|
|
 |
Donald E. Osborne, Director California Artists Management 564 Market Street, Suite 420, San Francisco, CA 94104-5412 415 362-2787 / fax: 415 362-2838 / Skype: calartistsdon / Email |
Susan Endrizzi Morris, Director California Artists Management P.O. Box 2479, Mendocino, CA 95460-2479 707-937-4787 / cell: 415-302-1083 / Skype: sueendrizzi / Email |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 Download Bio |
John Duykers
Tenor
(Updated July
2012 - Please discard all previous versions) |
Internationally acclaimed tenor, John Duykers, made his professional operatic debut with Seattle Opera. Since then he has appeared with many of the leading opera companies of the world including The Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Netherlands Opera, the Grand Theatre of Geneva (Cellini/Benvenuto Cellini), Frankfurt Opera, Opera de Marseille (Mime/Siegfried), the Canadian Opera Company, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, San Diego Opera and the Opera Company of Philadelphia (Shuisky/Boris Godunov; Herod/Salome).
John Duykers is particularly known for his performances of
contemporary music, having sung in more than 100 contemporary operas including
50 plus world premieres. Among these, he created the role of Mao Tse Tung in
John Adams' Nixon in China which he
performed throughout the world. He made his debut with the Lyric Opera of
Chicago in the title role of Tannhäuser
and has been a frequent performer there. He has appeared regularly with San
Francisco Opera where he performed in recent seasons in Britten’s
Billy Budd, Tchaikovsky’s
Eugene Onegin and Ligeti’s
Grand
Macabre ;and Los Angeles Opera where he sang most recently in Strauss’
Die Frau Ohne Schatten.
He has performed a number of times with Santa Fe Opera where he returned
in summer 2008 as Red Whiskers in Britten’s
Billy Budd.
John Duykers has had a close association with a number of contemporary composers, notably John Adams, Philip Glass and Paul Dresher. He sang for the premiere of Glass’ White Raven, In The Penal Colony and the title role of Galileo Galilei. He premiered Paul Dresher’s solo opera The Tyrant in 2005 with the Seattle Chamber Players, followed by performances in Philadelphia, with Cleveland Opera, Present Music in Milwaukee, the Chicago Chamber Musicians and the EdgeFest in Berkley. In 2006 he sang the premiere of Libby Larsen’s Everyman Jack for Sonoma City Opera; in 2007, the premieres of Lou Harrison’s Young Caesar at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center and Ann LeBaron’s Crescent City with the LOOS Ensemble in The Hague, Netherlands; in 2008, the premiere of Erling Wold’s Mordake as part of the San Francisco International Festival; in 2009, the premiere Allan Shearer’s The Dawn Makers in San Francisco and 2010, the premieres of Don Davis’ Rio De Sangre with Florentine Opera in Milwaukee and Xenia by Thomas Sleeper with the Frost Orchestra in Miami., recorded for Albany Records. That season also saw performances of Nixon In China (Mao Tse Tung) with Long Beach Opera and Wozzeck (Captain) with Ensemble Parallèle and the Astoria Music Festival. 2011 brought Philip Glass’ Orphee with Ensemble Parallele and premiere of Caliban Dreams by Clark Suprynowicz in August 2011 with First Look Sonoma, a group started by Duykers and his wife, the director Melissa Weaver. Spring 2012 bought the premiere of Max Duykers’ Apricots of Andujar with Birds on a Wire in Kalamazoo Michigan and a return to Long Beach Opera for The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. In Fall 2012 he sings for the premiere of The Daughter of the Red Tzar by Lisa Scola-Prosek and Red Earth. Hunger by Virko Baley, at the Kiev Music Festival in the Ukraine.
John Duykers is a frequent performer with symphony orchestras throughout the United States. He has sung with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Dc and on tour, the American Composers Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, Tri-Cities Symphony, Sacramento Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony and the San Jose Symphony. In 2005 he sang the premiere of Kurt Rohde’s Bitter Harvest with Kent Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony. He made his Disney Hall debut in spring 2006 with the Los Angeles Master Chorale in Orff’s Carmina Burana. His appearances at major festivals have included Aspen, the American Music Theater Festival, the Gaudeamus Music Week, Kaitheater Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music's 'Next Wave' Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, the London International Festival of Theatre, Internationale Teaterfestival in Copenhagen, Edinburgh Festival, the Festival Internacional de Teatro of Granada and Juneau Jazz and Classics.
