Tenor Oliver Lo will kick off SUNY Oswego’s Ke-Nekt Chamber Music Series for the season with a performance at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18, in the Sheldon Hall ballroom.
Lo’s program will be unique in its composition in that instead of presenting works by famous lead characters in operas and other productions, he will explore a compelling repertoire sung by secondary characters. A post-concert talk will follow.
Currently director of opera/music theater and associate professor in voice at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Lo has sung a diverse concert repertoire spanning from the tenor solo in Bach's cantata "Wir danken dir" and Handel's “Judas Maccabaeus” to Mendelssohn's “Elijah” and Orff's “Carmina Burana.”
Selected as one of the 13 national finalists for the 1999 Rehfuss Singing Actor Awards at Orlando Opera, Lo’s operatic roles include Basilio and Curzio in “Le nozze di Figaro,” Jacquino in “Fidelio,” Nemorino in “L'elisir d'amore,” Romo in “Romo et Juliet,” Fenton in “Falstaff” and Sam in “Susannah.”
He has been stage/music director and pit conductor for operas and musicals, with selected credits including Mozart's “Le Nozze di Figaro,” Gilbert and Sullivan's “Trial by Jury” and “The Pirates of Penzance,” Puccini's “La bohème” and “Gianni Schicchi,” Strauss' “Die Fledermaus,” Menotti's “Medium,” Frank Loesser's “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” Elton John and Tim Rice's “Aida” and Mark Hollmann's “Urinetown.”
After quitting his day job as a mechanical engineer, he started his musical journey by attending the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and graduated with distinction. He then received a full scholarship and teaching assistantship and earned his doctor of musical arts degree in vocal performance (minor in directing) at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester.
Lo was a tenured associate professor and director of opera theatre at East Tennessee State University, and, for 10 years, was a full-time music faculty member at the Division of Humanities at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where his course "Music, Drama and Theatre" received the inaugural Common Core Course Excellence Award in 2012.
The Ke-Nekt Chamber Music Series is a collaboration between the ARTSwego Performing Arts Series and SUNY Oswego Music Department.
Tickets –- available via tickets.oswego.edu –- are free for SUNY Oswego students; $12 for faculty/staff/alumni; $15 for the general public and $5 for non-SUNY Oswego students.
Persons needing accommodations to attend this event should contact the box office at 315-312-3703 or tickets@oswego.edu at least 48 hours in advance of curtain.
For more information on this performance and other performing arts events, visit oswego.edu/artswego.