THE STORY
Victoria and Bernardo have been friends and colleagues for over ten years. They have performed together at the San Diego opera and have been constantly thrown together in Symphony concerts across the west coast. They decided to team up and produce their own show of timeless duets showcasing their favorite pieces of music from musical theater, to classical crossover, popular standards and opera. Bernardo’s lush baritone voice combined with Victoria’s vibrant soprano tones make for a full warm spectrum of sound demonstrating the beauty and power of the human voice. Their show, titled “Duetto”, has toured across California. Now due to popular demand, they are preparing an upcoming tour of the United States with colleague Vernon Snyder on piano.
Photo by Gail Bowman Photography
Victoria Robertson
Victoria Robertson is a truly multi-faceted artist who continually conquers new musical territory including classical, musical theater, and cross-over music. She has performed for several symphony orchestras and opera companies including San Diego Symphony, La Jolla Symphony, San Diego Opera, and Opera Santa Barbara. In 2010 she was in the World Premier of Séance on a Wet Afternoon by Stephen Schwartz (composer of Wicked) with Opera Santa Barbara. Other stage credits include Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, Laurey Williams in Oklahoma, Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls, Lily in The Secret Garden, Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, and Marion Paroo in The Music Man. Victoria also performed in over
25 operas with the San Diego Opera.
Victoria was awarded the title Miss USO, San Diego in the year 2000 for her performance work for the U.S. Military. She has toured overseas and performed aboard Aircraft Carriers and in desert training grounds for the troops and has headlined official government functions. Victoria has toured Greenland, England, Netherlands, and Germany with the Armed Forces Entertainment. Her original singer/songwriter albums, On My Mind (2004), and Say New You (2007), were nominated for San Diego Music Awards "Best New Artist" 2005 and "Best Local Recording" 2007 and Los Angeles Music Awards "Best Record of the Year" 2006.
Bernardo Bermudez
Venezuelan American baritenor Bernardo Bermudez, started his musical education at The Conservatory of Music Juan Manuel Olivares, in Caracas Venezuela. After moving back to the United States at the age of twelve, he participated in productions of The Music Man, Oklahoma, and Beauty and the Beast. He has performed in productions and concerts with companies including San Diego Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Portland Opera, Anchorage Opera, Long Beach Opera, El Paso Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Opera North, Union Avenue Opera, West Bay Opera and Livermore Valley Opera to name a few. His operatic roles performed include Don Jose in Carmen, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, Diego Rivera in Frida, Lauretino in Cruzar La Cara De La Luna, Silvio in Pagliacci, Escamillo in Carmen, Valentin in Faust, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, the title role in Don Giovanni, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Vidal Hernando in Luisa Fernanda, Schaunard in La Boheme, Aeneas in Dido & Aeneas, Mercurio in L’incoronazione di Poppea, El Dancairo and Morales in Carmen, Marullo in Rigoletto, Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, as well as Morald in the North America stage premier of Richard Wagner’s Die Feen, as part of Los Angeles Opera’s Ring Festival.
He participated as a voice fellow at the prestigious Summer Festivals at The Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara California under the direction of famous American Mezzo Soprano Marilyn Horne, Opera North in New Hampshire under the direction of Louis Burkot as well as Opera Neo in San Diego California under the direction of Peter Kozma.
He received the Music Academy Of The West Alumni Enterprise award on 2019 and 2020, has received 1st place in NATS LA singing competition, 1st place winner in AEIOU, 39th Annual Opera Scholarship and Competition, finalist in the Burbank Philharmonic Hennings-Fischer Opera Competition, recipient of the Anne and Michael Towbes Scholarship in Voice, Opera Buffs Grant recipient, semifinalist in the Loren L. Zachary National Vocal Competition, recipient of the Doug Acker Memorial Vocal Scholarship, and 2nd place winner in the Virginia Hawk Vocal Competition.
Photo by Gail Bowman Photography
Vernon Snyder
Pianist.
Pianist Vernon Snyder has performed collaborative and solo concerts throughout the United States, Korea, Taiwan, and live on radio. His collaborative work includes frequent performances with Duetto and piano four-hands repertoire with the Lin-Snyder Duo. Dr. Snyder appears frequently throughout the Los Angeles area as a collaborative pianist, including work with artists from the LA Master Chorale and LA Opera, most recently assisting in workshops by maestro Peter Mark and award winning playwright/director Lillian Groag. As an avid educator, Dr. Snyder has served on the piano faculty at Pomona College, and currently CSU Pomona. Vernon is author of “An Introduction to Music” (Great River Learning, 2017), an interactive digital publication for use in the university classroom.
Dr. Snyder holds degrees from Southern Oregon University (B.A., Music Performance, Music Education), California State University, Long Beach (M.M., Music Performance), and Claremont Graduate University (D.M.A., Music Performance). He undertook additional piano studies at the Vienna Konservatorium while completing German language certificates in Austria, and later Germany. He was inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi and Pi Kappa Lambda Honor Societies, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Evans Family Music Scholarship, Kenneth Fiske Fellowship in Music, Fernandez Prize, and First Place in the graduate division of the Rudolph Polk Memorial Award. He has performed in masterclasses with Eduardus Halim, Mack McCray, and Angela Hewitt. His principal teachers include Alexander Tutunov, Shun-lin Chou, and Nadia Shpachenko, in addition to harpsichord studies with Robert Zappulla.