September 29, 2009
Bruce Fowler, assistant professor of voice at Stephen F. Austin State University, will return to his alma mater for a guest recital Thursday, Oct. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Oklahoma Baptist University's Yarborough Auditorium. He will be accompanied by Dr. Ron Petti. The public is invited to attend the free performance.
Fowler received his bachelor's degree in voice and church music from OBU, and his master's degree in voice performance from the University of North Texas. His recital will include works by Mozart, Beethoven, Donizetti, Tosti, Hundley and Guettel.
One of the foremost operatic tenors of his generation, Fowler has sung with most of the world's leading theatres, including the Paris Opera, La Scala, the Salzburg Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood and the theatres of Berlin, Barcelona, Rome, Montreal, Vienna and Brussels. He came to international attention as winner of the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition in 1994 and has been fortunate to collaborate with many of the world's foremost artists, including Riccardo Chailly, Renée Fleming, Jessye Norman, Sherrill Milnes, Marc Minkowski, Jésus Lopez-Cobos and Vladimir Chernov.
Fowler is considered a premiere interpreter of the music of the Italian Bel canto and Baroque eras. His concert and recital repertoire encompasses nine languages. His first recording, Messiah for Telarc, was nominated for the Grammy Award. In addition to teaching voice, lyric diction, the professional singer and vocal repertoire, he is musical director for Stephen F. Austin Opera.
Petti serves as associate professor, accompanying and harpsichord, at Stephen F. Austin State University. He earned his bachelor's degree in piano performance from Heidelberg College, his master's degree in piano performance from Bowling Green State University, and his doctorate in piano performance/chamber music and accompanying from Florida State University. As the director of accompanying at Stephen F. Austin, Petti teaches the undergraduate course accompanying techniques, the graduate survey courses vocal literature with piano and chamber music literature with piano, as well as applied lessons in piano accompanying and harpsichord.