|
The American tenor, Timothy Bentch, was raised on a farm in Missouri where his first singing experiences took place in the local Mennonite church and practicing scales on the tractor and in the silo. After undergraduate studies at the University of Missouri, and a masters at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he became a pastor at an inner city church in Richmond, Virginia and since then has divided his time between his two passions - singing and preaching.
These two passions eventually led Timothy Bentch to Hungary where he lived for 12 years (1995-2006). He has sung in Hungarian State Opera since 1998 and he often sings in concerts, among others with the National Philharmonic Orchestra and Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. While working in a variety of ministries, including helping to plant a new church and founding the Crescendo Summer Institute of the Arts, he developed a significant career, singing in all the leading venues of Hungary with numerous television and radio broadcasts and performances for prime ministers and presidents. His many opera appearances were lauded by critics who called him “a treasure in today’s Hungarian musical life.” At the Hungarian State Opera he premiered new productions as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Belmonte in The Abduction, and Nencio in L’Infeldelta delusa by Haydn. Other roles with the Hungarian State Opera include Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Tamino in The Magic Flute, Tito in La Clemenza di Tito and Alfredo in La Traviata. His performed opera repertoire of over 35 roles also includes such roles as W.A. Mozart’s Mitridate, Nemorino in L’Elisir d’amore, Edguardo in Lucia, Ismaele in Nabucco, Fenton in Falstaff, Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress, four roles by Benjamin Britten, and numerous Baroque operas - Jupiter in Semele, Nero in The Coronation of Poppea, Monteverdi’s Ulyssis, and Orfeo - a performance that marked the opening of the new theater in the Budapest Palace of the Arts in 2005. His opera performances have taken him to many other countries including tours of the Netherlands, the UK, and Germany. Recently he had successes in France singing Tamino in the Magic Flute with the opera houses of Reims, Vichy, and Avignon. In November of 2006 he was featured as special guest in the Mozart Festival of the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest performing Titus, Belmonte, and Don Ottavio.
In symphonic repertoire, Timothy Bentch has performed all the standard repertoire from renaissance and baroque to the large works of Gustav Mahler and Verdi. Highlights have included the Evangelists in J.S. Bach’s Passions, G. Mahler’s 8th Symphony which he recorded for Naxos, and the Dream of Geronius by Edward Elgar. In 2005 he was awarded the Artijus Prize in recognition of his contribution to modern Hungarian works following the premiere performance of Funeral Rites by Zoltan Jeney. He has sung with the philharmonic orchestras of Lille, Strasbourg, Avignon, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Sofia, Warsaw, the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, and appears regularly with the Hungarian National Philharmonic. He has sung under the baton of Zoltán Kocsis, János Fürst, Ádám Fischer, Tamás Vásáry, János Kovács, John Nelson, Casadesus, Antoni Witt, and György Vashegyi.
Also active as a voice teacher, Timothy Bentch founded the Crescendo Summer Institute of the Arts, located in Sárospatak Hungary in 2004 and continues to teach there every summer. |
