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Biographies  

 

VICTOR TRENT COOK

 

Victor Trent Cook, a native New Yorker and Brooklyn-born, began singing at the age of three in his home church, The House of David.  After discovering his unique talent, he began his musical training at the Brooklyn Boys Chorus School under the direction of  James McCarthy and continued his study at The High School of Music and Arts.  Mr. Cook’s Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include The Haggadah, Romance in Hard Times, Don’t Get God Started, Street Corner Symphony and Starmites.  He is most notably known for his 1995 Tony Award-nomination in Smokey Joe’s Café.  He has toured throughout Japan with Harlem Symphony and Europe with Body and Soul, and more recently appeared in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Eartha Kit.  Mr. Cook’s television credits include

Victor Trent Cook

All My Children, Ryan’s Hope, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd as well as various commercials.  Mr. Cook’s film credits include Hanging with the Homeboys and Starlight.  As a soloist, Mr. Cook has appeared at The White House, John F. Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall and Boston Symphony Hall with conductors including Zubin Mehta, Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa.  He was also the 1988 $100,000 male vocalist Star Search winner.  He feels honored to share the stage with Rod and Thomas.  God bless you all.

 

 

RODRICK DIXON

 

Rodrick Dixon, voice has a quality like polished steel under tension-  flexible and ringingly resonant.”  (Chicago Tribune). He has appeared on stage and in concert in a variety of dramatic roles that encompass the worlds of Opera, Oratorio, Concert, Music Theater and Television. Rodrick Dixon’s television credits include PBS specials Cook Dixon & Young Volume One, the Washington Opera Gala at Constitution Hall, The Mark Twain Awards honoring Whoopi Goldberg at The Kennedy Center, My Favorite Broadway: The Love Songs at City Center, Three Mo’ Tenors at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York,  The Jerry Lewis Telethon (2002-2003), Marshall Fields’ Christmas commercials, A Christmas Glory on FOX channel 9

Rodrick Dixon

and TVOne’s “Tis The Season” Holiday special. He appeared on the Tony Awards as a part of the hit Broadway musical Ragtime, as well as NBC’s Today Show, Good Morning America, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, Chicago Tonight and the Tavis Smiley Show.

Rodrick Dixon made his LA OPERA debut as Walther von der Vogelweide in Wagner’s TANNHÄUSER. He also joined the LA Opera Orchestra as soloist in two special concerts featuring the music of composers Korngold's Die Tote Stadt and Schuloff's Die Flammen which is part of the LA OPERA’S Recovered Voices Project, dedicated to performing music of composers affected by the Holocaust.

Mr. Dixon has appeared at Cincinnati May Festival (The Bells, Carmina Burana under Maestro James Conlon) He appeared in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Rossini Gala (Ravinia Festival), Millennium Park Opening with Chicago Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Dayton Symphony, Denver Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Elgin Symphony, Rackham Symphony Chorus (Handel’s Messiah) and Vail Music Festival (Beethoven 9th under Marin Alsop). 

He made his Michigan Opera Theater and TODI music festival debut as Tonio in LA FILLE DU REGIMENT, Hoffman in Portland Opera’s TALES OF HOFFMAN, Prince in Columbus Opera’s world premiere of VANQUI, Sportin’ Life in Virginia Opera’s PORGY AND BESS, one of the four lovers in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s DON QUICHOTE, the Judge in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s IL TROVATORE, Prince in the world premiere of Lyric Opera Center for American Artists’ THE SONG OF MAJNUN, Don Ottavio and Zuniga in the Lyric Center productions of DON GIOVANNI and LA TRAGEDIE DE CARMEN.

Mr. Dixon earned rave reviews for his Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert broadcast honoring Roland Hayes on WFMT-FM Chicago. He was tenor soloist for the Do-it- yourself-Messiah at Orchestra Hall and Lyric Opera of Chicago and completed a national Community Concerts recital tour with his wife, soprano Alfreda Burke in 2001. Music Theater credits include Ragtime on Broadway; Showboat at the Auditorium Theater, Chicago Pops concerts at Grant Park Music Festival, the Chicago Pops Orchestra at the Rosemont Theater and Cincinnati Pops with Erich Kunzel.

His CD and DVD recordings include the PBS Great Performances Cook Dixon & Young Volume One (2005), Follow That Star Christmas CD by Bishop T.D. Jakes and PBS Three Mo’Tenors CD and DVD.

In 2007 he is returning to the May Festival (Rossini Stabat Mater under the baton of James Conlon), TODI Music Festival as Lenski (EUGENE ONEGIN); Christmas concerts of “Too Hot To Handel” at Detroit Opera House and Auditorium Theatre under the baton of Suzanne Acton as well as tour and perform with The Tenors…Cook, Dixon & Young.

In August 2007 Mr. Dixon will make his film debut in a leading role of a 30-minute short film entitled, ”Mio Sogno” (My Dream), directed by Philadelphia filmmaker, Frantz T. Excellent and co-produced by Brian R. Chacon.  This empowering story tells of a fictitious first African-descent dramatic-tenor to sing the role of Giuseppe Verdi's powerful opera, ”Otello” at La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera.

In 2008 Mr. Dixon returns to the LA OPERA stage to star as Der Zwerg in the LA OPERA’s production of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg.   Visit www.tenorroddixon.com .

