and Spain.

    Recently she sang the "Four Last Songs" of Richard Strauss in Mainz and Bielefeld, and Beethoven's 9th Symphony in Moscow under Vladimir Fedosseyev, as well as Cosí fan tutte, Elektra and Lohengrin in Essen and Ariadne auf Naxos in Graz, Austria. Last season in Nuremberg she sang "Leonora" in both La Forza del Destino and Il Trovatore, "Madame Lidoine" in Dialogues des Carmélites, the title role in Iphigénie en Tauride, and "Gutrune" in Götterdämmerung, as well as two performances of the Verdi Requiem.

    Since its inception, Ms. FitzPatrick has been a vocal advisor for the Nuremberg State Theater's Opera Studio for Young Singers, giving both master classes and private voice lessons to the participants. A number of her voice students are now actively working in the German opera system.

    In fall 2005, Ms. FitzPatrick joined the voice faculty at Arizona State University. She was featured soloist in the Mount Desert Summer Chorale's 2006 performance of the Mozart Requiem.


    Robert Barefield, baritone

    Baritone Robert Barefield is a frequent performer in opera, oratorio, and recital. He has performed with organizations throughout the country including the New Orleans Opera, the Central City Opera, the Arizona Opera, the Ohio Light Opera, the Evansville Philharmonic, the South Texas Symphony, the Mississippi Symphony, and the Dorian Opera Theatre. Operatic roles have included Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Danilo in Die lustige Witwe, the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Germont in La Traviata, Sid in Albert Herring, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, the title role in Gianni Schicchi and John Proctor in Robert Ward's The Crucible. As an oratorio soloist, Barefield's performances have included Orff's Carmina Burana, the Sea Symphony of Vaughan Williams, Mendelssohn's Elijah and Handel's Messiah. An accomplished recitalist, Robert Barefield has performed programs throughout the United States and in Europe. His wide-ranging repertoire has encompassed major works such as Schubert's Winterreise, as well as premiere performances of songs by composers including David Conte, Simon Sargon and Robert Maggio. For many years, he served on the opera faculty at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in Alaska. Since the summer of 2006, he has taught voice and sung leading roles with Operafestival di Roma in Italy. Robert Barefield received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he was a Corbett Opera Scholar. He is currently a member of the voice faculty at Arizona State University, having previously served on faculties at the University of Mississippi, Southern Methodist University and West Chester University of Pennsylvania.






Updated: 16-Jul-2008
© Mount Desert Summer Chorale, Inc.
MDI scenic photos by David Schildkret