MICHAEL TRIMBLE
Tenor
Trimble Vocal Institute, Director
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Tenor Michael Trimble, after winning both the Metropolitan Opera and American Opera Auditions in 1963, pursued an illustrious operatic performing career throughout Europe and the United States. After his debut in Milan at the Teatro Nuovo as Cavaradossi in Tosca, Mr. Trimble sang over sixty leading tenor roles in the Italian, German and French repertoire throughout Europe, appearing with such acclaimed conductors as Karl Boehm, Christoph Dohnanyi, Charles Mackerras, Nello Santi, Ferdinand Leitner, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Karl Richter. He performed under the direction of such notable stage directors as Walter Felsenstein, Gotz Friedrich, Vaclav Kaslik, Hans Neugebauer and Lotfi Mansouri. While under contract to the opera houses of Berne, Wiesbaden and Karlsruhe, Mr. Trimble also performed with the opera companies of Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich, Berlin, Geneva, Florence, Cologne, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Strasbourg, Prague, Lausanne, Basel, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Freiburg and Wuppertal. Mr. Trimble was heard in an extensive repertoire of leading operatic tenor roles including Rigoletto, La Traviata, Don Carlo, La Forza del Destino, Un Ballo in Maschera, Tosca, La Boheme, Madame Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana, Lucia di Lammermoor, L'incoronazione di Poppea, Carmen, Faust, The Tales of Hoffman, The Queen of Spades, The Gambler, The Rake's Progress, Rusalka, The Rise & Fall of the City of Mahagony, Wozzeck, Lulu, The Magic Flute, Parsifal, Die Meistersinger, The Flying Dutchman, Lohengrin, Der Rosenkavalier (the Italian Tenor), Fidelio and Der Freischutz. Mr. Trimble also performed at Munich's Gartnerplatz and Vienna's Volksoper in leading roles of the operetta repertoire including A Night in Venice, The Gypsy Baron, Die Fledermaus, Land of Smiles and The Merry Widow.
Mr. Trimble recorded for broadcast the operas Parsifal, Carmen, Don Carlo, Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, Gluck's Alceste, Prokofieff's The Gambler and Dvorak's Rusalka for the National Italian Radio (RAI), Swiss National Radio, Western German Radio, the Bavarian Radio Network and North German Radio Network. Mr. Trimble was featured in the February 8, 1964 issue of Opera News for his radio and television broadcast appearances as Edgardo in the NBC-TV opera production of Lucia di Lammermoor that same year.
In the United States, Mr. Trimble appeared in leading roles with the opera companies of Dallas, Santa Fe, San Diego, Cincinnati and Milwaukee; and in Canada with The Canadian Opera Company of Toronto. He concertized throughout Europe and the United States in a wide range of oratorio and lieder repertoire, and appeared regularly as a soloist with the Aspen Music Festival.
Mr. Trimble, a native of Texas, was awarded a full scholarship to Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas where he began his vocal studies under the tutelage of the renowned American baritone Mack Harrell. He was awarded additional scholarships for study from the Hartt College of Music of the University of Hartford, Connecticut; The Aspen Music Festival; and, under the sponsorship of The Metropolitan Opera, he entered The Kathryn Long School - The Metropolitan Opera's Young Artist's Training Program. He pursued private vocal studies with Olga Ryss. Mr. Trimble's passion and curiosity for great vocal style also lead him to the studios of Frederich Dalberg; Wilhelm Feldon; Roberto Benglio of La Scala (with whom he also studied choral conducting); Helga Roswaenge; Lauritz Melchior and Jussi Bjoeling.
Mr. Trimble coached the operatic repertoire with Victor Trucco, Alberta Masiello, Dick Marzollo and Jan Behr, all of The Metropolitan Opera. He studied art song literature with Mack Harrell, Hans Hotter, Paul Sperry, Jenny Tourel, Axel Schotz, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf. He pursued acting studies with Ludwig Donath, Madeleine Milhaud, Andreas Mayer-Hanno, Franco Zefferelli and Elmer Nagy, Director of the Opera Workshop at Hartt College, with whom he also studied the technique of stage slide projections. Pursuing his interest in all areas of statecraft, Mr. Trimble worked as Assistant Director to Vaclav Kaslik, Director of the Prague National Theatre; Mesten Zablic, Producer of the Belgrade National Theatre; and Sarah Caldwell, Director of the Opera Company of Boston. Mr. Trimble is fluent in German, Italian, Spanish and French.
