Denes Van ParysConductor, Accompanist Tacoma Opera |
Accompanist, collaborative artist, conductor, and composer, Denes Van Parys has led performances for numerous opera companies, theaters and orchestras both in the United States and abroad. He had a long tenure at Tri-Cities Opera and has conducted several national tours of Broadway musicals. He also has traveled frequently to Asia where he has led many orchestras, including the Taipei Symphony.
Denes has served on the faculty of Ithaca College as Director of Opera and Musical Theatre. He has also directed Education Outreach and Sing er Training Programs for Ithaca Opera, Delaware Valley Opera and for Tri-Cities Opera, where he also taught in the opera program run in conjunction with the State University of New York (now Binghamton University). In addition to serving as staff accompanist at Puget Sound, he is the musical director for the 2011-12 production of Pirates of Penzance, and he is teaching Diction for Singers. He gives workshops throughout the year and will celebrate his twentieth summer in 2012 as the director of choral, instrumental and musical theater programs at Camp Starlight in the mountains of Pennsylvania. A composer and recipient of a Meet-the-Composer Grant, he has seen his works performed across the country. His works include song cycles, a trumpet concerto, a setting of the Mass, a Requiem and the opera, House of Butterflies. He was commissioned to compose a jazz setting of the Lutheran Worship’s Mass and Service of the Word for Trinity Lutheran Church in Pullman, Washington, and he continues to write music for the church and the theater. |