Eric Conway (L), Soloman Howard (R)
Eric Conway, D.M.A.:
Hello everyone,
Last night, my wife and I
had the opportunity to hear the bass voice of Soloman Howard make his
Metropolitan Opera Debut in the role of King in Verdi's Aida!
Soloman
graduated from Morgan's Music program in 2008. After graduation,
Soloman entered the Manhattan School of Music to graduate in 2010. He
then entered several Young Artist programs including the very
prestigious program at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in
Washington, DC. After only six short years from his student days at
Morgan, he has gone on to perform at the most acclaimed Opera House in
the World, the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center in mid-town
Manhattan.
I must admit, although I have been
at many performances at all of the other venues at Lincoln Center: New
York City Opera, Avery Fisher Hall, and Alice Tully Hall, I have never
attended a performance at the MET. We have a very large hall at
Morgan in our Gilliam Concert Hall, boasting the 3rd largest hall in
Baltimore with a little over 2,036 seats, however, the MET with 3,800
seats is at least 85% larger than Gilliam. Having said that, the volume
of Gilliam Concert Hall is great training for anyone who hopes to
aspire to an operatic career. After the opera, I spoke with Soloman,
and he commented on how great he was trained at Morgan for this career
he is now enjoying. Long-time vocal teaching icon Betty Malkus Ridgeway
was Soloman's teacher while at Morgan. He has often given Ms. Ridgeway
credit for training him so very well and constantly encouraging him to
pursue this incredible career aspiration that he is now achieving.
I
had heard about the physical sets at the MET but was not ready for the
size of the set. This Aida set had to be at least one hundred feet tall!
The triumphant procession of the two hundred plus member cast in the
2nd act boasted soldiers on horses galloping on stage along with other
four-legged creatures. Six-foot five inch Soloman always had an
incredible stage presence. When he entered the stage in the role of
Egyptian King, it was clear that he had a very commanding presence on
this very large stage at the MET. There was no question upon hearing
his voice that he truly belonged on this New York Metropolitan stage.
After
the production, my wife and I went back stage to say hello to Soloman. He was so very pleased to see someone from back home share in this
great event in this life, i.e. you only have one MET debut! He
introduced us to his agent and to his girlfriend! He was proud to say
that we were from Morgan. We spoke about how the many concerts that he
had with the choir all over the world, helped prepare him for the many big
debut moments he already has had in his career.
Many
of the house ushers already new Soloman's name and voice and mentioned
how much they enjoyed his voice after I mentioned that he was a former
student. It appears that Soloman will have many debuts this season
including debuts with the Los Angeles Opera and the Glimmerglass
Festival in upstate New York. See attached a few pages from the Met's
playbill. Please note that all the other principals in the Opera were
from all over the world including Italy, Montenegro, Russia, Ukraine,
except for Soloman Howard, the only principal who heralded from the USA
in Washington, DC!
We are so very proud of
Soloman! If you know Soloman personally, you know that he is a wonderful
young man. It takes so much persistence to achieve in this incredibly
competitive business of opera. Following in the footsteps of former
Morganites to sing on the Metropolitan Stage including Kevin Short and
April Haines, I KNOW that Soloman will not be the last Morganite to sing
at the MET! Fair Morgan!
Eric
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