Dear Friends:

It has been quite a while since my last update.  Many things have tran­spired since then, some which many of you already know, but if you will indulge me a bit, I’ll recall some things for those who are not reg­u­lar “Kun­di­ans”, a name coined by one par­tic­u­larly avid fan, friend and scholar of all things Kunde.

In the last few years, my reper­toire has changed quite a bit from it’s foothold in bel canto to an explo­ration of more lyric works.  Berlioz, Busoni and even a touch of Mahler have crept their way in and I must say, I am enjoy­ing this “2nd career” as a more heroic tenor. Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini are still very impor­tant to me as I will con­tinue to sing the Noz­zari (Rossini’s pre­ferred “baritenore”) roles of Rossini, Bellini’s Norma and La Straniera are also in the off­ing as well as the more dra­matic side of Donizetti.  But in March of 2011 at the Teatro Regio di Torino (Italy), I will make my debut as Arrigo in I Vespri Sicil­iani mark­ing my first foray into the Verdi reper­toire in many years.  A Verdi Requiem in Lima, Peru will fol­low that and and a return to Naples for the french ver­sion of Vespri, Les Vepres Sicili­enne. Hope­fully this will be just the begin­ning of many other oppor­tu­ni­ties to sing the extra­or­di­nary music of Giuseppe Verdi.

I have been very for­tu­nate to have been involved in some mon­u­men­tal pro­duc­tions over the past few years and have had some won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ties to work with some very spe­cial peo­ple as well.  First, I have to thank Charles Dutoit who has shown great faith in me over the past 8 years of doing count­less per­for­mances of Le Damna­tion de Faust together.  He has taught me how to under­stand and appre­ci­ate the music of the greatly under-appreciated Hec­tor Berlioz.  Next, Sir John Eliot Gar­diner who gave me the con­fi­dence to tackle Ben­venuto Cellini (which I ended up record­ing with John Nel­son and Sir Colin Davis, two more great Berlioz inter­preters) and Enee in Les Troyens. That Troyens from Paris’ Chatelet was cap­tured on DVD for Opus Arte and was nom­i­nated for Gramophone’s Record of the Year in 2005.  And, I can’t for­get Alberto Zedda who made a des­per­ate call to me in July of 2007 after he had lost his Otello for that season’s Rossini Opera Fes­ti­val due to ill­ness.  I had never stud­ied the role or had ever heard it for that mat­ter, but I jumped at the chance to return to my roots in Pesaro where I debuted in 1992.  It ended up being the best deci­sion I had ever made to say “yes” and basi­cally re-established my rep­u­ta­tion there and began what is called, in some cir­cles, a “Kunde Renais­sance”.  Since that time, I have been singing my “new reper­toire” with con­duc­tors like Rat­tle, Noseda, Nagano, Tilson-Thomas, Abbado (Roberto) and singers like Devia, Antonacci, Bar­cel­lona, Di Donato, Gra­ham, Lar­more, Von Otter, Sir­a­gusa, Flo­rez, Quasthoff and Hamp­son.  I am blessed.

On the home­front, since we last spoke, we have grad­u­ated from watch­ing car­toons of a lit­tle Span­ish girl and her mon­key (Dora the Explorer) to every­thing Dis­ney Princesses to now watch­ing over a col­lec­tion of Amer­i­can Girl dolls with our daugh­ter Isabella, now nearly 9 years old.  Our (her) music tastes have changed as well (as she dom­i­nates the CD player in the car). We’ve moved from Mozart and the Dixie Chicks to Han­nah Mon­tana, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, The Jonas Broth­ers, Tay­lor Swift and of all things…Ella Fitzger­ald!!  It could be worse…

She is also quite a pianist.  She cap­tured first place in this year’s Schol­ar­ship Audi­tions at Nazareth Col­lege!  And her singing voice…well, how can she miss??  She is a can­tor at our church, most times singing along­side her mother, but twice lead­ing the con­gre­ga­tion all by herself…only 9 years old…I know, I’m blessed.

My wife, Linda has been head­ing up a cap­i­tal cam­paign to raise 2.8 mil­lion dol­lars for the ren­o­va­tion of our parish church, St. Joseph’s in Pen­field, NY.  They have raised nearly half of the monies needed in less than one year and the first phase of the ren­o­va­tion was com­pleted at the end of Octo­ber 2010.  Oh, and she’s also a vol­un­teer at Isabella’s school twice a week, she helps with Brownies/Girls Scouts (cook­ies any­one?) and Children’s Choir (also at school) and all the while con­tin­ues to be Gen­eral Direc­tor, Pres­i­dent of the Board of Direc­tors, sings first soprano and is fea­tured soloist for the Gre­gory Kunde Chorale.

More impor­tantly though, she is rais­ing a beau­ti­ful child most times by her­self, being mother and father while I am out doing this.  Those of you who think you have tough days in your life, try doing what she does…for a day!  I admire her more and more every day when I see what a beau­ti­ful young lady Isabella is becom­ing and stand in amaze­ment that her mother looks as gor­geous today as she did when I mar­ried her 20 years ago.  Again, I am truly blessed.

I con­tinue to be hum­bled by the over­whelm­ing sup­port of those of you fol­low my career.  I am hon­ored to have you as friends and I look for­ward to see­ing and meet­ing you all some­time, some­where.  In the mean­time, I wish you all the very best and I thank you all for mak­ing it pos­si­ble for us to do what we do.  We do what we do for your enjoy­ment.  And so, I hope you…enjoy!

God bless you!

Greg