Gail Gilmore

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Gail Varina Gilmore (born September 21, 1950 in Washington, DC ) is an American opera , jazz and gospel singer ( mezzo-soprano ). Gail Gilmore became famous for her interpretation of Kundry in Richard Wagner's Parsifal .

Life

Training and initial engagements

Gail Gilmore grew up in Washington and later in New Orleans . Gail Gilmore graduated from the Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans with a degree in music teaching and was awarded a Bachelor of Music degree in 1972. At Indiana University in Bloomington , she continued her music studies, which she graduated with a Masters of Music in 1974. In the same year, the twenty-four-year-old singer began her stage career in Germany, where she still has the focus of her career today. She stood out for her great musicality, her acting talent and her unusual, dark voice. She made her debut at the Stadttheater Giessen as Princess Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo . This was followed by an engagement at the Stadttheater Krefeld , where she mainly took on trouser roles like Cherubino in Figaro's wedding , Hansel in Hansel and Gretel and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier . In Krefeld she also sang Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde . From 1979 to 1982 Gail Gilmore was a member of the ensemble of the Hessian State Theater in Wiesbaden . Under the direction of General Music Director Siegfried Köhler , the singer celebrated great success as Adriano in Rienzi , as Princess Eboli and as Venus im Tannhäuser . In 1982 Gail Gilmore accepted a call at the Nuremberg Opera House . At the same time, Michael Gielen engaged her for regular guest performances at the Frankfurt Opera , where the singer became a member of the ensemble in 1985 and was one of the first people in the house.

Breakthrough as Kundry

In Nuremberg she sang Kundry in Wagner's Parsifal for the first time in the 1981/82 season . Gail Gilmore made her international breakthrough in Ruth Berghaus ' Frankfurt production of Parsifal , which premiered in 1982 and was directed by Michael Gielen. She sang Kundry at the side of Peter Hofmann at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York . Critics especially emphasized her phrasing and her differentiated understanding of the role of Kundry. In the 1980s further guest appearances at the Metropolitan Opera and at other large international opera houses followed. Gail Gilmore sang roles such as Venus im Tannhäuser , Fricka in Die Walküre and composer in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Met under the direction of James Levine . In the Arena of Verona she sang Ulrica in the Verdi opera Un ballo in maschera , Amneris in Aida and, alongside José Carreras , the title role in Carmen . Gail Gilmore played well over forty operatic roles, including Ortrud in Lohengrin , Lady Macbeth in Macbeth and the title roles in Othmar Schoeck's opera Penthesilea and in Carl Orff's opera Antigonae .

Roles in the highly dramatic subject

With a vocal range of three and a half octaves, Gilmore's singing teacher Rudolf Bautz encouraged Gilmore to also sing roles of the highly dramatic subject, such as Leonore in Fidelio , the title roles in Elektra and Salome , and the female title roles in Tosca and Turandot . Gail Gilmore also sang in seldom performed operas such as the opera Fosca by the Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Gomes , which premiered at La Scala in Milan in 1873 .

To this day, Gail Gilmore impresses on the opera stage and in the concert hall not only with her internalized and expressive art of singing, but also with the extraordinary credibility of her operatic roles and her large stage presence. In May 2010 she made her role debut as the old Countess in Queen of Spades at the Erfurt Theater .

Concerts and teaching

Gail Gilmore appears again and again as a concert singer. Her repertoire includes the Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss , the Third Symphony by Gustav Mahler , the Alto Rhapsody by Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder . From the beginning of her career, Gail Gilmore has given concerts with piano accompaniment, in which she performs well-known opera arias as well as songs by American composers and her own arrangements of gospels. In 2002 Gail Gilmore started the Oldambster Music Festival, which took place in Bellingwolde, The Netherlands. For six years, Gail Gilmore invited famous artists from around the world every year. The musical offer of the extraordinarily successful festival ranged from opera to musicals to jazz , gospel and blues .

From 2007 to 2012 Gail Gilmore taught singing in the subjects opera, musical, jazz, pop and gospel at the private singing school star me up in Munich , led by Christin Bonin . Gail Gilmore has been a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (Faculty of Applied Social Sciences) since the summer semester 2010 . She lectured in the field of child and youth welfare with the project "Musical work with young people with behavioral problems" in collaboration with Professor Gunter Adams (head of the child and youth welfare in Würzburg). She also held exercises together with Dean Professor Dr. Rainer Wiestner, in the field of rehabilitation and assistance to the endangered, with the topics "Music in prison" and "Freedom and chains", the history of slavery with musical examples. Since 2012 she has been teaching at the private music institute Kreativ Musikforum in Munich-Trudering .

In 2019 Gail Gilmore was awarded an honorary doctorate ("honorary degree") for visual arts from the Xavier University of Louisiana .

literature

Discography

  • Gail Gilmore sings famous Opera Arias 1992 (Verdi records)
  • Gail Gilmore sings Gershwin 1993 (Sony)
  • Gail Gilmore sings Verdi: Composizioni da camera per canto e pianoforte, Strauss: Lieder 1996 (Carey)
  • Fosca by Antonio Carlos Gomes (complete recording) 1997 (Sudameris)
  • Gail Gilmore sings Gospels and Spirituals 1997 (Carey)
  • Gail Gilmore: aria 1999 (Signum)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Xavier University Honors their own while Encouraging Graduates to follow in the footsteps of Alums who continue to make an Impact. Press Release of Xavier University of Louisiana , May 8, 2019 accessed June 19 of 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Gilmore, Gail
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gilmore, Gail Varina (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American opera, jazz and gospel singer (mezzo-soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC