Baritone teaches students how to improve Western opera in China
Brian Montgomery has spent 10 years improving the quality of Western opera in China. It's getting better all the time, he tells Sam Olluver
When the mainland's decade-long Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, American violinist Isaac Stern was invited to reopen cultural channels between East and West. He advised Chinese orchestral musicians on Western classics and inspired students to lift their game in terms of their musical expression.
It didn't take long for mainland composers to follow the flow, with their East-West fusion of musical styles.
Amid all of this high-profile exchange, an American baritone was quietly starting to make his own transition across the globe. Brian Montgomery had escaped an early lack of musical direction in his hometown of Burien near Seattle and was heading east to New York.
In the choir, I was louder than anyone else. I seemed to have a knack for it
There, in 1992, he made his debut appearance at one of the most prestigious musical establishments in the world: New York's Metropolitan Opera (the Met). Little did he know that he was destined to end up much farther east than anticipated.
The 57-year-old opera singer arrived on our shore a decade ago and spent five years teaching at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (APA).
He is still based in Hong Kong and has committed to a broader mission in the region by riding the mainland's burgeoning interest in Western opera.
In December last year, he directed, produced and sang in a semi-staged production of Mozart's at Guizhou Normal University in Guiyang province. Next week, he will start preparing for a performance of Puccini's at Beijing University, where he will coach the students in stage movement before singing alongside them.
