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The Amercian tenor and music teacher, J.R. Fralick, studied at Wichita Northwest High School (Class of 1982). He obtained his B.M.E. in Music Education, Friends University in Wichita, Kansas (Class of 1985); his Bachelor of Music degree in Musicology from Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas (Class of 1988); and his D.M.A. in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio (Class of 1995). He lao studied at Vocology Institute, Denver Center for Performing Arts.
J.R. Fralick made his professional singing début as Alfredo in Colorado Lyric Opera Theater's production of La Traviata, about which The Denver Post praised "JR Fralick's Alfredo was full of beauty and youthful ardor." He also received critical acclaim from The Cleveland Dealer for his Don Ottavio in Lyric Opera Cleveland's Don Giovanni, "JR Fralick sang like a Mozartean dream." He earned similar accolades for his Rudolfo in La Bohème, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Camille in The Merry Widow, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Martin in The Tender Land and others. His symphonic highlights include performances of Radzynski's Shirat Ma'ayan with the Jerusalem Symphony, Benjamin Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with the Kansas City Symphony and numerous Messiahs--and other oratorios--across the country.
An avid recitalist and supporter of art song, J.R. Fralick performed B. Britten's five Canticles for the Cleveland Museum of Art's "Musart Recital Series," recitals of Lieder with the exclusive Franz Schubert-Institut in Vienna, Austria, and the program "Novello & Co." at both the International Conference of British Music and the International Conference on Physiology and Acoustics of Singing. He was selected to perform his lecture-recital "Donizetti's Influence Abroad: The Russian bel canto" at the International Donizetti Festival in Bergamo and Milan, Italy. Dr. Fralick frequently gives guest artist recitals at churches and universities and serves on the Governing Council of the Art Song Festival of Cleveland.
Always open to new ideas, J.R. Fralick has explored original cabaret songs, performing them in a number of venues, most notably on the Cleveland Playhouse's "Cabaret Sampler" concerts. He was also featured in Cleveland Public Theater's dance concert, "Companions," about which Linda Eisenstein of Cool Cleveland wrote "It was worth attending just to hear JR Fralick's melting sonorous tenor in Ricky Ian Gordon's ravishing song cycle Genius Child."
J.R. Fralick served as Assistant Professor at Millikin University School of Music Decatur, Illinois (August 1995 to July 2001), where he taught voice, opera, music history. He has served as Professor of Voice at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music Berea, Ohio since August 2001 and joined the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in 2005. He has also served as a clinician, board member, and directed workshops for the National Association of Teachers of Singing, NATS. He is also Director of Music at Old Stone Church in Cleveland, Ohio.
J.R. Fralick's expertise is 19th-century Russian music and Russian diction for singers. He is in great demand for master-classes and Residencies on the subjects, and Leyerle Press published his anthology Twenty Arias for Tenor from the 19th-century Russian repertoire. He has taught courses on Russian vocal literature and diction, applied voice, music history, opera history, vocal pedagogy and opera workshop. |
