Professor
Voice
Contact Information
Cogswell 109
Courses
Applied Voice
Opera Workshop
Vocal Pedagogy
French Diction
Degrees
DMA, Michigan State University
MM, Bowling Green State University (Toledo Opera Apprentice)
MM (studies), Manhattan School of Music
BM, Depaul University
Biography
Bass-baritone Joseph Baunoch serves as professor of music and coordinator of the Voice Area at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø. Before earning his DMA from Michigan State University under the tutelage of Richard Fracker, he apprenticed at Toledo Opera, Dicapo Opera in New York City, and the Chautauqua Institute Summer Festival. Known for both voice and impressive stagecraft, he has performed in over 50 different operas and over 30 opera roles to great acclaim, hailed as having a “velvety voice” with a “theatrical presence that added another layer of depth and humor.” At home in both comedic and villain roles, being described as “a complete and three-dimensional character,” in Menotti’s The Consul Baunoch’s “malevolent Secret Police Agent provided the production with its John Le Carre thriller feel.”
He has performed with Opera Louisianne, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Toledo Opera, New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera, Dicapo Opera Theater, Liederkranz Foundation, and the National Lyric Opera. Internationally, he has presented concerts in Shenyang, China, and Rome, Italy. As a performer and lecturer for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, he toured educational outreach to K-12 students throughout New England and with Toledo Opera in the Northwestern Ohio region. A dedicated voice pedagogue, Baunoch has also taught voice for the Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Operafest di Roma, and Grand Valley State University.
Baunoch’s favorite roles that he has performed include the title role in Gianni Schicchi, Schaunard and Colline in La Boheme, Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro as well as Dr. Bartolo, Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola, the Old Doctor in Barber’s Vanessa, Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the Secret Police Agent in The Consul, and Frank Murrant in Street Scene.
Baunoch’s former students have performed with the Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Nashville Opera, Wichita Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Chicago Opera Theater, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Baltimore Opera, Vermont Opera, and Bel Cantanti, to name a few.
His students have won or been finalists and semifinalists in several national and international competitions, such as numerous district and regional winners of the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, the George and Nora London Foundation Competition, the Houston Grand Opera Concert of Arias Competition, the Kristin Lewis Foundation National Competition, and the National Association of Teachers of Singing National Auditions.
His students also have been heard in several apprenticeships and summer programs, including San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program and Adler Fellowship, Washington National Opera Cafritz Apprenticeship, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Central City Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Prague Summer Nights, Lyric Opera Studio of Weimar, American Institute for Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, Operafest di Roma, Opera Orvieto, and the Bel Canto Institute in Florence, Italy. They have also been accepted into some of the finest graduate programs across the country. These include Indiana University Jacob’s School of Music, Florida State University, Yale University, Oberlin College and Conservatory, Michigan State University, Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, Rutgers University, University of Houston, Boston University, Belmont University, University of North Texas, Depaul University, and University of Southern Mississippi, among others.