Gerald Dolter

Gerald Dolter (with degrees from Indiana University) joined the voice faculty at the Texas Tech School of Music in the fall of 1995.  He became the Director of TTU Opera Theatre in 1998.  He has sought to program a wide variety of works to benefit students and the public interest. Johann Strauss's operetta Die Fledermaus, Mozart's Don Giovanni, Nicolai's TheMerry Wives of Windsor, a world premiere music drama, Bellini's War, by Steven Paxton, and Verdi's La Traviata are a sampling.  He has also built a reputation for staging works in unusual locations.  His production of Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods, staged in a local Lubbock hotel atrium, represented a drastic departure for normal theatrical venues, in which he made use of the natural trees, brooks, pools, and shrubs to enhance the required stage settings. In 2013, he directed a new production of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte for Texas Tech Opera Theatre, which toured to the National Theatre of Honduras.

Gerald Dolter began his professional singing career in the opera houses and concert halls of the United States and Europe.  Opern Welt magazine has described his performances as “radiant,” by the Frankfurter Rundschauas “powerful baritonal presence,” and by England's Opera magazine as “electrifying.”  His operatic credits include appearances with the Pittsburgh, New Jersey State, Tulsa, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Arizona opera companies, as well as the opera companies of Frankfurt, Mannheim, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Düsseldorf, Gelsenkirchen, Krefeld, and Montpellier.  From 1985 to 1991, Dolter was the leading baritone with Germany's Bremen Opera. His repertoire there included such diverse characterizations as Germont in La Traviata, Escamillo in Carmen, and Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress. His operatic repertoire includes more than 87 characterizations and 40 leading roles in musical theatre. He was a National Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 1984, and is now a frequent adjudicator for that competition at both the district and regional levels.

Dolter created a musical theatre production company, Lubbock Moonlight Musicals, in 2006. The company has produced many grand-scale musicals in the outdoor setting of Lubbock's Moonlight Musicals Amphitheatre. Texas Tech students have benefited significantly from participation in its activities.  In addition to valuable professional stage experience, these students receive hands-on experience as administrators, stage performers, musicians, and stage technicians.  As a result of the company's success, a new professional endeavor called Moonlight Broadway has spun off from summer operations, allowing TTU participants professional resume credits. To date, Lubbock Moonlight Musicals has paid more than $1,000,000 in stipends to Texas Tech and other university students.