John Duykers has received critical acclaim in numerous productions of the Paul Dresher Ensemble, George Coates Performance Works, and the A.Ga.Pe Performance Group which have been seen on the world's most important contemporary music and theater stages. He can be heard on numerous recordings of traditional and contemporary opera and contemporary music including Nixon In China in the Grammy Award-winning CD as well as the DVD of the Emmy Award-winning PBS Great Performances production.
Press Comments:
“The
singers are all excellent. The veteran tenor, John Duykers, personifies
everything that is sympathetic about Dr. S.”
Los Angeles Times - June 17, 2012
“As Dr. S, tenor John Duykers combines
low-key demeanor with a focused curiosity and fundamental sympathy as he seeks
the nature of Dr. P's condition.”
A Fool in the Forest - June 18, 2012
“The
performers were as stunning as expected. Tenor John Duykers (a singer with a
unique, utterly unmistakable timber) was Dr. S, a neurologist delving into the
astounding phenomenon of visual agnosia, the Man’s primary problem.”
Opera West - June 26, 2012
“The
piece seemed to sit very well in Duykers' range, as he sounded rock solid
throughout.”
Ausculations - June 29, 2012
“Dr. S is tenor
John Duykers, and he conveys perfectly the subtle and manifold ways he slowly
pieces together his diagnosis. He is always compassionate, but always a little
distant, as you might want a doctor to be.”
Press-Telegram - June 21, 2012
Recording of Erling Wold’s
Mordake:
“The star of this brief but
captivating piece is John Duykers, who has made a virtual career out of
promoting new music and roles created especially for his fluid tone, clear
diction and occasionally tortured theatrical persona. In
Mordake, his portrayal of a sad lonely
man whom nature has treated cruelly and descends into madness is clear and
strongly felt. Moments in the piece are emotional and attention-getting, such as
the closing monologue. Every word can be heard. I suggest that anyone who
enjoys new opera, is a fan of John Duykers, or likes anything that is in the
general northern California ‘para-minimalism’ camp would enjoy this disc a great
deal!
”
Audiophile Audition –-July 22, 2011
Caliban in Clark
Suprynowicz’s
Caliban Dreams,
West Edge Opera and Cinnabar Theater:
“At its
premiere performance, the two-act, 140-minute opera emerged as a delightful romp
and major vehicle for the astounding, seemingly indefatigable tenor John
Duykers. Duykers (singing Caliban) is a miracle. It has been 45 years
since his debut with Seattle Opera, and 24 years since he created the role of
Chairman Mao in John Adams’ Nixon in China, but his voice sounds in better shape
now than it has in some of his performances over the last two years. His unique
timbre and deeply involving declamatory style, histrionic immediacy, impeccable
enunciation, and artistic brilliance remained undimmed. Unless you’d heard the
man 20 or 30 years ago, you might well think he’s at the peak of his powers.
Think ‘the Plácido Domingo of new music,’ and you’re on target. Duykers’
marvelous tour de force is reason enough to put Caliban Dreams on your must-see
list. Caliban Dreams deserves more than a chance to be seen and heard. It’s
entertaining to the core.”
SFClassical Voice - July 30, 2011
“Duykers' Caliban was a strongly sung and appealing protagonist, by turns
furious and simple-minded.”
San Francisco Chronicle - Aug. 23
“Go see the world premiere of Caliban
Dreams. It is miraculous that new live theater gets produced at all in this era of
economic woe. When it is made with care it is not to be missed. The ongoing
musical feast which truly sets this opera apart is the dense and evocative
choral arrangement that underlies and makes possible the provocative performance
by the renowned John Duykers (Caliban).”
San Francisco Examiner - July 31, 2011
Major Domo in San Diego Opera’s production of
Der Rosenkavalier:
“Others
came and went with panache, none more so than John Dukyers as the Marschallin’s
Major-Domo.”
