David Weigel, bass-baritone
Chris Reynolds, piano
David Weigel, bass-baritone Hailed as “heroic” and “stentorian” (San Francisco Chronicle) and possessing an “imposing, mahogany voice” (Opera News), American bass-baritone David Weigel is a third-year Ensemble Member of the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago. During his tenure with the program, Mr. Weigel has performed The Voice of Neptune/Idomeneo, First Minister/Cendrillon, Dr. Grenvil/La traviata, First Prison Guard/Dead Man Walking, the Bonze/Madama Butterfly, and Sourin/The Queen of Spades. Prior to the cancellation of Lyric’s 2020-21 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he was scheduled to sing Angelotti/Tosca, Leone/Attila, Antonio/Le nozze di Figaro, and Father Trulove/The Rake’s Progress. In 2019, Mr. Weigel sang the title role in Le nozze di Figaro at the Aspen Music Festival, for which Opera News described him as an “impressive performer with a big, richly colored baritone.” He was a member of Merola Opera Program in 2017 and 2013, performing Death/Sāvitri and Collatinus/The Rape of Lucretia respectively. Other roles performed include the title role and Leporello/Don Giovanni, Sprecher/Die Zauberflöte, Don Basilio/Il barbiere di Siviglia, Colline/La bohème, and Bottom/A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Mr. Weigel grew up in Asheville, NC and is an alumnus of Furman University (Bachelor of Music), The University of North Carolina Greensboro (Master of Music), the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (Professional Artist Certificate), and the University of Michigan (Doctor of Musical Arts). Chris Reynolds, piano First-year Ryan Opera Center pianist Chris Reynolds has made a name for himself as both a soloist and a collaborator. Reynolds is currently a doctoral candidate at The Juilliard School. He recently concluded his run as performance pianist for Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage’s chamber opera Intimate Apparel at the Lincoln Center Theater. Other recent performance venues include Bayreuth, Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, WQXR, the Kyoto Summer Music Festival, and National Sawdust. A two-time winner of the Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital Auditions, he has been a fellow at SongFest and Aspen, as well as a Schwab Rising Star at Caramoor as part of the New York Festival of Song Emerging Artist Series. Reynolds has worked at the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater as an opera coach/répétiteur. He has given a series of lecture-performances at Columbia University (on Schubert’s Winterreise) and Union College in Schenectady (on Liszt’s Piano Sonata and thematic transformation). He has been on the faculties of the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, William Paterson University, and the Mostly Modern Festival. Reynolds holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Julian Martin, Margo Garrett, Brian Zeger, Lydia Brown, Jonathan Feldman, JJ Penna, and Cameron Stowe. In July 2020, Reynolds appeared in Lyric’s Lawrence Brownlee and Friends: The Next Chapter concert. Chris Reynolds is sponsored by Nancy Dehmlow, Loretta N. Julian, and Philip G. Lumpkin.
The biography is courtesy of the IMF.