Coordinator, Voice Program

Voice program: Bass-Baritone

Paul Berkolds , baritone, has enjoyed a long career in opera, musical theater, oratorio and solo recital. He has performed in the United States, Europe, Australia, Canada, Taiwan and Mexico. Appearances with US opera companies include Michigan Opera Theater, Hawaii Opera, Utah Opera, Dayton Opera, Orlando Opera, Houston Grand Opera Spring Festival, and Opera Orchestra of New York, and lead roles in European companies in Toulons, France and Riga, Latvia. He has performed in New York's Avery Fisher Hall under the baton of Hugh Wolff singing the New York premiere of David Diamond's This Sacred Land, and as bass soloist in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra with Jorge Mester conducting. Mr. Berkolds has worked with a number of notable conductors such as Raymond Leppard, Jeffrey Kahane, George Manahan, Eve Queller, and Joel Revzen.

His diverse experience also includes three years on the third national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. In recent years, Berkolds has focused his efforts on new music, premiering or singing first performances of works by William Brooks, David Vayo, Martin Herman, Arnold Sturms, Talivaldis Kenins, Nick Strimple, Mark Trayle, Imants Mezaraups, and Mark Bobak.

Recent performances have included a duo concert of new music with vocalist Jacqueline Bobak given at Disney Hall's REDCAT (a program repeated at the Spring New Music Festival at York University in York, England); bass soloist for Mass in b Minor by J. S. Bach with the Choral Society of Southern California; the role of “Death” in the opera Wet by Anne LeBaron premiered at REDCAT and later sung in New York City Opera's VOX 2006 Showcase of New Operas under the title Crescent City. Also of note, is a performance of This White Silent Bird Floats by Ron George, presented at MicroFest 2005 and a Chicago Composers Society performance of William Brooks' Metamorphoses, for two voices, video and electro-acoustic playback. In addition, he performed and recorded the role of Polonius in the opera Hamlets, by Latvian composer Janis Kalnins. The work, not heard in 60 years, was given a fully staged, night performance in the outdoor ruins of the 15th century Bauskas castle in southern Latvia. He is currently involved in an on-going project to realize John Cage’s Song Books. This multi-demensional endeavor seeks to create an interactive on-line platform of song renditions through which others worldwide can actively participate by listening, adding or manipulating content.

Berkolds, who studied at the University of Washington and University of Southern California earning a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree, serves on the faculty of California Institute of the Arts Schools of Music and Theatre, and is the Coordinator of Vocal Studies for Innerspark - California State Summer School of the Arts (CSSSA). In addition, he continues to serve as the Director of the West Coast Latvian Song Festival Executive Committee and is the music director of the Los Angeles Latvian Choir.