Los Angeles Times - April 4, 2011
Heurtebise in Philip Glass’
Orphée, Ensemble Parallèle:
“In
a cast dominated by youth, it was veteran tenor John Duykers who made the
production come alive. As the Princess's chauffeur -- quite literally, an
employee of Death itself -- he brought a winning humanity and dry wit to this
otherwise grim persona. His tender rapport with Biller was especially poignant,
but all of his scenes were in some way enriched by his resonant voice and finely
calibrated acting.”
SF Weekly - March 2, 2011
Recording of Thomas Sleeper’s Xenia:
“Duykers sings
with the kind of heightened voice that carries the drama of the cycle well,”
Knightarts.org - Sept. 15, 2010
Captain in Berg’s
Wozzeck, Astoria Music Festival:
“John
Duykers and Skinner were equally powerful figures of menace and oppression.”
The Oregonian - June 28, 2010
“John Duykers impressively spouted off as the
pompous Captain.”
Oregon Music News - June 27, 2010
Red
Whiskers in Britten’s
Billy Budd, Santa Fe Opera:
“Saturday's premiere of this seldom-staged,
emotionally riveting piece set a new creative benchmark for the company.
Conductor and director can do little without intelligent singers, and SFO was
equally on the mark here.... pleasing singing and acting also came from John
Duykers' blustering but earnest Red Whiskers.”
The New Mexican - July 14, 2008
Title role of Wold’s
Mordake, San Francisco International
Festival:
“Buoyed by tenor John Duykers'
bravura performance in the title role, the piece holds the listener's attention
forcefully throughout a series of brief, disconnected segments. None of this
would work even as well as it does without the virtuosic efforts of Duykers, who
commands a nearly bare stage with just his vocal and theatrical bravura (along
with a few props and some video effects) to keep him going. He storms, he
blusters, he bewails his fate - and, when necessary, he taps into reserves of
sweetly tuned lyricism. It's a dynamic, affecting performance.”
San Francisco Chronicle - May 26, 2008
“Wold’s
new solo chamber opera, starring acclaimed tenor John Duykers, is enjoying a
thrillingly intimate world premiere this week. Weaver’s sharp and resourceful
staging blends Wold’s stirring minimalist themes, Duykers’ formidable and
dynamic performance and darkly funny libretto and the luxuriant all-enveloping
video scheme into nothing short of a total experience.”
SF360 - May 28, 2008
Orff's
Carmina Burana, Master Chorale of South Florida:
“Duykers was equally effective in
his roasted swan solo, bringing a wryly nuanced and humorous rendering.”
Miami Herald - April 12, 2008
Paul Dresher’s
Tyrant, Project Artaud, San Francisco:
“With the resourceful and
charismatic tenor John Duykers at its center, the 70-minute piece offered a dark
meditation - sometimes riveting, sometimes merely diffuse - on power and
paranoia. Duykers, a performer of considerable vocal and theatrical virtuosity,
drove each point home definitively.”
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, March 14, 2008
Music of Philip Glass
University of Miami:
“It was a pleasure to discover
John Duykers as the first artist on the program. The tenor has played an
important part in modern American opera, creating the role of Mao Tse-tung
in John Adams' Nixon in China and premiering three Glass operas, including
Galileo Galilei (2002). His experience in the latter title role was manifest
Wednesday in Galileo's long opening scene, with Duykers' majestic,
beautifully sung and dramatically involved performance conveying the
wonder and conflicted emotions of the persecuted scientist-astronomer.
Duykers and Malis opened the evening with the hypnotic Kuru Field of
Justice section from Satyagraha.”
Miami Herald - February 8, 2008
Dresher's
The Tyrant, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago:
“John Duykers' vocal lines and
the Chicago Chamber Musicians interacted seamlessly. Duykers inhabited the
looney liege with well-timed facial tics and crisp diction, boasting an eerie
floating falsetto and booming low chest notes. It's a gripping drama.
The chamber drama is making its way across the country and the MCA
audience was happy to welcome it.”
Chicago Tribune – January 29, 2008
Paul Drescher’s “The Tyrant,” at CAL
Performances’ EdgeFest:
"In 'The Tyrant,' the tender, rueful and gently ravishing solo chamber opera
that opened Cal Performances' Edge Fest, absolute power becomes the texture of
an absorbing musical rhapsody. This superb, 70-minute piece has its final
performance tonight. Riding the streams and storms of Paul Dresher's translucent
score, tenor John Duykers gives a wonderfully nuanced performance as a king in
torment. Duykers gives it all a dramatic focus and sense of purpose.