 

 

THOMAS YOUNG

 

Grammy-award winning lyric tenor Thomas Young has appeared as a principal soloist in the major concert halls and opera houses of some 20 countries, and under the baton of, among others, Zubin Mehta, Roger Norrington, Simon Rattle, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. In addition to his distinguished performance career, Mr. Young serves as a tenured Professor of Music at Sarah Lawrence College.

 

Known for his unique dramatic and musical intelligence, as well as beauty of tone and exceptional technique, Mr. Young is recognized as today’s foremost interpreter of tenor roles in contemporary opera. Mr. Young made his Chicago Lyric Opera debut in the world premiere of Anthony Davis’ Amistad as the Trickster God, a role written for him by Mr. Davis.

Thomas Young

Mr. Young made his New York City Opera debut singing the dual roles of Street and Elijah Muhammad in his first collaboration with Davis for the world

premiere of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. After this “brilliantly chameleonic performance” (Donal Henahan – The New York Times), New York City Opera invited him back to sing Aron in Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron and then Desportes in Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten. Anthony Davis went on to compose another role for Mr. Young in the science-fiction opera Under the Double Moon, which premiered at the

Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

 

Marking his San Francisco Opera debut in John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer, Mr. Young created the role of Molqi and the role of Jonathan Rumor for the world premiere at the Opera de la Monnale in Brussels. Under the direction of Peter Sellars and baton of Kent Nagano, performances followed at the Opera de Lyon, Vienna Festival, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. Called on 48 hours notice, Mr. Young made his Covent Garden debut as the rebel Schwalb in Hindemith’s Mathis der Mahler, again under the

direction of Peter Sellars with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting.

 

Mr. Young sang Polo in Tan Dun’s Marco Polo at the Hong Kong Festival, a role which he created for the Biennale Festival in Munich. Performances followed in Glasgow, London, Amsterdam, Torino and Tokyo.  Mr. Young’s work at the Netherlands Opera includes Stravinsky’s Biblical Pieces under the direction of Peter Sellars with Reinbert de Leeuw conducting, Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy, Schoenberg’s Von Heute auf Morgan directed by Pierre Audi and conducted by Oliver Knussen, and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtensk directed by David Poutney. Other roles include Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex in the title role, Gounod’s Faust in the title role, the U.S. premiere of Rossini’s Armida in the role of Rinaldo at Tulsa Opera, Handel’s Imeneo at New York City’s Town Hall and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in the role of Sportin’ Life at Houston Grand Opera.

 

Mr. Young was called on 48 hours notice to sing Aron in Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron at the Maggio Musicale Florentino Festival in Florence. Under the baton of Zubin Mehta, Mr. Young’s singing was “… just short of miraculous” (Corriere della Sera).

 

Mr. Young’s North American concert appearances include performances in Blitzstein’s Airborne Symphony and Schmidt’s The Book of Seven Seals with the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Brooklyn Philharmonic conducted by Dennis Russell Davies at Brooklyn Academy of Music and Avery Fisher Hall; Mozart’s Great Mass in C conducted by Lukas Foss at Brooklyn Academy of Music; Too Hot to Handel, and Duke Ellington’s Sacred Songs with Concordia Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop at Alice Tully Hall; J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Long Island Philharmonic conducted by Christopher Keene; Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with St. Lukes Chamber Orchestra, Philippe Herreweghe conducting; Mozart’s Messiah with the St. Louis Symphony conducted by Andrew Parrott; Elliot Carter’s In Sleep In Thunder with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Oliver Knussen conducting.

 

Mr. Young’s national tours include Jesus Christ Superstar in the role of Judas and The Wiz as The Wiz. Regional musical theatre appearances include Pippin as the Leading Player, Evita as Che, and Sweet Charity as Daddy Brubeck.

 

 

Recent engagements include touring, recording and performing as part of the well known ensemble Three Mo’ Tenors and now as Cook Dixon & Young; Michael Tipett’s A Child of our Time under the direction of Sir Roger Norrington and Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tiresias in concert version conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, both with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Kurt Weill’s Street Scene in the role of Sam Kaplan with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Lawrence Foster conducting; Stravinsky’s The Flood at Carnegie Hall with the London Sinfonietta under the direction of Oliver Knussen; Bernstein’s Mass as the Celebrant with the Cincinnati Orchestra, James Conlon conducting; Verdi’s Requiem with the Colorado Symphony, Marin Alsop conducting; and a staged production of Tan Dun’s Marco Polo in the role of Polo at the Zagreb Bennale in Croatia.

 

Mr. Young’s recordings include the Grammy-nominated X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, on Gramavison; John Adams’ Grammy-nominated The Death of Klinghoffer on Elektra/Nonesuch; Tan Dun’s Marco Polo on SONY, named Opera of the Year by Opera Magazine; and George Gershwin’s Blue Monday on Telarc. Most recently he can be heard on the multi-Grammy award winning recording of William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and Experience, Leonard Slatkin conducting, and Too Hot to Handel, Marin Alsop conducting, both on Naxos.

 

Mr. Young’s own recordings include High Standards and Claire de Lune, Sister Moon on ESSAY Records; and A Star in the East, A Spiritual Christmas on Ocean Records. Mr. Young is the singing voice of Mighty Mouse on Ralph Bakshi’s animated series.  Visit www.thomasyoungtenor.com

 

© Cook, Dixon & Young 2006