Dr. Gary Burgess’ career as an opera singer has taken him all over the world and brought him international acclaim.
He made his debut with the San Francisco Opera in 1973 and went on to perform throughout Europe and the US.
His formal music studies, which included two years at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, culminated in a Doctor of Music Arts degree from Indiana University.
He also enjoyed a long tenure in academia as music professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he also served as director of the university’s opera department, and as artistic director of the Greater Buffalo Opera Company.
In his later years, he returned to Bermuda, where he made a significant contribution as a programmed director in the Department of Cultural Affairs, and as a voice teacher and director of the Bermuda Philharmonic orchestra and choir.
A son of Percival and Joyce Burgess, and a nephew of jazz trumpeter Vernon “Ghandi” Burgess, Burgess was introduced to music at an early age.
Burgess’ mother played the piano and organ and he studied piano and sang in St. Monica’s Mission choir as a boy. Unlike his uncle Ghandi, Burgess was always drawn to classical music.
He attended Elliott School and The Berkeley Institute, where he was fortunate to have Joseph Richards— a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music—as his music teacher. Burgess also studied privately with Richards, taking voice and piano at his studio on Burnaby Street in Hamilton.
There was additional exposure to music on Sundays at Richards’ home in Somerset, where he and his wife Louisa hosted Sunday soirees for promising students.
After Berkeley, Burgess continued his education at Wilberforce University in Ohio, where he earned a bachelor’s degree. Two years of study at the Juilliard School of Music followed.
Subsequent studies took him to the Academia di Santa Cecelia in Rome, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and finally, Indiana University.
Burgess, who is a tenor, sang with the San Francisco Opera for several years. In 1973, he got his big break when he made his debut with the San Francisco Opera as a soloist, singing seven roles in one season.
He made his European debut with the Greek National Orchestra that same year, singing lead tenor roles in three operas, including The Rake’s Progress.
After 1973, he was on his way. His career in Europe took him from Greece to Norway and brought him several awards including the Prix Claude Debussy Award in 1984 in Paris and the Polish Arts award for Performing and Promoting Music of Polish Composers.
In the U.S., he appeared with many major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as the symphonies of Denver, Long Island, and Niagara Falls among others.
In 1976, he joined the faculty of the State University of New York at Buffalo as a music professor, where he was given the freedom to continue performing. He contributed much to the music development of the university and the city of Buffalo, staging and directing more than 40 operas as artistic director of the Greater Buffalo Opera Company.
He also performed with several music festivals in the U.S. and Europe, and enjoyed several seasons with the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. Over the years, he has shared the stage with a virtual who’s who of conductors and opera singers including Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, Luciano Pavarotti, Barbara Hendricks and Leontyne Price.
He has been featured on recordings and had the lead role of Bazil in William Grant Still’s opera A Bayou Legend, a production that was filmed by the National Public Broadcasting System and broadcast internationally.
As a master teacher, he has taught opera singers Laura Aikin, Leslie Delk and Vinson Cole and Brian Zunner, among others, and has conducted master classes in the U.S., Beijing, the Czech Republic and Ottawa, Canada.
His schedule of teaching, performing and staging operas, which lasted nearly three decades, eased in 1998, when Burgess retired from the State University of New York and returned to Bermuda to serve as Programme Coordinator in the Bermuda Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
He spent six years in that post before retiring in October 2004. During the same period, he was music director for the Bermuda Philharmonic, for whom he wrote and premiered two symphonies, Dawn of a New Day and The Bermuda Symphony. He also founded and directed a boys’ choir at the Anglican Cathedral.
Outside of the Philharmonic, he sang at recitals and concerts as a guest soloist and also gave voice lessons to up-and-coming singers.
Burgess now divides his time between Bermuda and Costa Rica but continues to work internationally as a director and master teacher.
In 2008, he directed Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, as part of the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics, and later the same year for the new Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
He is an inspiration to Bermuda’s aspiring musicians and classical music lovers for being a trailblazer in a highly competitive and demanding arena.