Sloe-eyed and indolent in one scene, he turns raffish or terrified, quizzical or
suffused in wonder. Dressed in a natty nautical cap and pinstriped suit at the
outset, he's a changed man an hour later. His throne has become an abandoned
bunker and the trappings of power discarded as he creeps downward into the stony
depths. Duykers' voice probes every corner of the character, from striving
intervals and bright
intonation to downbeat spoken lines. Concise as it is, without a scene or a
musical phrase that seems extraneous, "The Tyrant" is expansive enough to
propose an 'American Idol'-style singing contest at one point. Here, clearly, is
a show that contains multitudes. "
San Francisco Chronicle - June 9, 2007
Role of Red Whiskers in “Billy Budd,” Pittsburgh Opera:
“There wasn’t a weak link in the cast.
John Duykers was a feisty Red Whiskers.”
Pittsburgh Post Gazette – May 7, 2007
“It is the measure of Pittsburgh Opera’s strong casting that the leads do not
overshadow other important roles, such as John Duykers’ Red Whiskers”
Pittsburgh Tribune – May 8, 2007
Narrator in Lou Harrison’s
Young Caesar, Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco:
“The narrator speaks and sings and
hangs around onstage and sets the tone. John Duykers did that so well that
what followed couldn't completely fail, as it sometimes might have.”
Los Angeles Times - February 19, 2007
“The half-spoken, half-sung narration,
which could so easily have dragged the evening down, got a jolt of theatrical
energy from the ever-charismatic tenor John Duykers.”
San Francisco Chronicle – February 18, 2007
Libby Larsen's
Everyman Jack, Sonoma City Opera:
“John Duykers sang with terrific poise
and clarity while changing characters with chameleonic swiftness.”
San Francisco chronicle – November13, 2006
Paul Dresher's
The Tyrant, Cleveland Opera:
“Tenor John Duykers, a veteran of many
modern operas, was the Tyrant. His ability to express emotion with his voice is
undiminished. He caresses or trumpets phrases, speaks forcefully and sings
recitative, commanding the stage with absolute authority. Once out of his cage,
Duykers came down to within feet of the audience, never once focusing on any one
person but aware that we were 'his subjects.' The drama came across clearly,
with good diction and total immersion in the character. The audience was
appreciative.”
OperaNews.com - July 2006
“Sung with stellar urgency by tenor
John Duykers, 'The Tyrant' is a compelling study in paranoia, pettiness and
pretension, just a few of the qualities that inhabit those for whom power is
paramount. Onstage for the opera's entire 65 minutes, Duykers brings a gamut of
vivid inflections to the tyrant's frustrations and rantings. Dresher's vocal
writing is grateful until the despot heads into the most apprehensive regions of
his soul, which usually means his high register. Duykers copes boldly with the
demands, seizing the character's psyche by throat and body.”
Cleveland Plain Dealer - May 4, 2006
“Tenor John Duykers portrays a king on
the edge of madness in Dresher's 'The Tyrant.' When Dresher composed it, he had
in mind John Duykers, a longtime colleague, as the single singer. On Tuesday,
Duykers inhabited the part completely. His ability to find his own melodic
lines,
which so often run independently of the
instrumentalists, was impressive, as was his acting. Duykers was especially
poignant when he stripped off his pinstriped suit coat and came forward
to sit on the stairs leading to the
audience, as his character broke down. This was a case where superior
musicianship and intelligence held their own. To bring in a recent (1-year-old)
opera of this quality, performed by six world-class instrumentalists and an
excellent actor/singer, signals a valuable interest in looking to see what's
happening elsewhere. It also alerts the public that The Tyrant's co-presenter,
Opera Cleveland might be interested in shaking up the status quo for its
recently merged groups. That could be the most interesting development of all.”
Akron Beacon Journal - May 5, 2006
Orff's
Carmina Burana, New World Symphony,
Boris Brott, conductor
“Soloists for the evening were of
exceptional quality: tenor John Duykers, who fashioned his one lachrymose aria
into a tongue-in-beak tearjerker as he took the role of a swan whose life was
ending on a roasting spit.”
