STANFORD FELIX

Founder & Artistic Director

Dr. Stanford Felix is currently Assistant Professor of Voice at Emporia  State University in Emporia, Kansas. As a bass-baritone he has  performed extensively on the opera and  concert stage. His many operatic roles include Scarpia in Tosca, Sir John Falstaff in Falstaff, Mephistopheles in Faust, Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, Dr. Bartolo in The Barber of Seville, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Jaffrey in House of the Seven Gables, Joel in A Death in the Family and the Rev. John Hale in The Crucible.  He has been a guest artist  with companies such as the Minnesota Opera, Orlando Opera, Des Moines Opera, L’Opera Français de New York, American Chamber Opera as well as the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra and the Carmel Bach Festival.

Dr. Felix’s concert work includes performances of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and most of the major oratorio, cantata and requiem repertoire. He has been featured on a Virgin Records recording of Britten's Paul Bunyan, which won the "Best Opera Recording of the Year" Gramophone award.

Basing his singing career in New York City for 14 years, he was on the singer rosters of Sheldon Soffer and Pentacle artist managements and worked with such conductors as Yves Abel, Stewart Robertson, Paul Nadler, Philip Brunelle and Gerhard Samuel. Dr. Felix received his Master of Music degree in Voice Performance from the Manhattan School of Music in New York, and obtained his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice Performance and his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre and Voice from the University of Kansas, Lawrence. He has studied with John Stephens, Spiro Malas,  William Riley and Kenneth Smith.

Dr. Felix has also taught at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, where he was Assistant Professor of Voice and musical director/conductor of the opera department. A composer of many choral pieces and art song compositions. A member of The American Composers Forum, the College Music Society, the National Opera Association (NOA), and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) he is also the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide Music Dictionary (Alpha/Penguin) to be released in July, 2010. He is a native of South Dakota.