Gary Jankowski's (bass) performances are characterized by great musical sensitivity, a strong, clear, mellifluous voice, and an imposing presence that he brings to a growing number of international stages, concert halls, and radio broadcasts.
The 2013 Wagner anniversary gave Jankowski many opportunities to prove his particular suitedness for the German repertoire. He performed Daland in October 2013 at the Opera de Belles Artes, Mexico City, and appeared as Fafner in the Teatro Colón-Ring in Buenos Aires in December 2012. In 2013 he was the cover artist for Hagen and Fafner in the Paris Ring at the Opéra Bastille. In the autumn of 2011, he sang Fafner in Siegfried in an NRK live radio broadcast from Bergen, conducted by Kent Nagano. He is also featured as Fafner and Hagen in the 2012 ECHO Klassik prize-winning Musicaphon DVD production of the Lübeck Ring, and as Fafner in the C Major/Deutsche Welle DVD production of the Colón-Ring. In addition to his numerous Wagner performances, he also appeared as Melcthal in Guillaume Tell at the Polish National Opera in 2015.
After studying and teaching voice at Indiana University and learning his craft in the regional theaters of the USA, Seattle-born Gary Jankowski moved to Germany in the mid-1990s. He had engagements as an ensemble member in Nuremberg, Halle/Saale, Freiburg, Rostock, and Schwerin, and guested, among others, in Leipzig, Donostia/San Sebastian, Peralada, Dorset, Lübeck, and Kiel. Hagen, Fafner, König Marke, Fiesco, Landgraf, Osmin, and Il Commendatore, as well as Ochs von Lerchenau have become his most important roles. He also created Freiherr von Mordax in the world premiere, which won the Bavarian Theatre Prize, of Detlev Glanert's Scherz, Satire, Ironie und tiefere Bedeutung, and Herodes in the German premiere of Antoine Mariotte's Salome.
Gary Jankowski has worked together with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Philippe Jordan, Andriy Yurkevych, Jacques Delacôte, Miltiades Caridis, Roberto Paternostro, Stefan Malzew, Michail Jurowski, and Niksa Bareza, and with directors like David Pountney, Valentina Carrasco, Fred Berndt, Arturo Gama, Anthony Pilavachi, Frank Hilbrich, Uwe Scholz, Werner Saladin, and Axel Köhler.
As a concert singer, he has appeared with, among others, the Auckland Philharmonia, the Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg, the Neubrandenburger Philharmonie, the Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle, the Chautauqua Symphony, Orchestra Seattle, the Bellingham Festival of Music and the Crue Consort. Of particular note was a program of baroque solo cantatas with organ under the sponsorship of the German Consulate San Francisco.
Among the highpoints of his activity as a recitalist was his collaboration with pianist Gabriel Dobner in Schubert's Die Winterreise presented at numerous venues in the USA und Europe.
He also enjoys a growing reputation as a pedagogue. In addition to maintaining a private studio in Berlin, he joined the faculty in Summer 2015 at the Israel Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv and at the opera course at the Academie voor Muziek, Woord en Dans Beveren, Belgium.
Subject: vocal studies