E l e n a G r e c o
Music Salon Personnel
Zhanna Alkhazova
Gail Bedi
Alyssa Bowlby
Lisa Bryce
Guillermo Cardenas
Hayden DeWitt
Rosa D'Imperio
Erika Dohi
Frank Galante
Kathy Geary
Richard Gordon
Courtney Graves
Elena Greco
Kelly Horsted
Kristi Kelly
Ilana Kochinska
Stefanos Koroneos
Lizanne Lachat
Eileen Mackintosh
Anthony Purdy
Carlos Revollar
Alexander Rovang
Caterina Secchi
Eric Sedgwick
Marie Story
Ulla Suokko
Joyce Hope Suskind
Evelyn Thatcher
Anna Tonna
Michelle Trovato
Vita Wallace
Bao-Guo Wang
Zhanna Alkhazova (www.ZhannaAlkhazova.com)
Zhanna Alkhazova, soprano, was a finalist in the Lakes Region Opera Competition and the first place winner of the Rhode Island NATS Competition. She is also the recipient of the Robert P. Manero Award and the Samuel Vaillancourt Folk Art Memorial Scholarship. A native of Moscow, Zhanna graduated magna cum laude from Clark University with a Bachelor’s degree in Music and International Relations, and completed her graduate studies in International Development. In May of 2008, she completed her second Masters degree at the Boston University School of Music in Vocal Performance.
Operatic credits include the roles of Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Second Lady (Magic Flute) and Berta (Il Barbiere of Siviglia), Infirmiera and La Badessa (Suor Angelica), Sandman (Hansel and Gretel), Countess and Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimi (La Boheme) and Marguerite (Faust). Internationally she has performed in Chiari, Italy in the partial role of Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), and toured Canada and the Republic of Ireland as the soprano soloist in Honegger’s King David. Zhanna has performed with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Boston, Opera Providence, MIT Gilbert and Sullivan Players, Vocal Arts, MassTheatrica, OperaWorks of Los Angeles, CA, OperaHub, Longwood Opera and Opera del West, among others.
Zhanna is an active recitalist in the New England area and has been a featured soloist in the Opera Providence Water FireWorks event, Fleet Concert Series, the Summerville Public Concert Series, the Plymouth Summer Concert Series and the First Night of Worcester Concert Series. She was chosen by the composer Joseph Summer to be among a select group of featured performers to premier his new works in The Shakespeare Concert Series.
Gail Bedi, soprano, is an avocational singer who wants to increase her comfort level in performing.
Alyssa Bowlby (www.AlyssaBowlby.com)
Called "fearless" and "intense" by the Baltimore Sun, soprano Alyssa Bowlby is currently preparing Serafina in Il Campanello with Garden State Opera. She recently finished the American premiere of the Tobias Picker song cycle The Rain in the Trees with the Mimesis Ensemble along with a chamber work of Mohammed Fairouz. Ms. Bowlby holds a BA from Haverford College (Magna cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Departmental High Honors) and an MM from the Peabody Conservatory of Music (Pi Kappa Lambda. Recent performances include Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Musetta (La Boheme), Clorinda (La Cenerentola), Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera), Nannetta (Falstaff), Frasquita (Carmen), Marzelline (Fidelio), Mme. Herz (The Impresario) and Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute). Alyssa has also performed Geraldine (A Hand of Bridge), Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring), Miss Pinkerton (The Old Maid and the Thief), Adele (Die Fledermaus) and Despina (Così fan tutte). She made her Weill Hall debut singing excerpts from Massenet's Manon in the title role.
