Donald George is an Associate Professor of Voice at The Crane School of Music, State University of New York at Potsdam, he divides his time between professional engagements and his teaching obligations.

 

       

Donald George has performed at La Scala, at the Paris Opera Bastille and Théâtre du Châtelet, Royal Opera of Brussels, Kennedy Center, the State Operas of Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna, the Festivals of Salzburg, Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, Istanbul, Perth (Australia) and Blossom USA. He has sung with Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Yehudi Menuhin, Jeffry Tate, Vladimir Jurowski, Simone Young and recorded Elijah, Verdi Requiem, Rossini’s Aurelieano in Palmira and Le Nozze di Teti e Peleo (the world premiere recording), Die Schöne Müllerin among others.  He has recorded for Delos, Sony, Naxos, Phillips Classic, Teldec, and Bavarian Radio, among others. He has worked with prominent stage directors such as John Dew, Harry Kupfer, Mario Martone, Yannis Kokkos, William Kenntridge and others.  Reviews of Donald George speak of his “pleasing tenor sound, vocally reliable in all challenges” (Verdi Requiem-Metropolitan Opera News), “A success for La Scala all possess a superb technique, and are consummate actors…including Donald George” (Peter Grimes-Corriere della Sera), Donald George provides Candide with a supple, beautiful toned lyricism-His Lament is one of the highlights of the performance (Candide-Münchner Merkur – Munich, Germany). Donald George is also part of the performance group DuoDrama (DuoDrama.net) with pianist Lucy Mauro. They perform concerts, multi-media Liederabend, lecture recitals and masterclasses and record.  

 

 

Donald George had also sung in a number of internationally renowned festivals such as the Flanders Festival in the 20th Century piece by the Belgian composer Andre Laporte La Morte Chitarre for solo tenor and orchestra which was broadcast, the Salzburg Festival and the Blossem Festival with the Cleveland Orchestra and Christoph von Donhnanyi and the London Proms with the Mecklenburgh Opera, or the Bregence Festival. In the Festival of European Song in Wilhelmshafen he sang a critically acclaimed recital based on the texts of Heinrich Heine to the music of Schubert, Schumann, Franz, and the Mendelsohns, Fanny and Felix. At the Jerusalem Festival 3000 Donald George sang the world premiere of Noam Sheriff's Psalms of Jerusalem which was also broadcast. In the Perth Festival (Australia) he sang Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with the Solisti di Praga, for Australian Radio with the Taorrmina Arte Festival (Sicily) with Giuseppe Sinopoli he sang Narraboth in Salome.

 

Donald George was invited to sing Mendelssohn's "Elijah" for Spanish television and radio in a concert conducted by Sir Y. Menuhin in the presence of the Queen. He has also sung in other broadcast performances such as Beethoven "Ninth Symphony" with Fruebeck de Burgos conducting, or Mercandante's "Seven Last Words" with the Berlin Festival, or "Don Giovanni" with the Lausanne Opera in Meziere, or Rossini's "Cenerentola" for TV 5 of France which was broadcast throughout Europe.

 

Donald George has an extensive CD recording list, the latest being a critically acclaimed recording of the rare Rossini opera " Aureliano in Palmira" in which he sings the title role with the Solisti di Praga, or the Verdi "Requiem" with the Slovak Radio Philharmonic conducted by A. Rahbari, "La Finta Giardinera" with the Festival Radio France, Mendelssohn's "Elias" with Masur and the Israel Philharmonic, or Schubert's song cycle "Schöne Müllerin" with Jan Vermeulen playing the Hammerflügel. A  CD of another rarity has appeared: Rossini's cantata "Le Nozze di Teti e di Pelleo". Donald and Lucy Mauro recently made the successful recording of the music of Margaret Ruthven Lang (1867-18972) Love is Everywhere which was the CD of the Year for Music Web International. Volume II, New Love Must Rise appears February 7th and a CD of the music of Mathilde von Kralik Komm mit mir (Come with me) appears in the Fall of 2012. along with songs of the Irish composer Mary MacAuliffe.  All recordings appear thru Delos International and are available on iTunes, Amazon and other sites. 

 

Donald George sang the premiere of Love for Three Oranges for the Komische Oper Berlin in which his performance was described as "wonderful", "touching", "impressive" or the "artistically most successful in the Berlin Opera Houses". Donald George also sang Max in the Freischuetz at Chiemgau Music Festival.

He performed Cosi fan tutti in the Naples opera singing with Frittoli, Corbelli, De Carolis.  Concert performances of Bersteins Candide followed (in the concert version, which Donald George has already performed with Leonard Bernstein conducting) in Munich's Prinzregenten Theater and Frankfurt's Alte Oper. This concert series was also be recorded for broadcast and a DVD (on Amazon.de) is available. Donald George made his debut at the Paris Opera Bastille in the role of Andres in "Wozzek" and the La Scala Milano in the role of Bob Boles in "Peter Grimes".

