Alumnus returns to School of Music roots for residency

SUNY Fredonia alumnus and Metropolitan Opera National Council Grand Finals winner Kyle van Schoonhoven, ’11, will return to campus as a Williams Visiting Professor, beginning Oct. 24.

The Williams Visiting Professorship is supported through an endowment established with the Fredonia College Foundation. The residency is in two parts, a month during the fall semester and a return in the spring.

A highlight of Mr. van Schoonhoven’s time during the fall semester will be a guest artist recital on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 8 p.m., in Rosch Recital Hall. He will perform excerpts from Richard Wagner's "Die Walküre" with soprano Sarah Cambidge, bass James Harrington and pianist Wilson Southerland. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Mr. van Schoonhoven, a Lockport native, will participate in various Voice studio classes, Hillman Opera rehearsals, graduate and undergraduate diction courses, cello studio class, and the newly-created course, Coaching and Conducting in the Theater. He will also offer individual opera coaching, attend a variety of voice lessons, and participate in an informal Q&A with members of the Student Opera Theater Association.

Organizers of the residency note, “His presence on campus will bring significant attention to the university, providing unique and outstanding learning opportunities for students and faculty in a variety of disciplines. We look forward in the spring to intersect with a variety of other programs within the School of Music and the larger university.”

Heldentenor van Schoonhoven is considered a Wagnerian “star on the rise.” The New York Times praises him for possessing a “gleaming, potent” instrument with a “steady, burnished sound.” Of a concert performance with the San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Chronicle raved: “the title character’s prayer from the final act of Wagner’s Rienzi elicited a gleaming, potent performance from tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven, marked by suave phrasing and tonal freshness.” This past spring, van Schoonhoven made his European debut with Opera de Rouen as Laca in “Jenůfa,” performed the role of Don José in “The Tragedy of Carmen” with Hawaii Opera Theatre, and joined the Bard Music Festival for Chausson’s “Le roi Arthus.” The current season sees van Schoonhoven’s return to the Metropolitan Opera as the Messenger in “Aida” and in “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” and singing performances of Britten’s “The War Requiem” with the Prague Philharmonic Choir in support of the crisis in Ukraine.

Schoonhoven is the recipient of a 2019 George London award, has received the Nicolai Gedda Memorial Award and was a finalist in the 2016 Jensen Foundation Voice Competition.