Biography

Lyric tenor Kurt Alakulppi made his Carnegie Hall debut singing Schubert's MASS IN G with MidAmerica Productions and debuted at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall as Eduardo in Rossini's LA CAMBIALE DI MATRIMONIO, returning there to sing Kid Conner with The Little Orchestra Society in Victor Herbert's THE RED MILL.

A gifted singing-actor, Alakulppi was regarded by Opera News as making a "strong contribution" with his "ductile tenor" as Simon Stimson in the professional company premiere of Ned Rorem's OUR TOWN at Lake George Opera. Kurt has sung Remendado in CARMEN and Pasek in THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN at Portland Opera and a critically acclaimed Pedrillo in DIE ENTFUHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL with Skylight Music Theater.

Past leading roles include Don Ottavio in DON GIOVANNI with Anchorage Opera; Ernesto in DON PASQUALE at Tacoma Opera; Almaviva in IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA with both Opera Idaho and for Nevada Opera's tour; Valere in Kirke Mechem's TARTUFFE at West Bay Opera; and Ferrando in COSI FAN TUTTE while an apprentice at Seattle Opera.

The Seattle native has participated in a number of new works in New York City. He created both Young Sean and Sean Jr. in the premiere of David Strickland's PHOENIX PARK at the Theater for the New City, premiered Philip Benson's high-flying SONGS OF WINTER, brought a 64-year-old Paul Cezanne to life in Martin Halpern's THE INSEPARABLES, and sang in Stephen Paulus' THE THREE HERMITS at the Quick Center for the Arts.

Alakulppi has a real passion for solo oratorio and concert work, having sung both Handel's MESSIAH and Eisenstein in DIE FLEDERMAUS with the Seattle Symphony; Britten's WAR REQUIEM, Haydn's CREATION, Handel's MESSIAH and Beethoven's MASS IN C, all as a guest artist with the Queens College Choral Society; the RACHMANINOFF VESPERS and Haydn's HEILIGMESSE with the Riverside Choral Society; and Bach's WEIHNACHTS ORATORIUM and Mendelssohn's ELIJAH with the Walla Walla Symphony. He sang John K. Paine's rarely heard MASS IN D with the Choral Arts Society of New Jersey, and soloed in Mendelssohn's ELIJAH with the Park Slope Singers, in Britten's GLORIANA DANCES with New York's Cerddorion, and in the Mozart REQUIEM at the Tilles Center and also with Hudson Opera Theater.

Alakulppi holds degrees in Vocal Performance and Editorial Journalism from the University of Washington, and is the winner of the Norwalk Symphony's Oratorio Soloist Competition and the Seattle Opera Michael Mitchell Award. After college he studied privately for 10 years with Ellen Faull Gordon, followed by many years with Dr. Robert C. White Jr. , both noted Juilliard vocal pedagogues.

After a 30-year performance career, Kurt now focuses on training the next generation. He has maintained a private voice studio in New York City since 2002 and joined Juilliard's Evening Division voice faculty in 2017. In 2018 he was recruited to teach at NYU's Classical Vocal Intensive, was a clinician at "Juilliard Unveiled", and presented at the National Association of Teacher's of Singing Conference. In September of 2020 Kurt taught employees in voice production at his first corporate training at Google's Forging Resilience: 2020 Pathfinder Virtual Offsite event. With the necessity of online learning platforms since March 2020, his students now come from all corners of the United States and around the world. In-person private studio instruction will return when safe to do so, and online lessons will continue as a part of the studio for those who are not local to New York.