Judith Fredricks
General and Artistic Director
Co-founder
of Opera New York with the late Chester Ludgin, Ms. Fredricks established the
Chester Ludgin Memorial Fund and the prestigious Chester Ludgin American Verdi
Baritone Competition.
To help fund the competition, she recently produced the First Chester
Ludgin Memorial Benefit Concert at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, with
appearances by Samuel Ramey and other stars from the Metropolitan Opera and New
York City
Opera as well as Opera New York artists. This event was hosted by Mignon Dunn,
who presented the First CLMF Award to Martina Arroyo.
For the 2004-05 Opera New York season, Ms. Fredricks is presenting a series
of 6 recitals by ONY artists at Liederkranz Foundation and co-produced a concert
by ONY artist Cristina Fontanelli at Merkin Concert Hall.
A
director of opera and music theatre, Ms. Fredricks recently directed They All
Knew, a new musical by Robert Mitchell, at Wings Theatre in Greenwich
Village. The
production originated as a staged reading developed and produced by Writers’
Stage, the developmental theatre works division of Opera New York.
Another recent
Writer’s Stage discovery directed by Ms. Fredricks is a modern-day adaptation
of Die Fledermaus entitled Tales From The Manhattan Woods, with
new book and lyrics by Frederick Stroppel, which played last season for 10 weeks
in an Off-Broadway production at Wings Theatre.
In the 2002 season, she directed the Writer’s Stage original musical, Vincent,
based on the life and letters of Vincent Van Gogh, in an OOB production at
Wings. Ms.
Fredricks has also directed Rappaccini’s Daughter, another Writers’
Stage project.
For the last 5 years, she has co-produced and directed the European tours
of The Best of Broadway and The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber in
major concert halls in Germany, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.
In her efforts to make opera accessible to contemporary, widely
diversified audiences, Ms. Fredricks has directed Carmen, La Boheme,
Tosca, Rigoletto, La Traviata, and other standard
repertoire in modern settings.
She is the creator of The Four Divas concert series and numerous other
concerts for Opera New York.
Ms.
Fredricks conducts workshops for young professionals in both opera and music
theatre. Recognized
as a leading voice teacher for both operatic and Broadway singers, she teaches
master classes in voice and acting for singers throughout the United States.
Ms. Fredricks is often called upon to adjudicate major vocal
competitions.
Judith Fredricks comes to directing from an extremely diversified background encompassing music theatre, theatre, films, television, dance, and opera. She has danced with the San Francisco Ballet, The American Dance Machine, and toured as the leading lady in Eugene Loring’s Slaughter on 10th Ave. Ms. Fredricks starred in Paramount Picture’s The Farmer’s Other Daughter, co-starred in the independent film The Grass Eater, and guest-starred on more than a dozen different television shows while at Warner Bros. Her theatre credits include both musical and dramatic roles, including the leading ladies in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Bus Stop, Picnic, The Seven Year Itch, Man of La Mancha, Kismet, Kiss Me Kate, Song of Norway, South Pacific, Camelot, and Man For All Seasons. She has performed in major regional theatres throughout the United States including the St. Louis Muny, Casa Manana, LA’s Huntington Hartford (replacing Juliet Mills), Kansas City Starlight, as well as Off-Broadway in New York City (Aline in Scaramouche for Ensemble Studio Theatre and Mrs. Waters in Tom Jones for Music Theatre Works.) Ms. Fredricks has performed across Europe as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, Lalume in Kismet, and Kate in Kiss Me Kate. She performed Lalume in the Opera Houses of Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt, and with the Ambassadors of Opera sang numerous concerts in Bahrain, Abu Dabi, and Oman.