Lisa Bryce (Myrtle Hart Society bio)
Lisa Bryce, a native of New York, performs Operatic roles, Oratorio and Concert internationally. She received her Bachelor's and Master's Degrees at the Manhattan School of Music and Binghamton University. She has performed Mimi (La Boheme), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutti), the Countess (Marriage of Figaro), the Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors), the Mother (Hansel and Gretel), Giuliette (Tales of Hoffmann), Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi) and Dido (Dido and Aeneas) with the Tri Cities Opera and Shaker Mountain Performing Arts Festival. She has performed as soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Mozart's Requiem, Faure's Requiem and Seven Last Words of Christ by Dubois. She has performed with Regina Opera, Harlem School of the Arts, Pacific Opera and Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg. She is Encouragement Award winner of the Oratorio Society of New York, a Prize Winner of the Five Towns Voice Competition and the International Mediterraneo Opera Competition, and was a Semi-Finalist in the Francisco Vinas competition in Barcelona, Spain, and in the Gian Carlo Viotti competition in Vercelli, Italy. According to Classical Singer magazine, "Lisa Bryce sang with an elegant sense of repose…the most extravagantly beautiful voice I have heard in a while."
Guillermo Cardenas (Dance of the Bongoes)
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.
Rosa D'Imperio (Rosa's web page)
Soprano Rosa D’Imperio continues to establish herself as an exciting and versatile soprano who combines impressive vocal and theatrical gifts with masterful interpretations. She has received a myriad of glowing reviews by both the European and American press such as "a real dramatic soprano that savored with aplomb every moment of this difficult score and can also float a sweet Verdi cantilena" in the Mannheimer Morgen for her Abigaille in Nabucco, as well as "a big, red-blooded, Italianate voice, with soaring high notes, and a beautifully tender Vissi d'arte" in the St. Petersburg Times for her Tosca, and as having "rich purity of tone, fluid range and impressive dramatic communication" in The New York Newsday for her Aida, to quote a few.
Her roles include Abigaille (Nabucco), the title role of Tosca, the title role of Aida, Leonora (Il Trovatore), Amelia (Un Ballo in Maschera), Desdemona (Otello), Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana), the title role in Manon Lescaut, Giorgetta (Il Tabarro), Leonora (La Forza del Destino), Maddalena de Coigny (Andrea Chénier), Odabella (Attila), Leonora (Oberto), the title role in Strauss's Die Ägyptische Helena), First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Giulietta (Les Contes D'Hoffmann) and Mimì (La Bohème). Zarzuela highlights include Lola in Maestro Alonso’s Curro el de Lora and Dolores in La Dolorosa. Performances of concert works include the Verdi Requiem, Rossini's Stabat Mater, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Bach's Magnificat. A past semi-finalist of Operalia and a finalist in the George London Foundation Competition, she was a 2006 winner of the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation Vocal Competition.
The 2009-10 season marks her debut as Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth with Fresno Grand Opera and Opera Santa Barbara. Rosa is also preparing some German repertoire roles such as Elsa in Lohengrin, Sieglinde in Die Walkure and Elisabeth in Tannhauser.
Japanese-born pianist Erika Dohi performed Takekuni Hirayoshi's Piano Concerto with Warsaw Philharmonic at both Warsaw Philharmonic Hall and Izumi Hall in Osaka at the age of twelve. She performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall as well as Steinway Hall in both New York City and London; Louth Town Hall in Lincolnshire, England, Kokubunji Izumi Hall and Steinway Salon in Tokyo, Kobe; and Symphony Hall, Chuo Kokaido in Osaka. Ms. Dohi performed George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with Tetsuro Ban at Nagaokakyo, and presented a solo recital at Aoyama Ongaku Kinenkan. Erika is the winner of Moray Piano Competition in Scotland, as well as the PTC Piano Competition and the Raionkai Piano Competition in Japan, among others. She is the recipient of a full scholarship at The Purcell School of Music in London, and is a Bachelor of Music candidate at Manhattan School of Music.
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, her early mentors, proclaimed her "a rare voice, a gifted singer and a moving performer."
Shortly after this triumph, Kathy 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 Kathy 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.
