RAY EVANS HARRELL : (Artistic Director, conductor, director, master teacher and performer) has performed in, collaborated on and coached for projects that have received the Oscar, Tony, Obie, Grammy, Drama Critics, ASCAP, Golden Globe, Canadian Film Festival and Dramatist Guild Awards. Mr. Harrell has assisted with and performed on recordings on the Angel, London, Jive, Disneyland Records, Sony classics, Newport Classic, Opus One, Leonarda, Spectrum, Decca, Premier, MTM, Vox Cum Laud, Phillips KIC, DARP, and Jomba labels. He is also a soloist on the Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass film Naqoyqatsi and the recording of David Friedman’s prize-winning Christmas Oratorio King Island Christmas, produced by 12-time Grammy winner Thomas Z. Shepard.
For over 33 years, Mr. Harrell has been a problem-solving consultant on major performance projects. His expertise has been utilized to solve creative, economic and performance issues centering around cultural and gender stereotyping in projects such as: Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame, M Butterfly, Carmen, The Sheltering Sky and The Last Temptation of Christ as well as numerous Native American recordings and performances. A native Oklahoman and a Cherokee Indian, he is also a noted lecturer on Native American matters at the United Nations, Auburn and Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University Teacher’s College Ph.D. program, Lucent Technologies, New York City’s Museum of Natural History, various universities and colleges across the country, and arts and economics councils in Canada and on the Internet.
Mr. Harrell is a pioneer and producer in the development of American Chamber Opera companies and projects. He is the founder and artistic director of the Magic Circle Opera Repertory Ensemble, Inc. of New York, America’s first full-time, multi-cultural chamber opera ensemble and the Magic Circle Training Program. For over 25 years his innovative and creative concepts have widened the world of American Chamber Opera. He has developed and conducted four Magic Circle Opera performance ensembles, a Flamenco opera company, five new, complete operas with notables like Kurt Vonnegut and numerous Magic Circle Opera recordings including “A Childhood Miracle,??? and “Three Sisters Who Are Not Sister,??? by Ned Rorem on the Newport Classic label and Kurt Vonnegut’s humanist requiem Stone, Time and Elements. His company is a resident company of LaMama E.T.C. and is currently running the American Masters Arts Festival Biennial honoring American master composer Ned Rorem with two years of performances in New York City venues. This year he ran the Florentine Arts and Economics Symposium in the Nation's capital under the tutelage of the "Father" of System's science. John N. Warfield and his IM team.
Mr. Harrell completed his Masters Degree in Voice from Manhattan School of Music where he taught vocal performance workshop and voice from 1979-86 and an undergraduate degree from Tulsa University where he taught from 1961-64. He has studied with many of the world’s greatest teachers including voice with Dame Eva Turner, Frederick Wilkerson and Daniel Ferro. Acting with the founder of the “method??? Robert Lewis, Wesley Balk, Frank Corsaro and Sir Basil Langton. He has postgraduate work in somatics and dance with modern dance pioneer Elaine Summers and is Certified in RSM with Ilana Rubenfeld. His illustrious singers in classical, contemporary and popular music have performed in every major venue in New York City, across America as well as in Europe and the far East including La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric, San Francisco Opera, Houston Opera, Covent Garden; with the New York, Boston and Philadelphia Orchestras and in over 100 CDs and in “Hit??? albums in the US and Europe and on stage with such directors as Pat Birch, Frank Corsaro, David Cronenberg, Robert Lewis, Jane Lind, Nathaniel Merrill, Andre Serban, Julie Taymor, Hal Prince, Bernardo Bertolucci and Martin Scorcese.
His company has given over 2 million dollars in study scholarships to worthy talents over the last 27 years with 1/4 of that study going to American Indians.
Harrell is an Army veteran of the Vietnam era. He served two enlistments with a White House Security Clearance at the Arlington Cemetery Fort Myer Post.
Harrell is the Traditional Cherokee Priest (Didahnvwisgi) in the Nuyagi Keetoowah Community, a Cherokee scholar’s community recognized in New York State and by the IRS as a certified religious community. They have a stompground in Sullivan County, New York, a religious honor passed to the Community by the Indian League of the Americas. They hold this ground as a sacred trust to the Cherokee and Indian peoples of the New York City area. Harrell has been with the community since its founding and was the legally adopted son of the Founder and High Medicine Priest until his death in 1988. As his last apprentice and son he has served the community as Priest since that time.
He is featured in the International Who’s Who in Music and Musician’s Directory 11th (1988) and 19th (1996) editions and the Who's Who in the Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th editions (1997-2002). He is a member of the Screen Actor's Guild, The American Guild of Musical Artists, The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and Phi Mu Alpha Music Fraternity.