 

Donald George has sung numerous roles including Hoffmann in Tales of Hoffmann, Florestan in Beethoven's first opera version of  Leonore, the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto and Tom Rakewell in The Rake's Progress. Donald George sang in Palermo’s famous renovated Teatro Massimo, this time performing the leading  role of the shepherd/god  in the seldom performed opera of Karol Szymanowski's King Roger, in the production created for Palermo by Yannis Kokkos and conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig. He also sang the Evangelist in the famous Bavarian Cloister Andechs in the Christmas Oratorio and the Magnificat of J.S.Bach. Another highlight of past seasons was his making his debut with the New Israeli Opera in Tel-Aviv.  He sang the role of Tamino in Mozart’s Magic Flute in the production of William Kenntridge, which was a revival of the production from the La Monnaie, Opera Royal of Brussels. The conductor was Dan Ettinger. He also sang in Turin's acclaimed production of Billy Budd, which was directed by Davide Livermore and conducted by Christopher Franklin.

 

 In Europe he sang  the title role of Candide in the famous production narrated by the German personality Vicco von Bülow in his persona as “Loriot” at the State Theater in Munich conducted by David Stahl. Further engagements included the Lloyd-Weber Requiem with the Wuppertal Sinfonie Orchester and  the tenor solo in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde under Maestro Leonid Grin with the State Orchestra of Saarbruecken, which he repeated with  with the Roanoke Symphony under Stephen White.  Donald has also been named Honoured Professor by the  Shenyang Conservatory of Music (China), the Guest Artist in Residence at West Virginia University and the Hall of Fame  and Alum of the Year 2010 in his alma mater Southeastern Louisiana University.  In addition Donald sings his successful Liederabend "The Old Wicked Songs" of Heinrich Heine in conjunction with his piano collaborator Lucy Mauro (DuDrama.net) at the University of West Virginia, the Chopin House in Providence RI and other venues.  He will also tour with Lucy and his new program of the music of Lang, Kralik and MacAuliffe in Texas, Louisiana and Thailand to name a few. 

.

As an educator, in addition to being named an Associate Professor of Vocal Music at the Crane School of Music – SUNY Potsdam, he is also Guest Artist in Residence at West Virginia University, Morgantown, an Honoured Professor at Shenyang Conservatory in China.  He has also taught at the Bavarian Theater Academy August Everding, Hochschüle für Theater und Musik in Munich, Germany. He is Co-director of the Voice and Piano Collaborative Workshop in Rosenheim, Germany,  and also presented Master Classes at Schloß Laubach Opera Festival, (Laubach Castle) Germany and the Hochschule Hannover. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Southeastern Louisiana University and his Master’s from Louisiana State University.

 

Donald George is active in CMS (College Music Society), NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing), Opera America and MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) and presented original research at the MTNA 2008 National Conference in Denver on the German language Melodram. This was voted a highlight of the conference and appeared in the American Music Teacher journal June/July 2008. An article on the Melodram was  published in the October 2009 international periodical Die Tonkunst.  An article on using the Melodrama in music classes was published in the American Music Teacher in June 2010. 

 

In 2009 he presented at the National Conference of the MTNA in Atlanta on Emotion in Music, and also at the National Conference of CMS at Portland on Du bist wie eine Blume and performed a recital at the CMS Great Plains Regional Conference in Kansas City and was invited to present at the CMS Rocky Mountain Chapter Regional Conference. Three students of Donald George were also invited to present a poster session on their contributions to the Du bist wie eine Blume research at the regional CMS Convention at the University of Vermont in March 2010. 

 

Donald George was awarded an individual Title III Strengthening Institutions Grant from the U.S. Department of Education for his proposal to incorporate undergraduate research into an existing course design,(which was also chosen for presentation at the National Conference in Ithaca NY) and also, for the second time, an Individual Development Grant from SUNY for his work with the Shenyang Conservatory of Music in Shenyang, China. His proposal on his student’s research on the compositions of the Heinerich Heine poem “Du bist wie eine Blume” was also awarded a Title III, Department of Education grant to attend the College Music Society Coference in Burlington Vt. He is on the committee for Posters on the Hill with NCUR of Washington DC.   His research project: The Music of The Esterházy Palace and Family, Patrons of the Arts: Rediscovering the Songs and Arias of Josef Weigl, was chosen from over 3.5000 submission for the National conference of NCUR at Weber University in Utah.