About Dean Rhodus - KMPH FOX 26 | Central San Joaquin Valley News Source

Dean Rhodus has actively performed and promoted the arts in Fresno as well as across the United States, Canada, and Europe.  He is the founder of Opera San Joaquin, and the producer of the film Rendezvous starring John Stockwell and Rae Dawn Chong. He is a writer of various plays and musicals such as A Dickens of a Christmas, There Comes a Clearing, and most recently Credit Roll. Dean has also served as a consultant on the Board of Directors at Valley Public Television, KVPT 18, as well as the chairman of The Ambassador Board for channel 18. Mr. Rhodus has also been an instructor at CSUF, Fresno City College, and Roosevelt School of Performing Arts in Fresno. 

His career also includes singing with various opera companies all over the world, performing leading roles in such operas as Don Quichotte, Madame Butterfly, La Traviata, Werther, Tales of Hoffman, La Boheme, Don Pasquale, The Barber of Seville and The Magic Flute. His Broadway roles are many and varied including major roles in Man of La Mancha, My Fair Lady, King and I, Fiddler on the Roof, Kismet and The Student Prince. Mr. Rhodus has also sung with most of the major symphony orchestras throughout the Americas and Europe, including San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Boston Pops, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Symphony, South American Symphony Orchestra and Canadian Symphony.

Mr. Rhodus was featured in "Talent for America," a documentary sponsored by the Sears Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts.  Other film credits include "Paint Your Wagon" with Clint Eastwood. His noteworthy vocal students include four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, Sarah Uriarte (the original Belle in Beauty and the Beast), Elisa Segardia, and Sharon Leal (one of the regulars on Boston Public).

He feels honored to have worked with many of the legends from Film, Broadway and Opera.  Among them are Chita Rivera, John Cullum, Hal Prince, Danny Daniels, Michael Kidd, John Raitt, Dean Martin, Clint Eastwood, Martha Rae, Leonard Bernstein, and Meredith Willson.  In the classical world he has associated with Luciano Pavarotti, Dame Joan Sutherland, Maestro Kurt Herber Adler, Maestro Arthur Fiedler, Jean-Pierre Ponelle, Sir Rudolph Bing, Carlisle Floyd, Sir Garaint Evans and Roberta Peters.

Dean currently resides in Fresno where he produces, writes, directs, and is the Master Teacher at Rhodus Vocal Arts Studios. He is very excited to bring a lifetime of experience to bare in the newly developed segments featured on KMPH entitled Positively Worth It.