Baritone Daniel Okulitch Performs with the Calgary Opera; Also Named Best Male Vocalist of the Kiwanis Opera Festival of Canada Story by Linda Shockley
			Daniel Okulitch as Morales with Svetlana Sech as Micaela in the Calgary Opera production of Bizet's Carmen. Photograph by Trudie Lee, courtesy of Calgary Opera. "It was wonderful to perform with the Calgary Opera. It really cemented my ambition to sing. This is exactly what I want to do. The best part was that the professional singers were quite willing to answer any questions I had. They treated me as a colleague. It's important to work at a professional level and to see what is required of professionals." That's how Daniel Okulitch, (BA/MM '99) opera theater, described his recent work this March in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he performed the role of Morales in the Calgary Opera production of Bizet's Carmen. Calgary also happens to be Okulitch's hometown, and he made his Calgary Opera debut at the age of twelve when he performed as a boy soprano in Menotti's one-act opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors. As a teenager, he performed in the opera chorus, and was a 1995 recipient of a Calgary Opera Young Artists Scholarship. "Every year I return to sing for the general director and two years ago, he asked if I was free to perform in the spring of 1999," said Okulitch, who studies at Oberlin with professor of singing Richard Miller. In April, Okulitch was named Best Male Vocalist when he competed in the 70th annual Calgary Kiwanis Music Festival, held in the Jubilee Auditorium of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Additionally, he was awarded $2,500 and various scholarships during the 12-day festival, which boasted 15,000 participants. He was also selected to compete at the provincial/national level of the National Music Festival of Canada. For the competition, Okulitch performed arias by Mozart, Donizetti and Grétry, leider by Brahms, and oratorio by Handel. "It was great to go back because this was a festival I grew up performing in. This festival offered me the opportunity to perform for people who helped me as I began my education in music," he said. Okulitch has been accepted to the Artist Diploma program at the Cincinnati Conservatory two-year program, where he'll study next year with William McGraw.
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