E l e n a G r e c o
Music Salon Personnel
Guillermo Cardenas
Hayden DeWitt
Erika Dohi
Youtha Franklin
Kathy Geary
Courtney Graves
Elena Greco
Kristi Kelly
Orfeo Duo
Anthony Purdy
Carlos Revollar
Francisco Roldán
Eric Sedgwick
Ulla Suokko
Joyce Hope Suskind
Evelyn Thatcher
Michelle Trovato
Vita Wallace
Alexander A. Wu
Guillermo Cardenas is a Latin percussionist who, in addition to his musicianship, is known for the spiritual quality of his playing. His playing is free and powerful, and he sometimes lapses into trance during solos, taking the audience along with him.
"In addition to possessing expertise in the Cuban and Brazilian bass rhythms of most Latin Jazz, Guillermo Cardenas is a virtuoso performer of Afro-Dominican genres ranging from merengue to seldom heard forms such as gaga, palos and pri-pri. He fuses this expertise with an acute sensitivity to jazz aesthestics, thus representing a unique voice in contemporary improvised music." ~ Professor Paul Austerlitz, Music Department, Brown University
Mezzo-soprano Hayden DeWitt is best known to audiences for her portrayal of operatic trouser roles. She has performed most of the favorites in this genre, including Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, The Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi and Niklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, among others.
While the characters in the opera repertoire appeal to her most, she is also very fond of other musical styles, both classical and popular and, working closely with New York composers Ishmael Wallace and Mark Ettinger, has premiered several song cycles and opera roles created especially for her. Hayden created the role of the male protagonist, Sid, in the world premiere of The Stranger by Ishmael Wallace, and they collaborated once again for the premiere of Mr. Wallace's one-act opera Baggage, in which Hayden portrayed three brothers.
Recent, more unusual forays onto the stage include the role of The Drummer in Viktor Ullmann’s World War II masterpiece Der Kaiser von Atlantis with New York’s Opera Gaya, the alto solos in Beethoven’s Mass in C at Carnegie Hall and mezzo soloist with Anima, a Baroque ensemble specializing in seventeenth-century music.
Hayden is also an accomplished stage director, and directs her own opera company, Teatro Corleone.
To come
To come
Kathy Geary (www.kathygeary.com)
Spinto Soprano Kathy Geary, fresh from Texas, began her operatic career with a stellar debut as Mimi in Puccini's La Boheme in Busseto, Italy. Both Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Tebaldi, Ms. Geary's early mentors, proclaimed her "a rare voice, a gifted singer and a moving performer."
Shortly after this triumph, Ms. Geary was forced, for personal reasons, to take a hiatus from her operatic career. She has recently made her comeback and according to Nico Castel, "We’re lucky to have Kathy back in the business; we need more singers like this."
Maestra Fiora Contino calls Geary "a natural Verdian soprano who understands the traditions and has a good instinct for the vocal line."
Recently Ms. Geary appeared with the New Jersey Concert Opera Orchestra as Siegrune in a full-length concert performance of Die Walküre. Further engagements included the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro with the Capitol Opera Company of Harrisburg and Amelia in Un ballo in maschera with the Burgas Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Bulgaria. In concert, she performed arias from Un ballo in maschera and Adriana Lecouvreur with pianist Michael Fennelley in a beautful salon setting at New York City's Steinway Hall.
Courtney is a jazz and pop singer who loves both the act and art of singing and the freedom of expression and interpretation that are inherent in these genres.
Please click here to see Elena's bio.
Kristi Kelly, soprano, recently made her Carnegie Hall debut as the soprano soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria with Mid-America Productions. Other concert appearances include the Strauss Four Last Songs and Brahms Requiem (UMass Alumni Gala), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Fairbanks Symphony), Handel’s Messiah (Commonwealth Opera), John Rutter’s Requiem (St. Paul the Apostle Church, New York), and a World Premiere performance of the Lori Laitman setting of "The brain is wider than the sky" for the Emily Dickinson International Society. Other local concert appearances include concerts with The String Orchestra of Brooklyn, Goliard Concerts, and NYMVAE.
Recent operatic appearances include Violetta (La Traviata, Riverside Opera), Frasquita (Carmen, Hudson Opera Theater), First Lady (The Magic Flute, Hudson Opera Theater), Dew Fairy (Hansel and Gretel, Commonwealth Opera), and Nedda (cover, I Pagliacci, COSI). Ms. Kelly was featured in the Natchez Opera Festival’s Young Artist program for two seasons, singing Papagena in The Magic Flute and Sylviane in The Merry Widow. She has been a finalist in both the Jenny Lind Competition for Sopranos and the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition. She holds degrees in voice from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Viterbo University in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.
