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Meet The Company Of The Bleecker Street Opera
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Richard Owen, Music Director and Conductor
Of his debut in Austria, The Wiener Zeitung (Vienna News) proclaimed: “Maestro Owen must be a genius... how flowing and musical this young American was able to realize the music from the podium.” An invitation from Kurt Masur to conduct a reading with the New York Philharmonic followed shortly and now Maestro Owen has a busy career conducting both symphonic and operatic repertoire in Europe and the United States. This season, Maestro Owen was the Music Director of the Amore Opera in New York (the successor to the Amato Opera) and conducted fully staged opera productions of La Boheme and Hansel and Gretel. Mr. Owen is also Music Director and conductor of Camerata New York Orchestra and over the past decade has worked with artists such as Alec Baldwin, Nathaniel Rosen, Alvin Ailey and Aprile Millo in concerts in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and in Europe. Mo. Owen was also a cover conductor at the New York Philharmonic over the past three seasons and covered concerts of Sir Colin Davis and Maestro Charles Dutoit.
 From 2005-7, Maestro Owen was a staff conductor at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein during which time his repertoire included major operas of Wagner, Mozart, Berlioz, Puccini and Verdi. Mr. Owen was also a visiting conducting associate at the San Francisco Opera and interim music director of the Westchester-Putnam Youth Symphony. Mr. Owen has conducted in Germany with the Duisburg Symphony and the Duesseldorf Symphony, the Staatskapelle Symphony Weimar, Ost/West Symphonie and Kammer Orchester; in Vienna with the Europa Symphony, Camerata Internazionale and Pro-Arte Orchestra; in Mexico with the Monterrey Symphony; in Poland with the Rzeszow Philharmonic, the Silesian Philharmonic and the Baltic Opera. In the United States, he has conducted, among others, the New York Philharmonic, the Jacksonville Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and was a conducting associate at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Recent guest-conducting engagements include the Belgrade National Philharmonic, the Hamptons Music Festival and the Altoona Symphony where Mr. Owen was a candidate for music director. Mr. Owen has been featured in the New York Times, Opera News, Newsday and on New York classical radio stations WQXR and WMNR as well as on Polish and Mexican Radio and Television. Mr. Owen was a semifinalist in the 7th Fitelberg International Competition for Young Conductors. He also recently completed a recording for Albany Records of the opera "Rain" by R. Owen Sr., which had its fully staged world premiere in Lincoln Center under his direction in 2003.
A rising star of the next generation of young conductors, Mo. Owen was born in New York City into a musical family. He began studying piano and voice at age five and started his professional performing career at age eight as a boy soloist at the Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Owen graduated from Dartmouth College, where he was a recipient of the Gerald Tracy piano scholarship. He received a Masters degree in accompanying from the Manhattan School of Music and studied conducting at the University for Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria. An accomplished pianist, Mr. Owen regularly gives recitals with his wife, a professional cellist. Mr. Owen resides with his wife and two sons in Brewster, New York.
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Richard Cerullo, Art Director
Scenic artist, Richard Cerullo, attended Manhattan's School of Art & Design but received most of his training in large scale painting working in the city's many display companies over the years. He began designing and painting stage sets at the Jean Coucteau Company at Bouwerie Lane Theatre back in 1971. Eventually doing scenery for the Belle Canto Opera, The New York Lyric Opera, The Theater for the New City, The Theater for American Actors, and most recently Studio Danté. his association with the Amato Opera Company spans some 38 years, including almost 40 operas often to critical acclaim from the NY Times, the Daily News, New York Magazine, the New Yorker, and Opera News. He is currently involved in the opening season of the Bleecker Street Opera.
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Jeff Bradbury, Associate Conductor and Chorus Master
 Jeff Bradbury is one of the fastest rising conductors in the Philadelphia region. He currently holds the position of music director of the Audubon Symphony and Spotliters musical theater companies, conductor for the Capitol Heights Lyric Opera, and assistant conductor for Opera Seabrook. Jeff Bradbury is the orchestra director at the North Brunswick Township High School. In 2009, the NBTHS Orchestra made its Carnegie Hall debut with Mr. Bradbury conducting, as a guest of Distinguished Concerts International New York. Mr. Bradbury received his Masters Degree in Conducting from West Chester University where he also earned a Bachelor of Science in Music Education. He has studied conducting with Kenneth Kiesler, Ovidiu Marinescu and Gabriel Gordon, and has studied viola under the instruction of Sylvia Ahramjian. He is also the founder and member of the West Chester String Quartet and The Shrewsbury String Quartet. After receiving a scholarship in the summer of 2000, he performed the Mozart Duo in G Major K.423 for Violin/Viola with Mrs. Sylvia Ahramjian at Oxford University. Mr. Bradbury has been a member of the conducting staff at the Strings International Festival, and has served as musical director for the Spotliters’ production of Oliver!, Anything Goes!, Footloose, and Assassins. Mr. Bradbury served as guest conductor for the Central New Jersey Music Educators Intermediate Orchestra. In addition, he participated in the Eastman Summer Conducting program in Rochester, New York and the Conductors Retreat at Medomak, where he studied with Kenneth Kiesler and Marianne Ploger. As a violist, Mr. Bradbury has appeared with various orchestras along the East Coast, including the Independence Sinfonia, Rowan University Symphony Orchestra, Old York Road Symphony, West Chester University Symphony Orchestra, Wilmington Community Orchestra, and South Jersey Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed recitals at the Kimmel Center, Swope Hall, and the Westminster Church of West Chester. He also performs at the annual concerts at Jakeman Hall in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Mr. Bradbury served as principal violist for a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia. In 2010, Jeff Bradbury will make several guest appearances for opera companies in both New York and Philadelphia. He is thrilled to be conducting Rigoletto for the Bleecker Street Opera Company. Mr. Bradbury will be returning to the Opera Seabrook stage in the fall for their production of Carmen. In November, Capitol Heights Lyric Opera will be performing Don Giovanni. Highlights of Mr. Bradbury’s 2009 performances have been as a guest conductor for the PMEA String Festival, as well as the NJMEA High School Orchestra festival.
www.BradburyMusic.com
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John Kim, Project Coordinator
John Kim, a graduate of Columbia University, taught mathematics at Bergen Community College, Community College of Vermont, and on the high school level. He began sculpting in lucite when he worked in the plastics industry, and then studied stone sculpting under Philip Fabia. His sculptures have been shown in numerous galleries in SoHo and Vermont, and are owned by collectors around the world. Currently, Elan Gallery next door to the theater at 49 Bleecker Street is showing one of his works. After moving back to New York City six years ago, John joined his wife Irene Kim in helping Sally and Tony Amato manage the Amato Opera, where he served as the Treasurer and House Manager.
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