Ventura County Star - May 25, 2006
Paul Dresher's
The Tyrant, Present Music, Milwaukee:
“The performance was strong all around.
Duykers is a genuine virtuoso singer.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - April 23, 2006
Paul Dresher's
The Tyrant, Project Artaud, San Francisco:
“As embodied with wonderfully reptilian
anguish by tenor John Duykers in an excerpted performance Friday night at
Theatre Artaud, the nameless tyrant is a mixture of self-assurance and terror.
Friday's performance offered only a tantalizing taste of the full work, but that
was
enough to leave a listener eager for
the rest. Duykers, in fact, was the main attraction of the performance, his
singing potent and well modulated and his dramatic contribution terrifically
nuanced.”
San Francisco Chronicle - April 3, 2005
Mime in Long Beach Opera's Wagner mini-Ring:
“The star may have been the veteran
John Duykers as Mime.”
Long
Beach Gazette - January 2006
“John Duykers brought his wealth of
experience to a beautifully realized Mime.”
Showmag.com - January 2006
“John Duykers, who has performed in
Rings around the world, is suitably smarmy and self-destructive as Mime,
Alberich's brother and forger of the ring.”
Long Beach Press Telegram – January 17, 2006
“John Duykers, one of our great
character singers, was the Mime in Siegfried, making me regret that the role had
also been cut from Rhinegold.”
LA Weekly – January 17, 2006
“The most satisfying of the four operas
was ‘Siegfried,’ which was presented Sunday. John Duykers, who can always be
relied on for a fine performance, played the role of the previously missing
Mime.”
DailyBreeze.com – January 21, 2006
“And while we're discussing the
Nibelungen family, it's necessary to mention the outstanding character tenor
John Duykers, flawlessly cast as Mime. Although his character was left on the
cutting room floor in Rhinegold, we got plenty of his delicious nastiness in
Siegfried.”
OperaWest – January 19, 2006
“Mime - the redoubtable John Duykers as
a vivid and cunningly detailed character, a doting sad sack, pointed with
illuminating vocal colors.”
Wagner Society of N. California - February 2006
Premiere of Kurt Rhode’s Bitter
Harvest, Berkeley Symphony, Kent Nagano conducting:
“It's the writing for Ruby -- including
a beautiful aria to his late wife -- that gives ‘Bitter Harvest’ its beating
heart. Nagano led an engaging performance, and tenor John Duykers sang with
power and pathos as Ruby. Duykers, who has given the first performances of
numerous 20th-century roles in operas by John Adams, Philip Glass and others,
brought an admirable dimension to the part of the embattled farmer.”
Contra Costa Times – December 5, 2005
“Duykers — with his gorgeous voice,
especially rich in low registers and falsetto, with facially
and vocally projected anguish — looked
the quintessential farmer in his gray overalls.”
SF Classical Voice – December 6, 2005
“Tenor John Duykers brought the
requisite touch of beleaguered dignity to the part of Black.”
San Francisco Chronicle: December 6, 2005
“The veteran tenor John Duykers, best
known for his Mao Tse-Tung played and recorded in Adams' 1980s opera 'Nixon in
China,' sang (with some high falsettos to boot) and spoke Ruby as if it was
written for him---which it was.”
Artssf.com – December 6, 2005
Premiere of Paul Dresher's
The Tyrant, Seattle Chamber Players:
“Tenor John Duykers returned in an
unforgettable portrayal of a tyrant. The Tyrant's fears, needs, paranoia and,
most chillingly, his methods of getting what he wants are there before you in
Duykers. Sometimes speaking, sometimes singing, and always audible, he
disintegrates before your eyes and ears."”
Seattle Post Intelligencer - May 2, 2005
“The Tyrant is a tour-de-force - a
gripping music-theater piece that is witty, poignant and wonderfully effective.
Duykers was absolutely mesmerizing in the role of the king. It's hard to imagine
anyone else as eerily effective in the role he has made so wholly his own. One
of the world's pre-eminent specialists in contemporary music, Duykers still
commands a pliant and
suitably majestic tenor, more than
capable of meeting the score's stringent demands. But he is considerably more
than a singer. His thoroughly detailed presentation of the Tyrant waxes and
wanes from imperious irony to yearning, terror, paranoia, infatuation, despair
and resignation.