The Orfeo Duo is a sister and brother violin and piano duo (comprised of Ishmael Wallace, pianist, and Vita Wallace, violinist) known for their close rapport with each other and with their audiences, and for their power of communication. They give performances of rare spontaneity and integration. Their mission is to encourage and inspire audiences of all ages and backgrounds through music-making that expresses the breath of life. Their repertoire ranges from Bach to music by young composers from their neighborhood, including the complete sonatas of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Bartok, as well as their own arrangements of arias and songs. Their performances are colored by exploration of historical performance practices and kindled by a spirit of improvisation.
They have performed throughout the Americas, as well as in Europe. In their New York City home, they’ve performed in venues ranging from the tiny East Village club Tonic to Carnegie Hall. They have performed on respected series such as the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago and Trinity Church Concerts on Wall Street, at numerous colleges and universities, and in Italy as guests of Mrs. Bice Horszowski. They’ve toured Latin America as Artistic Ambassadors for the United States, performing and giving masterclasses in El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Curacao and the Bahamas.
They have recordings on the VAI Audio, Marquis Classics, and Unacorda labels, and are featured on Vienna Modern Masters and Tzadik. For their recording of the complete Schumann sonatas they used a wonderful 1846 Streicher piano from the Frederick Collection and Vita’s 1765 Italian violin with gut strings.
In addition to performing and recording, they also enjoy teaching. Because they were homeschooled themselves, they look for teaching opportunities in which they can create an environment of listening, cooperation, and mutual respect among all parties—the experience of chamber music from the inside.
Born and raised in Kenya, Anthony Purdy majored in classical guitar at the Guildhall School of Music in London. After performing extensively throughout East Africa, in 1980 he moved to NYC, where he composes, teaches and performs. His fascination with African and Latin music has been an important influence on his compositions. He was recently awarded the BRIO award for composition from the Bronx Council on the Arts.
Carlos Revollar (www.carlosrevollar.com)
Flamenco guitarist Carlos Revollar is one of the most sought-after flamenco guitarists in his native New York City, performing with many of flamenco’s top artists at such venues as the Guggenheim Museum, Lincoln Center Summer Stage, Caramoor Festival, New York Fashion Week, New York City Center, Symphony Space and New Jersey Performing Arts Center. He is a guitarist in the Oscar Valero Flamenco Company in New York City. He has performed with many dance companies including Flamenco Vivo, Sol y Sombra, Danzas Españolas and Fiesta Flamenca, enjoying collaborations with consummate artists such as Elena Andujar, Soledad Barrios, Jose Fernandez, Chayito Champion, Nelida Tirado and Yloy Ybarra. He studied both classical and flamenco guitar with Dennis Koster, Antonio "Canito" Suarez, El Entri, Jesus Torres and Luis Heredia.
An accomplished composer, Carlos Revollar has won American Music Center Award Grant three consecutive years for his compositions Revmenco (2004), Zapateado Irish (2005), and Tangos de Oliva (2006) for Alborada Dance Theater. He is currently the Musical Director of the Alborada Dance Theater.
Mr. Revollar, an avid advocate of expanding horizons, brings flamenco to New York City schools, presenting concerts and workshops with and for children through venues such as the Midori Foundation and Lincoln Center's educational programs. Always inspired by various art forms, Mr. Revollar has appeared in many theatrical productions including Two River Theater Company’s production of Federico Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding with Noche Flamenca’s Martin Santangelo in Manesquan, New Jersey.
He has often appeared on TV and radio. In addition to appearing in the Fox Five Morning Show with Mission Impossible’s Antonio Vargas, Carlos and his guitar have been featured by the legendary chef Emeril Lagasse as the perfect Spanish flavor in Emeril Live Cooking Cable TV Show. He has also been seen in Univision Channel 41's Noticiero Al Despertar and was showcased in Radio WADO’s Sin Sensura with Miguel Perez.
Mr. Revollar forms a prizewinning duo with the concert flutist Ulla Suokko. They were presented in their official duo debut in Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall on February 10, 2008 in the Artists International's Special Presentation Winners Series. Artists International will proudly present them again next season in their Alumni Winnners Series. Duo Ulla & Carlos is now in ever-increasing demand, with special commissions and performances at special events and various festivals throughout the world. Visit also Duo Ulla & Carlos website
Colombian-born guitarist Francisco Roldán has been entertaining audiences since his early years. He attained the Master's Degree in Performance from the Mannes College of Music, and subsequently supplemented his studies by playing in master classes for Manuel Barrueco, Sharon Isbin, David Russell, and Paul Odette. In the spring of 1993 he gave a solo New York debut recital at the Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, that launched his career as a soloist. In the 2000 season he played a solo recital at Weill Hall under the auspices of the Aranjuez Guitar Strings Series.
