Baritone Dean Southern to present master class at Luther Sept. 20

Baritone Dean Southern, professor of voice at the Cleveland Institute of Music in Cleveland, Ohio, will present a master class at Luther College on Thursday, Sept. 20, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Noble Recital Hall.

The evening will begin with a short performance by Southern, accompanied by Jessica Paul, and will be followed by a master class with selected Luther College singers. Southern will also speak about study and performance opportunities for singers at the Cleveland Institute of Music and at the American Institute for Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.

After the mater class, Southern, a member of the faculty at AIMS, will offer auditions to Luther vocal students for the Institute’s 2008 season.

Southern will hold private lessons with Luther vocalists on Friday, Sept. 21, and will be guest teacher in the Friday session of the Opera Scenes class, taught by Andrew Whitfield, Luther assistant professor of music.

Southern has performed at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and The Kennedy Center, and with the Perugia (Italy) Chamber Orchestra and the Akron Symphony Orchestra.

His opera credits include Count Almaviva in “Le nozze di Figaro,” Papageno in “Die Zauberflöte,” Masetto in “Don Giovanni,” Nardo in “La finta giardiniera,” Peter in “Hansel and Gretel” and Captain William Clark in the world premiere of Michael Ching’s “Corps of Discovery.”

When he was with Santa Fe Opera, he was a member of its apprentice artist program for singers and performed two tours throughout the Southwest.

As a director, he has staged opera productions ranging from Mozartian classics such as “The Marriage of Figaro,” “Don Giovanni” and “La finta giardiniera” to modern works including “The Medium,” “The Telephone” and “A Hand of Bridge.”  He will direct “Hansel and Gretel” at Duke University in 2008.

A 1991 graduate of Luther, Southern holds master’s degrees in piano performance from the University of Missouri and voice performance from the University of Akron.  He is completing the doctor of musical arts degree in voice at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

He has performed in master classes with Sir Jonathan Miller, Evelyn Lear, Nico Castel, John Wustman and Warren Jones.

Southern has also taught at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music, and the University of Akron.