The Giorgio Tozzi Scholarship
From the operatic stage to musical theater, to film and television, leading bass-baritone Giorgio Tozzi has brought his multi-faceted talent to the world of performing arts.
At the Metropolitan Opera, during 21 seasons, he sang 399 performances of 37 roles. His repertoire included such roles as Boris in Boris Godunov, King Phillip in Don Carlo, Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger, Mefisto in Faust, the title role in Don Giovanni, and Zaccharia in Nabucco. He has sung at La Scala, Milan, The San Francisco Opera, Teatro Clon in Buenos Aieres, Hamburg Opera, Teatro Communale di Firenze, and the Salzburg Opera to name a few. In the January 28, 1967 issue of "The Saturday Review", Irving Kolodin wrote of Tozzi; "Thus, in the best tradition of operatic distinction, he is a hybrid, bestriding tow different but complimentary kind of resource on a firm bridge of artistic intelligence."
The New York Philharmonic, The Boston Symphony, The Chicago Symphony, The Philadelphia Orchestra, L'Orchestra del Accademia di Santa Cecilia di Roma are a few of the major orchestras with which he sang major works such as Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi, The Messiah by Handel, The Creation by Haydn. Among the many conductors with whom he appeared are Fritz Reiner, Bruno Walter, Dimitri Mitropolous, Tulio Serfin, Carlo Maria Giulini, Thomas Beecham, George Solti. He has recorded extensively with RCA, London Decca, Columbian, and Cetra records.
In musical theater, he has received the Tony award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for the Broadway revival of The Most Happy Fella. In San Francisco he received the Critics' Award for Best Actor in a Musical for the 1957 revival of South Pacific opposite Mary Martin. He performed in many musicals and received four Grammy awards from the recording industry.
He has taught voice at the Juilliard School of Music, Brigham Young University, and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he started teaching in 1991 and retired in 2006 as Distinguished Professor.
The Giorgio Tozzi Scholarship is awarded annually to a bass or bass/baritone graduate student studying opera at the Jacobs School of Music.