Join us for one night only as the UW-Milwaukee Voice Area proudly presents World-renowned Mexican-American bass-baritone Richard Ollarsaba and American pianist Aurelia Andrews, performing a program inspired by Don Quixote and Man of La Mancha. The evening will include works by Ravel, Ibert, Delannoy, Chapí, Massenet, and Leigh & Darion.

Praised by The Washington Post for his “meltingly smooth bass-baritone” and for “evoking a young Ruggero Raimondi in looks and manner,” Richard Ollarsaba is an internationally recognized artist. He represented the United States in the 2019 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, was a grand finalist in the 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and spent three seasons as a member of the prestigious Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

His recent credits include the title role in Don Giovanni with Opera Hong Kong, Arizona Opera, Opera Carolina, and Opera Grand Rapids; Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with Portland Opera, Piedmont Opera, Knoxville Opera, and Virginia Opera; Figaro with New Zealand Opera and Minnesota Opera; and Escamillo in Carmen with companies including the Glimmerglass Festival, Portland Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Kentucky Opera, and more. In the 2025–26 season, he will make his debut with Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera in the title role of Don Giovanni.

American pianist Aurelia Andrews enjoys a varied and dynamic career as a highly sought-after pianist, coach, and collaborator. A graduate of the LA Opera Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program and the Glimmerglass Festival Young Artist Program, Aurelia has since served on the music staff of numerous opera companies, both in the United States and in Germany, including the Santa Fe Opera, The Dallas Opera, LA Opera, Utah Opera, Opera Theatre St. Louis, The Glimmerglass Festival, Pacific Opera Project, and the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, in Heidelberg Germany. Aurelia is currently the Head of Music at the Florentine Opera.https://uwm.edu/arts/event/richard-ollarsaba-in-recital-presents-side-quest-quixote-the-men-of-la-mancha/