Mr. Roldán has performed throughout the United States at Merkin Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and CAMI Hall in New York, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, Harmony Hall in Maryland, St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Milwaukee, for the Philadelphia Guitar Society, the New Jersey Chamber Music Society, the Puffin Gallery, the Colombian Consulates in New York and in Boston, the Smithsonian Library in Washington, D.C., the Museum of the City of New York, Round Top Music Festival, the Spanish Institute, Gracie Mansion, the Americas Society, and various universities and libraries, as well as in Bogotá, Colombia and in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He accompanied acclaimed flamenco dancer Pilar Rioja at the Repertorio Español theatre in New York City for 8 seasons.
In 2005 he released his second CD titled Almost All Bach in which he interprets the music of Bach and Scarlatti. His first CD of solo music, titled Latin Guitar (in which he interprets the music of Barrios, Lauro, and which contains the World Premiere recording of the Dominican composer Rafael Landestoy's complete works for guitar), was released in 2003. They can both be heard and purchased at www.cdbaby.com.
During the summer of 2006 Mr. Roldán played a recital in Bogotá at the Fernando Sor School of Music and was immediately invited back to teach in their annual Guitar Festival in November, 2006, and to perform another recital. Last summer he participated in a recital as an Invited Artist at the Interpretation of Spanish Song Festival in Granada, Spain. He was invited back to the 2008 Festival in Granada as a Guest Artist to teach and play a concert. This summer he will also play a concert at the Mannes 2008 Guitar Festival in New York City.
Francisco Roldán is currently on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music Extension and Preparatory Divisions and at Lehman College, City University of New York.
A frequent performer and collaborator, pianist Eric Sedgwick has appeared onstage with numerous singers and instrumentalists in the New York and Boston areas. He received the Buxtehude Premium and the Margery MacColl awards for excellence in music from Brown University, and was a winner in both the 2004 Brown Concerto Competition and the 2005 Boston Steinway competition. His musical theater credits include productions of "Candide," "The Wild Party," "Once Upon this Island," "West Side Story," and "Bye Bye Birdie." He has premiered works by such composers as Seymour Barab, Joelle Wallach, and Louis Hardin.
No flashy prodigy who goes in for showy effects, Sedgwick expresses a calm, deep relationship with music in all its nuances. Also a clarinetist, Sedgwick says that playing a woodwind enhances his pianism—particularly with regard to lyricism and breathing, of which he says, "Pianists don’t understand so much. I think about a line as 'How would I play this on clarinet?' and it helps a lot." That reflection is typical of Sedgwick’s approach to academics, music, other people—everything he cares about, especially performing. Eric's goal is to communicate, especially with those unfamiliar with classical music. "I want the audience to enjoy the music," he says. "I want to feel connected with them, or it’s not fun at all."
Ulla Suokko (www.ullasuokko.com)
New York City-based concert artist Ulla Suokko enjoys a versatile international career sharing the magic of music, poetry and stories throughout the world. In addition to being a concert flutist, Dr. Suokko is a performing artist, actress, Reiki master, sound healer and teacher who combines music with storytelling in a unique fashion. Ulla says that it is her mission as an artist and human being to bring peace, love, harmony and joy into this world in whatever capacity she can.
Dr. Suokko holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Julius Baker; she earned the Master of Music degree from Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Her doctoral dissertation was on music and rhetoric: the art of oration, communication, persuasion and presentation. In addition to the regular concert flute, she is at home on the bass flute, the alto flute and the piccolo, as well as using herself as an instrument through breath, sound and movement. She has lectured and taught master classes in the U.S., Europe and Central Asia.
As an internationally acclaimed concert flutist, she has been featured in some of New York City’s most prestigious concert venues, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall and Miller Theater, appearing at the Lincoln Center Festival, American Composers' Orchestra concerts, Museum of Modern Art Summergarden series among others. She can be heard regularly throughout the New York Metropolitan area, and New York City’s classical radio station WNYC has broadcast her recordings and live performances. In addition to NYC and upstate New York, her recent engagements and tours have brought her to many countries throughout the world.
