In an international career that has spanned over 30 years, Noel Koran has appeared on the stage more than 1,000 times in a variety of theatrical and musical genres that include Opera, Operetta and Musicals, as well as Elizabethan Comedy and Tragedy, Restoration Comedy, French Farce, 19th Century Melodrama, 20th Century Naturalistic Drama and Theatre of the Absurd. He has sung in Operas, Operettas and Musicals by such diverse composers as Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Argento, Offenbach, Lehar, Egk, Strauss and Sullivan. He has acted in plays by Shakespeare, Sheridan, Chekov, and Strindberg, among others. As a stage director, he has established himself with extensive credentials in Opera, Operetta and Shakespeare. As an educator, he has spent nearly two decades passing on his performance experience and knowledge of theater to aspiring young performers at three major institutions of higher education. And geographically, his career in Theatre and Opera has spanned two continents, five countries, and over twenty major cities. It's a good beginning.
FULL BIOGRAPHY
Noel Koran received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Drama from the
University of Washington in 1974 and went on to work professionally as an actor, first with
A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle in
Godspell, which ran for over 200 performances and held the record as the longest running show in Seattle for over twenty years. He then moved to San Francisco to study acting with William Ball and Allen Fletcher at the
American Conservatory Theatre as a member of the prestigious Advanced Actor's Training Program and appeared in several conservatory productions. His roles there included Mercutio in
Romeo and Juliet, Trigorin in
The Seagull, Ferdinand Gadd in
Trewlaney of the Wells and Sir Benjamin Backbite in
School for Scandal.
After finishing his studies at ACT, Mr. Koran moved to New York in 1978, where he worked as an actor Off-Broadway, most notably as Adolf in Strindberg's
The Creditors. He also portrayed the young Dylan Thomas in the one-man show,
A Child's Christmas in Wales, performed at the
Union Square Theatre, under the direction of the noted English actress and director, Joan White. While living in New York though, he began nurturing a serious love for music and singing and turned to opera, at first studying voice with Emile Renan from
New York City Opera. While making the transition from stage actor to opera singer, he started performing smaller supporting roles such as Gastone in
La Traviata, Neipperg in
Madame Sans Gene and Friedrich in
The Red Mill for several small opera companies in New York. Encouraged by his success with these roles, he then moved to London in 1981 to begin his operatic career in earnest.
In London, he continued his voice studies with Esther Salaman from the
Guildhall School of Music and the
National Opera Studio and also attended
Morley College, where he coached opera roles and studied lieder interpretation with Geraldine Frank from the
Royal Covent Garden Opera House. While in London, he made his professional European debut as Frontin in the rarely performed opera,
Ma Tante Aurore by Boieldieu at
St. John's-Smith Square, London, and then went on to several other engagements including the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland, the
Wexford Festival, Ireland, and the
Three Choirs Festival, Hereford, England. He also appeared regularly with several semi-professional London groups such as
Beaufort Opera and
Opera Viva as he expanded his repertoire. Finally, after gaining a tremendous amount of valuable operatic experience in the British Isles, he moved to Germany in January of 1984 and became a member of the performing ensemble of the
Stadttheater Pforzheim, singing with the company for five seasons in a wide variety of roles in opera, operetta and musicals.
By the time Mr. Koran had been living and working in Europe as an opera singer for almost ten years though, he had decided it was time to move back to the United States with his wife and five year-old daughter. So in August of 1989, Mr. Koran made another major career shift and moved to Austin, Texas where he enrolled at
The University of Texas in the School of Music to study operatic stage direction. While at UT, he worked as the teaching assistant for the Director of the UT Opera Theatre, Robert DeSimone, directing student opera productions, teaching acting techniques to the voice students and assisting in the operation of the UT Opera training program until in June of 1992, he received a Master's Degree in Opera, specializing in operatic stage direction. From December 1990 to July 1993, he was also on the staff of the
Austin Lyric Opera as the Resident Assistant Stage Director with major responsibilities in the staging of soloists, chorus and extras for the productions. In addition, he was staff coordinator for the ALO Young Artist Program as well as the coordinator for
LEAP, the ALO minorities outreach program. During the summer of 1994, he returned to classical stage acting, performing the role of MacDuff in Shakespeare's
Macbeth with the
Austin Shakespeare Festival thereby rekindling his love of Shakespeare and classical theater, which he has continued nurturing ever since. Following the success of this performance, he was offered the position of Artistic Director of the
Austin Shakespeare Festival and served in that capacity from October 1994 to December 1996. At last, in May 1997, Mr. Koran received his Doctor of Musical Arts in opera stage direction after 8 years of advanced study from
The University of Texas at Austin.
In the fall of 1995, he was invited to join the faculty of the School of Music at
The Ohio State University and from January, 1996 to June, 2002, Dr. Koran served on the faculty there as the Director of Opera/Music Theatre where he was responsible for producing and directing all School of Music opera productions and scenes programs. In addition, he also taught acting for singers for the OSU opera workshop. Continuing as an acting teacher, in the summer of 1998, Dr. Koran joined the faculty of the
American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria where he taught classes in Stage Artistry for singers for two summers. Again returning to classical theater though, Mr. Koran played the role of Brutus in the The Actors' Theatre of Columbus production of Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar to much critical acclaim and was once again offered the position of Artistic Director because of his performance and accepted the position in November of 2000, serving in that capacity for three seasons.
The Actors' Theatre is the oldest Columbus theatrical organization producing outdoor classical theatre for Central Ohio audiences during the summer months.
Then in September 2002, Mr. Koran joined the faculty of
Northwestern University in the School of Music as the Director of Opera for the
Edith Mason & William E. Ragland Opera Theatre at the rank of Associate Professor where he completely revitalized and restructured the academic curriculum for the opera training division of the Voice and Opera Program and successfully taught operatic stage techniques for over six years. In addition, in his capacity as the Director of Opera, he led and oversaw the development of a new operatic performance division for the School of Music, producing and directing more than fifteen fully staged and costumed productions over the six years of his residency at that institution.
Finally, fulfilling a long lasting desire to return to his roots on the West Coast, he will be starting a new position at the
University of Washington in Seattle as the Director of Opera for the School of Music beginning in September 2008. In addition to working with the excellent students and faculty of the School of Music at this renowned public institution, he will also be working with the students and faculty of the School of Drama, one of the top-ranked drama schools in the nation. It's an exciting new challenge for him and one that will bring many memorable experiences to his long career in Academia and the Arts.
Currently, during the summer months he also works as a dramatic coach for aspiring young opera singers at the
Scuola Italia in the beautiful little town of Urbania in the hills of the Marche region of Italy, his favorite foreign country. He is in his fourth year in that capacity and hopes to continue basking in "la dolce vita" of Italy for many years to come.