Frank Galante (Frank's MySpace profile)
For the most part, my life revolves around two things: Nature & Music. Nature comes first, of course, because without it there would be no music; music, however, is what I live for. My two main instruments are classical guitar and vihuela (I don't mean the Venezuelan vihuela; I mean the six course vihuela of Renaissance Spain). I also perform on Baroque guitar, lute and fool around with recorders. Frame drums are a passion with me and I occasionally succeed in playing myself into a trance with them. It's part of that inward journey that I believe all music is a vehicle for; indeed, my most profound spiritual experiences have occured while playing music. I try to share this ecstacy in performance and feel that performing music is a powerful healing experience, for both the audience and performer--but enough on the metaphysics of music for now. Suffice to say that, if you were to go deep into a forest, alone, and play the alto recorder for a little while, you'd get some idea of what I mean. At the very least, it should send chills up your spine......... I began playing the cello when I was ten years old. In 1965, at the age of fourteen, I bought a guitar and spent the next twenty years playing the blues. In 1985, I devoted myself exclusively to classical guitar. Baroque guitar, lute and vihuela quickly followed. I am always learning, and plan to continue my studies until my dying day. I have given recitals and performed in museums, galleries, cafes and restaurants, weddings and corporate affairs, from the Great Lakes to Amsterdam. Nature is my inspiration and I spend my life seeking out beautiful places where I can revel in the free play of melody, harmony and rhythm in my inner ear. I camp and hike when I can. I believe it is foolish to expect that all my questions will be answered in dialogue with my fellow men and women; consequently, I look to the wilderness to teach me and show me the way. I look to my animal brothers and sisters for wisdom. But this is getting way too deep for a quick bio. The Buddha's teachings guide me in my daily life; the guitar, the drum and the Earth lead me along my spiritual path; and music--well, music is My Reason For Being.
Richard Gordon (also see The Singer's page)
Originally from Wyoming, Richard Gordon has had a diverse musical career ranging from conducting and coaching opera in the Alaskan tundra to performing solo piano concerts in the jungles of Africa. As conductor/accompanist he toured with Met diva Patricia Munsel and film star Jane Powell. He has been associated with numerous opera companies, including Washington (D.C.) Opera, New Orleans Opera, Pusan (Korea) Grand Opera, St. Louis Opera, and Chautauqua Opera. Equally at home in musical theater, he has conducted national tours and been associated with Goodspeed Opera, Playwrights Horizons, and Phillip Glass Ensemble. Richard has a special gift for bringing out the best in singers and instrumentalists.
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.
I'm a mezzo-soprano, and I sing a wide variety of genres and styles, from opera to cabaret to Latin jazz, both as a soloist and as an enthusiastic ensemblist; I am particularly dedicated to Spanish art song. I always do my best to let the music shine through and, above all, to convey the essence of the music. I want the audience to experience in my music direct communication and honesty, and to be moved emotionally and uplifted spiritually, whatever the genre. I am also a classical pianist, play jazz flute, was once a harpist, occasionally compose, and I love acting and art. It's important to me to go wherever the creative impulse takes me, unrestricted by genre, style, medium or instrument.
From a very early age, music provided solace during a difficult childhood, as well as a deep connection to Consciousness. I never wanted to do anything but make music. I sang for many years, primarily as an opera singer, took a very long hiatus, and came back to the music profession only a few years ago. I left the music world for several reasons, the most important of which was that approaching music from a money-making, self-promoting perspective was uncomfortable for me and took me away from the pure source of energy that music springs from naturally. Now that I've returned to music professionally, I make music to serve the creative impulse, for the joy and emotional impact that it brings to people – and most of all, for fun!
I have a keen interest in creative expression in all forms, as well as a fascination with, and support of, small or indigenous cultures, particularly in melding different cultural influences into new and vibrant forms of expression while keeping old traditions alive; I believe that there is much richness and meaning to be found in cultural traditions, particularly musical ones.
I also believe strongly that sharing our creative arts is a simple but extremely powerful means of enhancing communication and understanding, and that expression through the creative arts drives human evolution and therefore deserves and requires our respect and support. I very much want to bring healing to people through music, which I believe is the most transformational and uplifting tool on the planet. I offer a Music Salon each month for musicians, poets and artists in order to provide a haven for those who value the support of colleagues in their struggles and triumphs to create.
Kelly Horsted (www.kellyhorsted.com)
Pianist Kelly Horsted, a native of Sioux City, Iowa, enjoys an active career in New York City as a coach/accompanist specializing in new opera, art song, and role preparation.
