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Take a fresh, fun, "inside" look at our
operas with Opera Insights, 30-minute pre-performance presentations
about the opera, the composer, how the piece came to be written,
and other informational tidbits designed to make your opera-going
experience all the more special. Each Opera Insight presentation
begins one hour before curtain, in the Grand Lobby of the Valentine
Theatre.
Meet our speaker for Carmen...
 Pianist CURT
PAJER divides his time between
vocal coaching and accompanying in New York City and working
on the music staffs of regional opera companies and summer
opera festivals. Dr. Pajer is an Assistant Conductor at New
York City Opera. Since 2004 he has been the Head of the Music
Staff of Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where he began as a member
of the music staff in 1999. He also serves as the Assistant
Music Director of the Astoria Music Festival in Astoria, Oregon.
Dr Pajer was responsible for the musical preparation of the
world premiere of Minoru Miki's The Tale
of Genji at Opera
Theatre of St. Louis. For the world premiere of Tobias Picker's
Thérèse Raquin at Dallas Opera, he oversaw the
musical preparation and played the featured solo piano on the
Chandos recording of that production. He has also worked as
a vocal coach for The Actors Studio of New York's New School
for Social Research. Since 1985 he has been on the accompanying
staff at Oberlin College's Institute of Vocal Performance and
Pedagogy.
Previous positions include Assistant Conductor
& Rehearsal Pianist for Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera, Boston
Lyric Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Diego Opera, Baltimore
Opera, Opera Colorado, and Shreveport Opera. Recent engagements
include Madama Butterfly (Houston Grand Opera); Vanessa (San
Diego Opera); Don Giovanni (Astoria Music Festival,
Oregon);
Roméo et Juliette (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis);
Le nozze di Figaro (Toledo Opera) and Carmen and Norma (Opera
Colorado).
A 1987 graduate of Oberlin Conservatory
and native of Cleveland, Ohio, Pajer received his Master's
and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Peabody Conservatory
in Baltimore, Maryland. |
