Baritone Timothy Mix to make Saratoga Springs debut

Baritone Timothy Mix will make his Saratoga Springs debut in a Skidmore College Filene Concert Series recital scheduled at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 25, in the Arthur Zankel Music Center's Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall. 

Pianist Christopher Cano will be the collaborative artist with the singer in a program titled "Operatic Inspirations," including pieces that are closely identified with famous baritones from the past.

General admission to the Skidmore performance will be $12, or $5 for students. Tickets are available online . Mix will also lead a master class from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26, in Zankel's ELM (Room 117). The class is free and open for the public to watch.

It is likely that many in the audience will recall having seen Mix perform several years ago, on another stage.

Known for the beauty of his voice and for his compelling stage presence, Mix played one of the leads in New York City Opera's Margaret Garner in September 2007 at the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center. The opera's composer, Richard Danielpour, was Skidmore's McCormack Visiting Artist-Scholar during the 2006-2007 academic year, and the Office of the Dean of Special Programs underwrote bus transportation to New York City and tickets for Skidmore students, faculty, and staff to attend the critically acclaimed show that featured a libretto by Toni Morrison.

Mix played plantation slave-owner Gaines in that show, earning praise such as, "Timothy Mix musters evil conviction in the baritonal platitudes of the slave-owner," from the Financial Times. He received City Opera's 2008 Christopher Keene Award for his Margaret Garner performance, and also earned a 2008 Richard Tucker Foundation Career Grant.

During the current 2010-11 season Mix has traveled to the Washington National Opera to perform the role of Renato in James Robinson's production of Un Ballo in Maschera, and to the San Francisco Opera to sing in the company premiere of Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac as Le Bret, as well as Prus in Jan cek's The Makropolus Case. The artist sang with Portland Opera as Ping in Turandotearly this month, and will wrap up his season by singing Albert in Werther with the Washington Concert Opera, conducted by Antony Walker.

In the 2009-10 season, Mix made his Washington National Opera debut as Ford in Falstaff, as well as his San Francisco Opera debut in La Fanciulla del West. He also sang his first performances with Arizona Opera as Marcello in La Boh me, brought his Belcore to Toledo Opera's L'elisir d'amore, joined Opera Southwest as Escamillo in Carmen, and sang Handel's Messiah with the Pacific Symphony.

A former Pittsburgh Opera Center artist, Mix has sung with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Asheville Symphony, the Yaraslavl Symphony in Russia, and the Finnish National Opera Orchestra.