Dr. Suokko's extensive experience with some of New York’s best contemporary music ensembles, such as Continuum, Ensemble Sospeso and Columbia University’s Composers’ Concerts, has brought her countless enriching opportunities to collaborate with many of the most exciting composers of our time. She has premiered scores of works, many inspired by her and dedicated to her. Last year she was one of the featured musicians in Carnegie's Zankel Hall in New York City celebrating Maestro Pierre Boulez's 80th birthday with Ensemble Sospeso. Ulla is also engaged as a flutist in New York City in Oscar Valero Flamenco Company.
In addition to solo and chamber music performances in the traditional concert hall, she often brings music into more intimate settings, creating special custom-designed programs for a variety of audiences, including New York public and private schools. Always searching for new ways of communicating and reaching for the hearts of people, she enjoys exploring and expanding the possibilities of expression.
Dr. Suokko also has many credits also as an actress, including the title role in an award-winning short film Dolores this year, as well as multiple appearances on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien as Conan's Finnish wife.
An advocate of the healing power of music, Dr. Suokko was one of the musicians who brought music to the relief workers and to the families of the victims of the WTC tragedy. She played over 40 concerts in St. Paul’s Chapel at Ground Zero. She also brings concerts to hospitals, nursing homes, children’s advocacy centers and into the homes of hospice-care patients. Complementing her musical work, she gives workshops on peak performance, stress release, relaxation techniques, listening, communicating, and improvisation, as well as on the healing and transformational power of music. Her improvised, soothing solo flute CD, Bridge of Light, is an invocation for peace, balance, harmony and love.
Always a student, Dr. Suokko keeps expanding her knowledge and experience of the healing arts, exploring with equal thirst the ancient traditions of the world and the contemporary research of vibrational and energy medicine. Her interests range from shamanism to quantum physics.
Together with flamenco guitarist Carlos Revollar, she performs as part of the flamenco duo, Duo Ulla & Carlos. As winners in the Artists International 35th Annual New York Debut Award Auditions, Ulla and Carlos were presented in their official New York recital duo debut in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall on February 10, 2008 in Artists International Special Presentation Winners Series. They were invited back right away to be presented in the Artists International's Alumni Winners Series.
Joyce had the good fortune to grow up with parents who believed in her and had a vision. Her mother always urged her to have a profession and not be dependent, and Joyce found herself espousing feminist principles at the tender age of 9, long before the word was even invented. She inherited her physician father's love of medicine and planned to be a doctor until the age of 13, when her passion for music prevailed. Having studied piano from the age of 7, she entered the High School of Music and Art and took up the oboe. After entering Juilliard on an oboe scholarship, she changed her major to voice. She trained in voice at Juilliard with Beverly Johnson, and became a Master teacher of the Alexander Technique, pianist, oboist, and composer, as well as a specialist in English and French diction.
After Juilliard, Joyce specialized in contemporary music. She began teaching singers, as well as playing piano in nightclubs and accompanying modern dance and ballet classes. The need to make up her own music for the modern classes led her to composing when a friend challenged her to write music for a lyric he had written, and everyone loved what she wrote. She has since composed many pieces encompassing classical, jazz and contemporary music styles.
"The thrill that comes with [an interesting problem] – that's why you do it. It gives you back something. If you go out just to have a good time, you have a good time and feel good. But that's not enough for me. For the creative person, if they're not creating, they feel that there's a gap in their life. You can fill it up, but it doesn't get ful-filled."
Soprano Evelyn Thatcher was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and raised in New York. After beginning her higher education in Dance, she took her Bachelor's Degree in English Literature (Shakespeare specialty). She went on to take a degree in Music and ultimately earned a Master's Degree in Opera at UBC. She has sung operatic roles and appeared as soloist with orchestras in fields as far apart as the Czech and Slovak Republics, Italy, Bulgaria, the US (Texas, North Carolina, California, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey) and all around British Columbia. She recently sang a leading role in the Richmond, B.C. production of the Secret Garden, for which she received high acclaim.
Michelle Trovato (www.michelletrovato.com)
Michelle Trovato, lyric coloratura soprano, has recently performed with Opera Colorado, Les Azuriales Opera (France), at the National Performing Arts Convention, and is an active recitalist. Coming up, she will present two solo recitals and join the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program. Michelle is committed to inspiring others through music, joy, and laughter.
Vita Wallace is known as a powerful, sensitive, and versatile musician. She won the Felix Salzer Award at the Mannes College of Music, where she studied violin with Felix Galimir. Vita is a member of ARTEK and Philomel and is a founding member of Foundling Baroque Orchestra and Women’s Advocacy Project. In these groups Vita plays music of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries on a baroque violin with replicas of early bows.
