Richard Boldrey, vocal coach

Richard Boldrey is well known as a pianist, vocal coach, conductor, professor, and author.

Mr. Boldrey has been a professional keyboard artist since he was attending Chicago Musical College. While in school, in 1960, he began a long tenure as a pianist for the Chicago Symphony Chorus, culminating in becoming the Assistant Conductor of the Chorus from 1972 to 1977. In 1964, he was pianist, organist, timpanist, and assistant conductor for the Robert Shaw Chorale on tours of the United States and South America. He has been pianist in several chamber groups, including the Delft Trio, which performed at Carnegie Hall, and the Buccheri-Boldrey piano duo, which made two commercial recordings in the 1970s. In 1977 he soloed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in three Bach Concertos under the baton of Carlo Maria Giulini. He was harpsichordist and organist with the renowned Chicago Music of the Baroque from 1977 to 1985. He has accompanied many singers in recital, including such world-renowned artists as Robert Merrill, June Anderson and Grace Bumbry. He has accompanied violinists and cellists on tours of Europe, Central America, and South America. He currently also serves as pianist for Kol Zimrah (the Jewish Community Singers of Greater Chicago), as pianist and organist for the Chicago Master Singers, and as pianist for the annual Innsbruck (Austria) International Choral Festival.

Mr. Boldrey has also been involved in the opera world for nearly thirty years, since he reestablished the Opera Workshop program at North Park College in 1976. He was a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago staff from 1981 to 1987 and again from 1993 to 2003, as pianist, backstage organist, coach, and assistant conductor. He was Assistant Conductor of Opera Midwest in Evanston, Illinois, from 1979 to 1981. He served as maestro and assistant to Carlo Bergonzi at the Bel Canto Festival in Busseto, Italy, 1983 through 1985. He co-directed the Bold Lion Center for the Performing Arts from 1987 to 1992. He was head of the Opera Department at the University of Illinois from 1989 to 1990, Music Director of the Colorado Lyric Theatre Festival in Boulder from 1989 to 1992, and Music Director of the Opera Department at the University of Colorado from 1990 to 1993. He was also Music Director of Opera Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from 1991 to 1995, and was on the staff of the Voice and Opera Department at the University of Iowa from 1997 to 1999. He conducted Lucia di Lammermoor for L’Opera Piccola in Chicago in 2002. He also is Music Editor of Singers’ Edition, a multi-volume opera anthology published by Pst…Inc., who also published Mr. Boldrey’s Guide to Operatic Roles and Arias and his Guide to Operatic Duets. He has been a Professor at Northwestern University since 1995, where he coaches singers, teaches foreign language diction courses, and presents specialized courses such as Recitative Singing, Introduction to the Diction of Other Languages, The Voice Fach System, Styles and Performance Practices, and Translating Opera Librettos.

Richard has also been involved most of his life in Biblical studies, and his authorship in this area includes a textbook for New Testament Greek and several monographs, including St.Paul: Chauvinist or Feminist?, Discovering the Mishnah, and Biblical Lineages. He is the Boldrey family historian and has written the History of the Boldres in the United States. He also is a coin collector, an amateur nutritionist, a sports fan, a lover of languages, and an aficionado of chess and logic puzzles.

Mr. Boldrey resides in Morton Grove, Illinois, with his wife Polly Liontis, who is a Shiatsu practitioner and Yoga instructor. They have two children, Electra and Drew, both of whom are extensively involved in sports and music.