Keeping you Up To Date with our Resident Artists
This past month of November was abundant with vocal recitals, auditions and performances that featured our Resident Artists. Not to mention with the holidays quickly approaching, December is beginning to fill up with holiday concerts for our hardworking vocalists. Here’s a look at the recent performances of and the upcoming in-town concerts that feature AVA’s Resident Artists.
November, 2014:
In the beginning of November, third-year tenor Dominick Chenes was cast in the role of Riccardo in Austin Opera’s production of Un ballo in maschera. Making his professional debut with Austin Opera, Dominick was featured in several glowing reviews of the performance that also mentioned some of his past work.
Fourth-year Resident Artist William Davenport performed Rodolfo in Opera Naples production of La bohème at the end of November. During the production, William had the opportunity to work with AVA alumni Burak Bigili (’04) and wife Eglise Gutierrez (’04) who performed Colline and Musetta respectively.
Soprano and second-year Resident Artist Melinda Whittington paired up with acclaimed jazz and ragtime pianist Ethan Uslan for a mid-November specially-themed concert, Downton Abbey Cabaret in Baltimore, Maryland. For one night only, the vocal-piano duo performed jazz from London’s greatest 1920s cabarets along with stunning opera arias featured on the PBS show.
Fortunately, for those who missed the performance, there will be another concert on Sunday, January 4, 2015 sponsored by WHYY. Teatime with Downton Abbey: An Exclusive Premiere Event will feature Melinda and pianist Ethan Uslan for a themed concert, High Tea Reception and a screening of the season premiere episode.
December, 2014:
December brings with it the possibility of snow and the promise of holiday concerts. First to perform in Handel’s Messiah as the mezzo-soprano soloist, was Kristina Nicole Lewis, third-year Resident Artist. Kristina sang with the Rochester Chamber Orchestra on Saturday, December 7, 2014 and delivered an outstanding performance.
Jonas Hacker, tenor and second-year Resident Artist will be performing with Annapolis Opera in Maryland for their holiday-themed Mostly Mozart concert on Sunday, December 14, 2014. He will be performing the music of Mozart in the spacious Calvary Methodist Church.
Following in Kristina’s footsteps, second-year tenor Galeano Salas will be performing the tenor solo in Handel’s Messiah with the Choral Arts of Philadelphia on Friday, December 12, 2014 at St. Clement’s Church in Philadelphia. Galeano, recent Encouragement Award winner from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions earlier this month, will be singing with period instruments during the performance.
Galeano will also be singing on Sunday, December 14 at 3:00PM in a holiday concert entitled Holiday Pops by Symphony in C that will be broadcast on WRTI. Joining him will be second-year Resident Artist and mezzo-soprano Julia Dawson, AVA alumna soprano Chloé Moore and alumnus Eric Dubin, baritone.
Another thrilling development occurred on Saturday, December 6, 2014 in which six of our Resident Artists advanced in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Second-years Jared Bybee, Jonas Hacker, Alasdair Kent, Anthony Schneider, third-year Marina Costa-Jackson and first-year Nathan Milholin all became Philadelphia District Winners. Second-year Daniel Noyola became a New Haven District Winner in the Connecticut auditions. Massive congratulations to our hard-working Resident Artists!
Check back in with us for monthly installments of AVAround Town. If you have any information to share with us about our Resident Artists, please email info@avaopera.org.
Samantha van Adelsberg is a Los Angeles native working in AVA's marketing department and managing the AVA Young Professionals group. Samantha holds two degrees from Binghamton University in English and Vocal Performance and is an active rock vocalist in the Philadelphia music scene.
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