She has performed and recorded extensively as violinist of the Orfeo Duo, with which she also teaches improvisation and plays the piano in four-hand repertoire. The Duo’s latest CD, described as "daring and fresh" by the National Post, features the complete Schumann sonatas on period instruments, on the unedited Unacorda label.
With her brother Ishmael, she founded and codirects What a Neighborhood!, a series of concerts and workshops celebrating the creative spirit in their neighborhood, which includes West Harlem, Morningside Heights, Bloomingdale, and Manhattan Valley.
Alexander A. Wu (www.alexanderawu.com)
"Great concert programming has an ebb and flow, and is the key to unlocking and opening a dialogue with your audience. As our cultural landscape continues to change and a new era has begun it is necessary for musicians to bring a real multi-cultural music experience to the listener. There’s an underlying story in every piece of music or song, whether it’s about the composer, the time he or she lived in or how the arts reflected and inspired humanity, which we all can connect with." ~ Alexander A. Wu
Growing up in Los Angeles and New York, concert pianist Alexander Wu has always been influenced by jazz, Latin American, popular and other music styles. In recent years he has expanded to repertoire that is rarely performed and that deserves recognition. In addition to classical repertoire, Alexander’s concert programs and arrangements of musical gems of the past include the bossa nova, tango nuevo, jazz, American spirituals, folk and rock classics. In performing this diversified repertoire, he has attracted and bridged a broad-based audience following. In the American contemporary music scene, Alexander has premiered and continues to champion new works with today’s emerging and prominent composers such as David Amram, David del Tredici, Richard Hundley, David Loeb, Rafael Landestoy, Alexa Babakhanian and Benjamin Yarmolinsky. He is also a participant in Project Latin Explosion, which explores a variety of classical Spanish art song, as well as contemporary popular Latin classics, and features instrumental solos, premieres of new Latin works and chamber music from Spain to Latin America and the Caribbean.
In 1999 Mr. Wu founded the Ground Base Artist Series (GBAS), a NYC-based artists cooperative, that presents performance opportunities for emerging artists of all disciplines and showcases new works. GBAS is recognized for its innovative programming and has received both public and corporate funding from Citigroup, Artists International, New York State Council of the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for the Arts, Meet the Composer, Music da Camera and Project Cancion Espanola (Spain).
Mr. Wu was a scholarship recipient at both the Manhattan School of Music (B.M.) and The City College at C.U.N.Y. (M.A.), where he later joined the faculty. He has been a participant and guest artist at numerous U.S. and international music festivals, and has been selected to perform in master classes with such artists as Andras Schiff, Leon Fleisher, John Perry, Miguel Zanetti, Rafael Bronstein, Lynn HarrellLillian Fuchs, Elmar Oliveira, Martin Katz, Teresa Berganza, Paul Sperry, Anna Maria Sanchez, Pablo Zinger, and Stela Brandao. Some of Mr. Wu’s past performances include Church of St. Martin in the Fields (London), Academia di Chigiana, (Siena), Conservatorio Superior Victoria Eugenia, Hotel del Agua and Hotel del Ornia (Granada), Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, The Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, CAMI Hall Steinway Hall and Yamaha Piano Artist Series, Trinity Church Concerts at One, St. Peter’s Church at the Citigroup Center and many other major venues throughout the world.
Alexander has been a featured artist on television and radio. He has collaborated both as a soloist with orchestras and with many distinguished artists in the classical, contemporary, Latin American and jazz worlds. Recently, Mr. Wu took part in the New York Fringe Festival as music director for the play, Chekov on the Wing. His performance of Franz Liszt’s "Mephisto Waltz" was featured in the film score, A Level Field, an independent film produced by Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue, which premiered at the AMC Theatre in Times Square. This spring Mr. Wu was featured on live interviews with WXEL radio for his south Florida tour and with WADO (Univision) radio for the Latin Explosion Concert in New York City.
As a recording artist, Mr. Wu will be releasing three CDs in early 2009 that will be available on cdbaby.com. The CDs will feature a piano duo of classical and jazz music of the Americas, a guitar and piano quartet of classical, Latin, and jazz music and the premiere recording of the complete piano works of legendary Dominican composer, Rafael "Bullumba" Landestoy.
Some of Alexander’s upcoming concerts and programs through the fall of 2009 include a South American tour of Spanish and Latin American music, two South Florida tours of Music of the Americas presented by Steinway & sons, Starbucks and Florida Atlantic University, a west coast tour sponsored by PAFAA, and a European tour of Latin American music and new works by American composers.
Mr. Wu currently resides and coaches privately in Manhattan and is co-founder and artist-in-residence at the Black Bear Conservatory of Music in northeastern Pennsylvania www.blackbearmusic.org).
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