Originally from Springfield, Illinois, Andrew (Bawden) Yergiyev is a graduate and Bronze Tablet Scholar of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where his opera performances included roles in Die Zauberflöte, La Traviata, the Impresario, Gianni Schicchi, Madame Butterfly, and Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti. Following his undergraduate vocal training, Bawden completed a three-year certification program under Joan and Alex Murray to teach the Alexander Technique. 

 

In his recent home in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area, he was a professional chorister with Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center and a frequent solo oratorio performer. His solo oratorio engagements included multiple performances of the Duruflé Requiem and Händel’s Messiah, as well as the Saint-Saëns Christmas Oratorio, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and Brahms’ A German Requiem. He also debuted with Opera Vivente of Baltimore as Ceprano in an innovative production of Rigoletto.

 

Yergiyev completed his graduate studies in voice performance at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where in December, 2006 he made his solo debut in the Eastman Theatre as the bass soloist for the Mozart Mass in c minor (version completed by Robert Levin) with the musicologist in attendance. At Eastman he performed the role of Le Roy in Lully’s Thesée under Grammy nominee lutenist, Paul O’Dette, and sang the role of Count Carl-Magnus in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.  Other engagements at Eastman included solos from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Hans Sachs in a performance of excerpts of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

 

While attending Eastman, Yergiyev was the first-place award winner and audience favorite award winner of the Rochester Classical Idol Vocal Competition, and as a result performed as a guest soloist with the Rochester Oratorio Society.  He has also been a semi-finalist in the national Orpheus Voice Competition held in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

 

Other solo opera appearances include Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors and Top in The Tender Land with Mercury Opera (Rochester), as well as Morales in Carmen at the Ash Lawn Opera Festival.  Yergiyev was a resident artist with Tri-Cities Opera of Binghamton, NY where he sang many roles: Marullo in Rigoletto, Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Bob in Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, Valentin in Faust, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Cesare Angelotti in Tosca, Simone in Gianni Schicchi, and  Belcore in L’elisir d’amore.  He recently performed Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale with Hubbard Hall Opera Theater (Cambridge, NY).

 

In 2012, he achieved 2nd place in The American Prize in Vocal Performance—Friedrich & Virginia Schorr Memorial Awards—college/university art song division. Bawden, who also won The American Prize—Chicago Opera Award earlier that spring, was selected from scores of applications reviewed from all across the United States.

 

Recently he attended James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA), where he performed the roles of Falke in Die Fledermaus, Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’amore, and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, and appeared as the bass soloist in Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem. 

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