One Foot in the Grave - UCLA Philharmonia Fall Halloween Spectacular

Born in Mannheim, Germany, Christoph Bull has performed and recorded around the world, including France, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Northern Ireland, Russia, India, Taiwan and El Salvador, at national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists and at venues such as Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Lincoln Center in New York City, Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, the Cathedrals of Moscow, Saint-Denis and Salzburg as well as rock clubs like The Viper Room, The Roxy and The Whisky in Los Angeles.

Bull improvised his first melodies on the piano at the age of five and gave his first organ recitals and rock concerts with a band at the age of twelve. He’s collaborated with leading orchestras, conductors, choirs and ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, James Conlon, Carl St.Clair, Pacific Chorale, Pacific Symphony and Grammy-winning Southwest Chamber Music.

His organ teachers were Cherry Rhodes, Hermann Schäffer, Ludwig Dörr, Samuel Swartz, Christoph Schöner and Paul Jordan. He also participated in master courses with Marie-Claire Alain, Guy Bovet, Craig Cramer and Rudi Lutz.

Bull is the creator of the genre-crossing, collaborative multi-media series organica, combining traditional and contemporary music. His collaborators include DJs, video artists, live painter, instrumentalists and singers. He has also contributed to projects by Steven Spielberg, Robin Williams, Harry Connick Jr., George Clinton and Bootsy Collins (Parliament Funkadelic), Cindy Lauper, Lili Haydn and Nishat Khan and opened the organ series at Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa and Villa Aurora in the Pacific Palisades.

His solo album First & Grand, the world premiere recording of the Walt Disney Concert Hall Organ, was celebrated by the international trade press and showcases the stylistic versatility and expressiveness of his playing. His original song “Peace” was featured on the benefit album 2 Unite All together with songs by Peter Gabriel, Stewart Copeland and others. His song “Ali” was featured on the website for the collector’s book about Muhammad Ali by Taschen.

His music has been broadcast on TV and radio, including on NPR’s flagship station in Southern California, KCRW, on Classical KUSC and the Minnesota Public Radio program “Pipedreams”.

Bull is based in Los Angeles. In addition to his activities as a concert organist, composer, singer-songwriter, speaker, university organist and organ professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), he is organist-in-residence at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, playing one of the largest pipe organs in the world.

Outside of music, Bull is interested in politics, theology, cinema and sports. He’s read the whole Bible, Koran, Bhagavad Gita and Tao Te Ching, watched every Seinfeld episode and all Star Wars movies in a row in the chronological order of the storyline. He’s run the L.A. Marathon several times and won the National German Youth Championship in Baseball with his team BC Tornados Mannheim.

With “tones of pure gold” (Washington Post), Michelle Rice brings to her work a rich timbre and performance intensity. Before a recent change to dramatic soprano repertoire, Rice was hailed as a standout in mezzo repertoire, appearing in such roles as Herodias (Salome), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Flora Bervoix (La traviata), Lola (Cavalleria rusticana), Carmen and Mercedes (Carmen), the Witch and the Mother (Hansel and Gretel), Antonia’s Mother (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Gertude (Roméo et Juliette), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), and Serse and Arsamene (Serse), with companies including West Bay Opera, Opera San José, Fresno Grand Opera, Opera Cleveland, Annapolis Opera, Pasadena Opera, New Orleans Opera, and other organizations throughout the United States.

Career highlights include performances of Mrs. Grose in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at the Kennedy Center conducted by Lorin Maazel, the role of Dorabella (Così fan tutte) with acclaimed film director Jonathan Lynn, and Dominick Argento’s Pulitzer Prize-winning monodrama From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, performed for the composer.

Performances of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire have included the roles of Savitri (Savitri), the Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors), Mrs. Olsen (Street Scene), the Secretary (The Consul), Mère Marie (Dialogues des Carmélites), Anna (Tobias and the Angel), Jade Boucher (Dead Man Walking), Sidia Gruenfeld (Lost Childhood), Madre Melchora in the world premiere of Carla Lucero’s Juana with Opera UCLA, and the role of Kathy Hagen in Terence Blanchard’s Champion: An Opera in Jazz. Rice created the title role in Clara, an opera by Robert Convery based on the life of Clara Schumann. Of that performance, the Washington Post declared, “Rice was…reflective and confident in both her singing and acting… [she] excelled at dramatic subtleties and pierced scenes with her presence and clarity of voice–especially compelling during revelatory biographical moments.”

On the concert stage, Rice has performed the mezzo solos in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Händel’s Messiah, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Schubert’s Mass No. 5, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri, Elgar’s The Music Makers, Carlos Fonseca’s Missa Afro-Brasileira, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Musorgsky’s Songs and dances of death, among others, as well as the soprano solo in Korngold’s Passover Psalm, with groups including the Berkeley Symphony, Washington Concert Opera, and MidAmerica Productions at Carnegie Hall. Her concert performances have run the gamut from the mezzo solo in a lauded performance of the Verdi Requiem with James Morris and Sharon Sweet, to a video presentation of the aria “To this we’ve come” from Menotti’s The Consul, featured in the National Museum of American Jewish History’s program celebrating Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 88th birthday. Rice’s recital programs feature song cycles such as Mohammed Fairouz’ Jeder Mensch with texts from the diary of Alma Mahler, and Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen.

Rice is exploring producing new classical works for the voice as an additional creative avenue. In 2021, she commissioned, produced, and performed a video recital of new works for the voice by UCLA student composers called Song Gallery. In 2022, she commissioned, fully produced, and performed a one-act chamber opera about Lady Macbeth called The Queen, My Lord, Is Dead. The premiere of The Queen was an outstanding success, and the creative team is preparing a studio recording of the opera for release and pursuing additional productions of the work.

Rice holds degrees from the University of Washington (Bachelor of Music), the University of Maryland Opera Studio (Master of Music), and the University of California Los Angeles (Doctor of Musical Arts).

YUKI IZUMIHARA is a scenic, projection, and production designer born in Shimonoseki City, Japan and based in Oakland, CA.
Ms. Izumihara’s work is influenced by years of martial arts training and is animated by a belief in discipline, ethics and craftsmanship.

Recent engagements include projection design for Cirque Musica’s Holiday Wonderland, production design for Semele and Tosca with Opera Santa Barbra; scenic design for INTERSTATE with East West Players; projection design for The Cuban Vote with Miami New Drama (winner of Carbonell Awards Outstanding Achievement of an Artistic Specialty for Projection Design); scenic design for The Capulets and the Montagues with Opera Omaha; Sanctuaries with Third Angle New Music; production design for QUANDO with Heartbeat Opera, The Fall of the House of Usher and desert in with Boston Lyric Opera. Her work has been featured at LA Opera, the New World Symphony, The Adrienne Arsht Center, San Diego Opera, the Hammer Museum, Getty Villa Museum, and various theaters in Los Angeles.

As an artist, graphic designer, and animator with an emphasis on spatial composition and color narrative, Yuki aims to clarify, establish and amplify project identities through visual language, including Long Beach Opera’s 2022 vision//revision season art, title card design for Opera Philadelphia’s La voix humaine, Opera Omaha’s ONE Festival 2018-2022, and various projects in developmental stages.