State Theatre - Education | Artist Residencies

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For two weeks out of every season, the State Theatre presents an artist-in-residence program funded by corporate sponsor Bristol-Myers Squibb. An artist or ensemble is chosen each year to visit schools, senior citizen centers, hospitals, and other local venues to present free educational workshops, masterclasses, and informances (lecture-demonstrations) for small groups, giving audiences an up-close and highly personal connection to the arts. The residency culminates each year with a free public performance at the theater.

State Theatre presents
Bristol-Myers Squibb Artist-in-Residence

ANTON BELOV, baritone
May 12-23, 2008

Click here for our Keynotes study guide

Meet the Artist

Russian-born baritone Anton Belov has performed in major opera houses and concert halls across the U.S., earning impressive notices from the music world. The Washington Post hailed his “voluminous sound, appealing stage presence, and a tone of rich vibrancy,” while The New York Sun was impressed with his “authority—technical, musical, dramatic—that was almost frightening.” Opera News praised his “great emotional honesty; singing straight from the heart,” and The Philadelphia Inquirer concluded that Belov “has the voice of an emerging star.”

The singer’s most recent credits include the title role in Delaware Opera’s Don Giovanni, John Sorel in Menotti’s The Consul with Opera Boston and Chamber Opera of Chicago, Malatesta in Don Pasquale with Opera Providence, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and Ping in Turandot with Opera New Jersey, Golijov’s Ainadamar with Opera Boston, Count di Luna in Il trovatore with Anchorage Opera, Handel’s Messiah at Avery Fisher Hall, and a recital under the auspices of New York Festival of Song.

As little as a decade ago, no one—including Belov himself—would have predicted this career path. Born and raised in Moscow, he came to the U.S. at the age of 16, speaking virtually no English, seeking medical treatment for his ailing father. Expecting to stay for two or three weeks, Belov and his parents instead embarked on a new life in America. Through the Orthodox Church in Claremont, NH, he met Simeon Tregubov, a former professor of voice at the Moscow State School of Theater, who offered the young Anton free voice lessons. Belov eventually graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music with a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance and went on to earn an Artist’s Diploma and a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School.

Anton Belov was the winner of the 2002 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, which led to his performing over 40 recitals throughout the U.S. He has won a number of other prestigious vocal competitions, including the George London Competition, Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation International Competition, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Eastern Regional Winner).

Belov has combined his love of music with his expertise in Russian language to publish several works for singers on Russian lyric diction: Russian Opera Libretti and the Anthology of Russian Arias, both published by Leyerle Publications. He is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where he teaches voice, singer’s diction, chorus, opera workshop, and voice ensemble.

About the Residency
Since its inception in 1992, the State Theatre’s annual Bristol-Myers Squibb Artist-in-Residence program has given the gift of the performing arts to nearly 40,000 people throughout central New Jersey. From classrooms to boardrooms, homeless shelters to libraries, this innovative program takes talented and dynamic performers to places where the arts seldom, if ever, go. In workshops, masterclasses, and “informances” for groups of perhaps 50 at a time, baritone Anton Belov connects with a diverse public, building bridges to the community through the arts. The friendly, relaxed atmosphere of these gatherings transforms even the most unlikely of places—employee lunchroom, church basement, school gymnasium, or senior center—into an impromptu arts arena where the singer establishes an intimate rapport with the audience that is often impossible in a more formal setting. In sharing his talent with people of all ages and backgrounds throughout the local community, Bristol-Myers Squibb Artist-in-Residence Anton Belov makes new friends for the arts and for the State Theatre.

The two-week residency culminates in a free public performance featuring baritone Anton Belov. The concert is Wednesday, May 21 at 7pm at the State Theatre. Tickets for this event may be reserved by calling the State Theatre Box Office at 732-246-SHOW (7469).

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