GERARD RUSSAK

GERARD's career spans more than five decades of contribution to the worlds of music and the theater -- in performance and teaching. He has enjoyed a multi-faceted professional life as a singer, actor, stage director and teacher, and is currently available as a consultant/coach to help young singers and actors bring their vocal and performance techniques to a new level.

For over sixty years, Gerard has been cultivating the arts of performance and teaching. As a teenager, he began his career as a charter member of the Robert Shaw Collegiate Chorale, singing under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. He has acted on Broadway & off-Broadway with Liv Ullman, Richard Kiley, Herschel Bernardi, Zoe Caldwell, and William Hurt. Gerard has had leading and featured baritone roles with the N.Y. Civic Opera, London Opera, Lyric Opera & Harlem Opera among others.

His stories are not only filled with colorful characters, renowned performers & tastes of history, but of eager students—of all levels—searching for the tools to better their voices. Gerard has an arsenal of tools and shares them with good humor, incisive wit and relatable metaphors. His style is disarming and non-judgmental, causing the student to shed self-consciousness, better allowing the teachings to settle in and work. Gerard Russak is a masterful teacher who truly brings out the best in each student. For his talent and efforts Gerard was thanked at the 1988 Tony Awards, by former student Estelle Getty (“Golden Girls”)