This performance will be recorded, but
it should be filmed as well; what Duykers does with his face and body, as well
as his voice, should be commemorated for posterity.”
Seattle Times, May 3, 2005
Paul Dresher's
The Tyrant, Project Artaud, San Francisco:
“As embodied with wonderfully reptilian
anguish by tenor John Duykers in an excerpted performance Friday night at
Theatre Artaud, the nameless tyrant is a mixture of self-assurance and terror.
Friday's performance offered only a tantalizing taste of the full work, but that
was enough to leave a listener eager for the rest. Duykers, in fact, was the
main attraction of the performance, his singing potent and well modulated and
his dramatic contribution terrifically nuanced.”
San Francisco Chronicle - April 3, 2006
Monsieur Triquet,
Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, San
Francisco Opera:
“There were fine contributions by
John Duykers as the French neighbor, Monsieur Triquet.”
San Francisco Chronicle, November 26, 2004
White Minister in Ligeti’s
Grand Macabre, San Francisco Opera:
“Duykers and Bloom almost stole the show
with the back-and-forth machinations of the Black and White Politicians.”
San Francisco Chronicle – November 1, 2004
“There were riveting
performances: the debate between the White and Black politicians (John Duykers
and Joshua Bloom) was downright Chaplinesque.”
Los Angeles Times – November 1, 2004
“Two politicians immediately
cement themselves as highlights of the far-flung production. Scheming, conniving
and quite funny, the duo argues uncontrollably, threatening resignation every
few minutes and carrying a lively repartee.”
San Francisco Examiner – November
9, 2004
Red Whiskers in Britten’s
Billy Budd, San Francisco Opera:
“Standouts among the large cast
were tenor John Duykers as Red Whiskers.”
San Francisco Chronicle -
September 28, 2004
The Hunchbak in
Strauss’ Die Frau Ohne Schatten, Los
Angeles Opera:
“In a myriad of smaller roles, Phillip
Skinner, Andrew Funk and John Duykers are standouts as the supremely
unattractive, bumbling brothers.”
Orange County Register - February
24, 2004
Preview of Kurt Rhode’s
Bitter Harvest, Berkeley Symphony:
“This excerpt hit listeners in
the gut. Sung affectingly by John Duykers, it was an aria from next year's
Berkeley Symphony premiere of Rohde's Bitter Harvest.”
SF Classical Voice - March 9,
2004
Pilate in the premiere of
Wold’s Sub Pontio Pilato,
San Franciusco
“The opening performance could scarcely have asked for
stronger performers. Tenor John Duykers is superb in the title role, his singing
forthright and nuanced, his theatrical presence magnificently touching.”
San Francisco Chronicle - April 12, 2003
“Though
the action in this head-trip opera is almost nonexistent, this econo-production
has such a telling effect that I was drawn back to catch it again another night.
The immediacy of this seldom-used format is considerable, with tenor John
Duykers in the title role a commanding, near-regal presence dictating awe and
involvement.”
Artsf.com - April 12-20, 2003
Galileo in Philip Glass'
Galileo Galilei, Goodman Theatre, Chicago:
“John Duykers sings the older
Galileo with aplomb.”
Variety - June 28, 2002
“Duykers strongly conveyed the
aged astronomer's thoughtful, often baffled state of mind.”
Chicago Sun Times - June 25, 2002
Peter Maxwell Davies
Eight Songs for a Mad King, Seattle Chamber Players:
Headline: “Songs for a Mad King is a smashing triumph”
“Duykers' performance dominated
the stage, drawing this audience member into appalled and sympathetic
understanding of the king's state as he portrayed it.
One could hear the collective gasp of the audience.”
Seattle Post Intelligencer - January 21. 2002
"Moment Most Worthy of an Oscar
Clip" - Best of the Year 2002:
“John Duykers' fearless, frighteningly intense rant in Peter Maxwell Davies' one-man opera 'Eight Songs for a Mad King,' a Seattle Chamber Players concert. Runner-up: Seattle Chamber Players violinist Mikhail Schmidt's deadpan despair as Duykers grabbed and smashed his violin.” Seattle Weekly - December 25 - 31, 2002