Julian Rodescu, singer, mentor

Julian Rodescu, 58, who parlayed a busy vocal career and a deep love of music into a day job helping young musicians reach the next career level, died Saturday.

A large man with a tender heart and gentle mien, Mr. Rodescu was a familiar sight around Broad and Locust Streets, where he would often settle in with a cell phone to conduct business as artistic director of Astral Artists, an organization providing professional development for promising classical talent. He had assisted the two-decade-old group in its early days, and assumed the role of artistic director in 2009.

Not long ago, however, Mr. Rodescu was a more frequent habitué of major opera houses and concert halls worldwide. He was Sarastro in The Magic Flute with the New York City Opera, Truffaldino in a Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos conducted by Zubin Mehta, and Fafner in a Ring Cycle in Dresden led by Semyon Bychkov.

"Theatrically, he inspired simultaneous fascination and repulsion while singing with the kind of bass-note buzz that made you wonder why he's not starring in Boris Godunov," wrote an Inquirer critic in 2007 of his villainous Sparafucile in Rigoletto with the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

A basso profondo (the lowest vocal range), he made his La Scala debut in 1991 with Riccardo Muti as Titurel in Parsifal.

"The lower register of his voice was practically unique," said Muti on Wednesday, speaking during a break from rehearsing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. "Today we have so many bassi and many of them lack this depth of sound in the way we had one time with Boris Christoff and Enzio Pinza.

"He had this basso profondo - I would say basso profondissimo. I would always enjoy hearing this voice that sounded like an organ."

Born in Bucharest, Mr. Rodescu emigrated with his family to New York when he was 10 or 11. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Juilliard School, where he met his future wife, violinist Barbara Govatos.

It was in the Juilliard cafeteria that Mr. Rodescu, then a cellist, was, in a sense, discovered. According to Govatos, he happened to sit down next to one of the school's vocal coaches, who heard his speaking voice and asked if he was a singer. "After he said he was a cellist, she said, 'Not with that voice you're not.' And they gave him a scholarship to study voice there."

From Juilliard, Govatos said, he became founding artistic director at Bargemusic in Brooklyn, which provided experience he would later call upon at Astral, where he chose new artists, developed concert programs, provided sage advice both musical and personal, and even recently arranged a loaner instrument for a violinist without one.

He was the creative force behind one of the highlights in the Kimmel Center's Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts this past spring, pairing a pianist with an animator for a highly successful transformation of Stravinsky's The Firebird into an animated short called Who Stole the Mona Lisa?

"For us, he was just a brilliant visionary in a way, a dreamer about programs that might work - and then he made them happen," said Astral founder Vera Wilson, Mr. Rodescu's friend for nearly three decades.

He was a sought-after teacher at Swarthmore College and Westminster Choir College, and he relished summers that brought him to Italy, where he spent three weeks each year running the Florence Voice Seminar.

For Muti, in Mr. Rodescu, the person and the voice were one.

"It was an incredible voice, a grande umanita - do you have this in English? - great humanity. He had a big heart. Just a few days ago I received from Barbara and Julian a letter about some artist they wanted to bring to my attention."

The artist, it turns out, was Alexandre Moutouzkine, the pianist from Who Stole the Mona Lisa? It was another instance of Mr. Rodescu making connections and pushing young artists out into the larger world.

"I think Julian's impact transcended Astral's work," said Wilson. "It was so far-reaching - all those students he taught, all those coachings and master classes he gave. He somehow managed to stay in touch with all of those people and have a huge impact on their lives. They came in one way, and they came out enriched. He was just that kind of person."

In addition to his wife, Mr. Rodescu is survived by his son, Minh, and a sister. A funeral will take place at St. Mark's Church, 1625 Locust St., at 11 a.m. Oct. 10. Burial will be private.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions in memory of Julian Rodescu to the Delaware Chamber Music Festival, Box 3537, Wilmington, Del. 19807; or Astral Artists, 230 S. Broad St., Suite 300, Philadelphia 19102.