Perfect Italian Diction for Singers: An Authoritative Guide - Paperback

A leading expert on Czech vocal music, Timothy Cheek is pianist, vocal coach, and professor of performing arts at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater & Dance in Ann Arbor. He is the author of Singing in Czech: A Guide to Czech Lyric Diction and Vocal Repertoire (2001), The Janáček Opera Libretti, volumes I (2003), II (2004) and III (2016), The Bartered Bride, Prodaná nevěsta: Performance Guide with Translations and Pronunciation (2010), and Rusalka: A Performance Guide with Translations and Pronunciation (2012), published by Scarecrow Press and Rowman & Littlefield.

Timothy Cheek has taught Italian lyric diction at the University of Michigan since 1993. As collaborative pianist, he has performed throughout Italy, and worked for nine years in Tuscan summer vocal programs, both at Cincinnati Conservatory's Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca program and at the University of Michigan's spring term program in Sesto Fiorentino. Cheek has written books on Czech lyric diction and opera, and he is the series editor of Rowman & Littlefield's Lyric Diction series. His long association with Italian pianist/coach Anna Toccafondi extends to over three decades of collaboration and consultation. Anna Toccafondi performs regularly in major festivals and theaters in Italy, Europe, and Japan. She recently began a cooperation with the Municipality and the Teatro Garibaldi of Modica (Sicily) for the project Cantare in Perfetto Italiano, Singing in Perfect Italian, a series of masterclasses devoted to foreign singers and collaborative pianists. Committed to unpublished or lesser known compositions of the Italian vocal repertoire, Toccafondi has done research, transcriptions, revisions, and recordings of important composers.