09/25/2023
There is much talk these days around the subject of FIRSTS!
New beginnings, new performances, new ideas, premiers of new productions,
as well as new compositions and we at Teatro Mistral LOVE it ALL!
But, I want to speak of a different kind of FIRST, a first, exciting possibility for someone who has spent their adult career in another field entirely finding their way to a FIRST in our company and a very FIRST role in Opera - I am speaking now of lyric tenor
Arie Perry, who will be shining as the Music Seller on the dying water planet of Lissia in our intergalactic rendering of Puccini's Il Tabarro. So, to find out more about Mr. Perry, please read on!
Vismaya Lhi: What was your introduction to music?
Arie Perry: My musical training started in 5th grade when my parents bought me an acoustic guitar and I started taking lessons. Working on folk songs, we typically sang while we played and a couple of years later, one of my fellow students said: “hey, you have a really great voice and should consider joining the choir”. I must admit that at the time, I didn’t give it much thought because “choir wasn’t really considered cool” back then. Nevertheless, my first major public singing experience ended up being my bar mitzvah at the age of 13. Because I was born in Israel and spoke more Hebrew than most, the rabbi suggested that I take a larger role than usual and I ended up leading most of the service, serving almost like a cantor. I remember that afterwards, one of my parents’ friends told me that she was actually moved to tears, which totally shocked me, but of course, in a very gratifying way. Later on in my junior year of high-school, I got together with a few friends to form a rock and roll band. No-one else in the band wanted anything to do with the singing other than back up and my friend was a far better guitarist than I could ever hope to be. As such, he suggested that I take the role of lead singer while he took care of lead guitar. I decided that if I was going to do that, I better get some training. At that point, I finally joined our high-school choir and started taking voice lessons. It was there that I caught the “classical bug” and eventually realized that my mellifluous/non-abrasive lyric tenor was better suited to this genre than rock and roll. During my premedical studies in college at UT Austin, I kept taking choir and voice lessons, eventually getting more solo opportunities as well. Most of my friends at the time were music majors and as I watched them perform their senior recitals, I got sufficiently jealous that I decided to do one as well, just for the heck of it. During medical school, residency, fellowship training, and beyond, I sang as much as time would allow, which mostly meant choral concerts with various solos. For many years, I focused mostly on baroque and classical, with Handel’s Messiah being my most frequent solo (performed >30 times). I also served as the Assistant Principal Tenor for a Bach choir for 12 years.
2nd question answered in the next post! Stay tuned!
