John Koch

John Michael Koch, baritone, is a tenured professor of music at Illinois State University’s School of Music in Normal, Illinois. He has performed over 35 operatic roles internationally and in the U. S. He came to international prominence as the 1989 laureate of the Montreal International Music Competition for Singers, where he received outstanding reviews for his operatic and art song interpretations. He has since performed leading roles with the Montreal Opera, Florentine Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Edmonton Opera, New Orleans Opera, Madison Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, Dayton Opera, Eugene Opera, Opera Omaha, Gold Coast Opera, and San Francisco Opera’s Western Opera Theatre 1989 -1990 National Tour. He has also performed oratorio roles with the Milwaukee Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Montreal Philharmonic, Asheville Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and the Dayton Philharmonic. His November, 1996 performance of (I>Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Florentine Opera was broadcast in October 1997 on Wisconsin Public Television. In 2002, he recorded Daron Hagen’s The Heart of the Stranger for Albany Records with the ISU Wind Symphony. In 1993 he recorded the title role in a world premiere of Schubert’s opera Der Graf von Gleichen with the Cincinnati Philharmonic, released on CD by Centaur Records in 1996. In 2001, he released the world premiere recordings of Van de Vate’s operas In the Shadow of the Glen andThe Death of the Hired Man. Mr. Koch was a National Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, as well as the winner of the 1991 Opera Columbus Competition, the 1991 Meistersinger Competition in Graz, Austria, and the 1987 National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Auditions. He holds a Master of Music from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music, where he studied voice with Andrew White and opera with basso buffo Italo Tajo. Mr. Koch is noted for his interpretation of Orff’s Carmina burana that he recently sang at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall with the Chicago Sinfonietta. Other recent performances of the Orff include the Caracas Contemporary Ballet (Venezuela), Karmi’el Dance Festival in Israel (Tel Aviv Opera and Jerusalem), Chautauqua Institution, Cincinnati Ballet, Princeton University Symphony and Glee Clubs, the Southwest Michigan and Green Bay Symphony Orchestras, the Montreal Philharmonic, and the Canadian Ballet. In November and December 2001 he sang the bass solos in Haydn’s Creation with the Peoria Symphony, Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten with the University of Missouri-Columbia Symphony and Choruses, Mozart’s Requiem with the Illinois State University Symphony and Choruses, and appeared as a guest artist with the South Bend Chamber Singers in their annual Christmas Concert. Most recently, he has performed with the Florentine Opera as Marullo in Rigoletto in addition to making his debut with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra in Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Dvorak’s Te Deum. In 2005, he returned to the Florentine Opera for a production of La bohème. He resides in Bloomington, Illinois with his wife Tracy, his son Nicholas, and his two dogs Midnight and Will.

www.cfa.ilstu.edu/jmkoch