Simon ESTES
(USA)
bass-baritone Simon Estes grew up in Iowa he sang in church as a youth, but when he enrolled at the University of Iowa in the late 50s he had never heard an opera and had no idea he wanted to become a professional singer. He joined an a cappella quartet called the Old Gold Singers, where a professor of voice heard him and invited him to listen to some recordings of opera. Estes took to the music immediately and moved on to study at the Juilliard School in New York and later in Europe. Estes attracted attention when he won a silver medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1966, and soon he was winning major roles in European houses. He became identified with Wagner roles, and in 1978 he sang a lead role at the Wagnerian shrine of Bayreuth (in Der fliegende Holländer). His Metropolitan Opera debut in New York came in 1982, in Tannhäuser, and he made a return appearance three years later, as Porgy in Gershwin»s Porgy and Bess. That production was one of the hits of the 1980s at the Met, and for a time Estes was a familiar face in newspapers and magazines, and even on television.
With a repertory that topped 100 roles, Estes has remained a familiar figure on operatic stages for several decades. Of the over one hundred roles in his repertoire, he is most often associated with King Phillip in Don Carlo, Wotan in Wagner's Ring cycle, Amfortas in Parsifal, King Mark in Tristan and Isolde, the four bass-baritone roles in The Tales of Hoffmann, Escamillo in Carmen, Porgy in Porgy and Bess and the title roles in Boris Godunov, Verdi's Attila, Nabucco, Oberto,and Macbeth, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Saint-Saens King Henry VIII, Rossini's Moses and Berthold Goldschmidt's Cenci. In the title role in Wagner‘s The Flying Dutchman he appeared triumphantly for six successive years at the Bayreuth Festival. His debut there marked the first appearance of any black male artist at this shrine to Richard Wagner. Mr. Estes' recording of The Flying Dutchman, with Woldemar Nelsson conducting the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus, is available on the Philips Classics label.
Known throughout the world for his opera, concert, and recital performances, as well as for his recordings and Breitling Professional Replicaappearances in television shows including the Tonight Show and the Today Show, Simon Estes still finds time to share his love and knowledge of music with students from elementary school through college with master classes and lectures.
He is Professor at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa and at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. In his master classes, across the country and the world, Dr. Estes teaches not only music, but artistic and personal values as well.