The second Saturday of each month, Noce provides a stage for some of the area's most talented actors & actresses to perform their cabaret act. Late night drink specials, cheap cover, & great entertainment!
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Andrew Ryker received his master's degree in Vocal Performance from New England Conservatory where he graduated with Academic Honors and was a student of John Moriarty. He has been heard with the Boston Pops, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, La Musica Lirica and College Light Opera Company. Andrew was baritone soloist for Trinity Church's performances of Durufle's Requiem and Bach's Johannes Passion. Operatic roles include Papageno (The Magic Flute), Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Marco (Gianni Schicchi), Silvio (Pagliacci), Don Alfonso (Cosi fan tutte), John Brooke (Little Women), Strephon (Iolanthe), St. Brioche (The Merry Widow), Le Suritendent (Cendrillon) and Jenik in the US premiere of Dvorak's Kral a Uhlir. He also performed regionally in Titanic, The Scarlet Pimpernel, 42nd Street, South Pacific, Brigadoon and On the 20th Century with Alice Ripley. Andrew has sung in master classes with Pierre Vallet, Vinson Cole, Alan Held and Warren Jones and has been featured on the St. John's Concert Series as well as various gala performances throughout the Marché region of Italy. Recent roles include Leo Frank in Jason Robert Brown's Parade and the title role in Andrew Lippa's I am Harvey Milk.
Andrew joined the voice faculty at Drake University in 2009 and is passionate about training excellent and versatile singers. His students have been accepted into many of the premiere graduate and young artist programs in the US including Sarasota Opera, Ash Lawn Opera and Sante Fe Opera. An active participant in the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Ryker has had almost 40 winners in regional and state NATS competitions as well as multiple award winners in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
As stage director, Andrew was the recipient of the Goldovsky Directing Fellowship with the Harrower Opera Workshop in Atlanta and a Young Artist at Opera North in New Hampshire. He has served on the directing staff at Opera New Jersey and Andrew’s productions have been seen with the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Intermezzo Chamber Opera, Eastern Nazarene College, Boston Opera Collaborative, Millikin University, MetroWest Opera, Drake University and New England Conservatory. Andrew continues to serve as an advisor for the Entrepreneurial Musicianship Program at New England Conservatory and regularly adjudicates for the National Opera Association. Ryker has been featured in the Boston Globe, The EDGE and Classical Singer Magazine; his production of Benjamin Britten's Curlew River was named Boston's "Best Staged Opera of the Year" by the Boston Phoenix.
Andrew has been actively involved with Des Moines Metro Opera since 2010 where he has directed for their nationally recognized Apprentice Artist Program as well as staging touring children’s operas and productions of The Elixir of Love, Cenerentola and The Barber of Seville. Prior to his time in Des Moines, Andrew was the Artistic Director of Boston Opera Collaborative and served on the directing staff at New England Conservatory in Boston.