Opera singer tells his story at the Quick Center
Ray Chenez, a world-renowned opera singer, was welcomed to St. Bonaventure campus as the Lenna Visiting Scholar. He built a career in Europe as one of the foremost countertenors in the field of opera.
From his roots in State University of New York at Fredonia, where he received his B.A., to his current status as a vocalist of the highest caliber, Chenez shared his story and his passion with an attentive crowd in the Rigas Family Theater of the Regina A. Quick Center of the Arts this past Tuesday.
Students, faculty and nearby local residents of St. Bonaventure showed up in large numbers to this event. Dr. David Hilmey, Dean of Arts & Sciences, introduced Chenez to the stage, listing off his numerous impressive accomplishments. The countries Chenez performed in includes the U.S. (in places like Carnegie Hall), Germany, France, England, Macedonia, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, Romania and Austria.
Chenez is involved in many projects and works. He has performed in multiple languages, including Italian and Russian. His current focus is on an undertaking of his called BroadRay, and this performance will be shown to a St. Bonaventure audience.
“His upcoming work will be featured as concert recital on Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. [in the Rigas Theater], which is free and open to the public,” said Hilmey.
In order to give the audience an idea of what his work is like, he sang an aria from the Baroque era called Ombra Mai Fu from Serse with the accompaniment on the piano played by Laura Peterson, a lecturer in Bonaventure’s music department.
He went on to talk about how going to Europe really launched his career.
“There’s a lot more opportunities in Europe. And so, I started thinking how am I going to get to Europe? I have no idea how to start that,” said Chenez. “I applied for a competition called the Belvedere Competition and they listen to singers all over the world. They took me as one of 10 Americans to go to the final rounds in Germany.”
After weighing his options, Chenez came to the decision this opportunity was too important to pass up and so he went to Europe.
“Nothing came of this competition for me,” said Chenez. “Absolutely nothing happened.”
He wrote a Facebook message to Max Emanuel Cencic, a master countertenor who runs an agency that hires and represents many other countertenors, while he was there though. Through this contact, Chenez got an audition spot to showcase his talents for Cencic.
Chenez got an understudy role from this audition, and he covered a part for another opera singer when that singer couldn’t be there.
It turned out the singer called in right before he was supposed to arrive. He was sick and, per his doctor’s orders, could not sing for three weeks. Chenez credits the exposure he got from playing this part while that singer was sick for launching his career.
Chenez then showed where he was at now. He had just finished an opera in Germany that was a contemporary piece performed in Russian. He is now well known in Europe for his talents and receives several crucial roles in operas in several different countries there.
By Landon Allison, Staff Writer
allisolj17@bonaventure.edu