Kelly is a gifted and versatile pianist whose performances include appearances at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, as well as Fountainbleau, France and NBC's Weekend Today Show. He earned both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Eastman School of Music, where he was a fellowship recipient and first place winner in the Kneisel Lieder Competition.
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). Kristi 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.
Speaking about lyric soprano Ilana Kochinska, Washington Post music critic Joseph McLellan has called her voice "powerful and expressive," and praised her performance in recital, saying she "sang with a deep emotional involvement, a tonal range and control, an attention to the meaning of the words and interpretive gestures that gave the songs maximum impact."
Ilana has performed extensively in opera, recital, and concert repertoire. Her major roles have included Angelica (Suor Angelica), Nedda, Mimì, Pamina, Donna Elvira, the Contessa, and Micaela. In contemporary repertoire, she created the role of the Athenian Woman in Martin Halpern's The Siege of Syracuse, which had its world premiere in October of 2008. At New York's The Kitchen, she sang the Cousin in the world premiere of The Past Is Present by Jeffrey Schanzer.
Other recent highlights include a recital for Casa Italiana (NY), an exploration of Italian-Jewish musical connections, which included a song cycle for voice and chamber musicians based on poetry by the great Italian writer Primo Levi. Her recording of Yiddish and Hebrew art songs, World of Our Mothers, is available from Finzi Records.
Ilana grew up near Washington, DC, where she began her musical studies in voice, piano, and classical guitar. She holds a degree in vocal performance from Wesleyan University (Conn.). She was a finalist in the Bel Canto Foundation competition and received Honorable Mention in the Paul Robeson Vocal Competition.
Stefanos Koroneos (www.StefanosKoroneos.com and Stefanos' LSW profile)
Stefanos Koroneos is one of the most versatile artists in the music scene today, having appeared with numerous operas companies internationally in a wide variety of standard and unconventional repertoire. Also an actor, he has appeared in films and television shows (including The Good Wife). Known for his strong musical skills, he learns operatic roles quickly. Born in Athens, Greece, Stefanos moved to Milan when he was young to study at the Giuseppi Verdi Conservatory and later at the Rossini Opera Festival Academy in Pesaro. He has performed in opera houses throughout the world, working with world-class conductors such as Richard Bonynge and Anton Coppola and with directors Franco Zeffirelli, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Emilio Sagi, among many others. Recordings include an RAI television performance with Monserrat Caballé, three operas for Sky International Classic Chanel, I Vespri and Madama Butterfly for Dynamic Records and a PBS broadcast of La Bohème with Opera Tampa in 2007.
Stefanos made his debut in La Bohème at the Staatsoper in Freiburg, Germany. He has since performed in theatres in Italy, Germany, Russia, Greece, Korea, Spain, Malta and Japan. Theatre appearances include Teatro alla Scala, the Rossini Opera Festival (Pesaro, Italy), The Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow), Palm Beach Opera, Teatro Reggio di Parma, Giglio Lucca, Verdi Busetto, Sociale Rovigo, Livorno, Ravenna, Pisa (Italy), and the Athens Concert Hall (Greece). Mr. Koroneos’ repertoire includes Don Bartolo (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Don Magnifico (La Cenerentola), Belcore (L'elisir d’amore), Shaunard (La Bohème), Don Alvaro (Il viaggio a Reims), the Count and Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Melitone (La forza del destino), the Sacristan (Tosca), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly(), Marcello (La Bohème), Escamillo (Carmen), Zeta and Danilo (The Merry Widow), The King (Aida) and Tom (Un ballo in maschera).
Lizanne Lachat is a singer with a varied background of influences. Her musical journey began at the age of three with violin lessons, switching to piano at age eight, and then to voice at 18. Listening to records and getting lost in all types of music was always a favorite pastime. Always longing to blend these influences and to be a better musician, Lizanne is learning to find her own voice and sing from her soul. She is grateful for all the positive, creative and supportive people she has met along the way, and is looking forward to making new musical connections with herself and others.
Eileen Mackintosh is a lifelong musician, singer, teacher, conductor and accompanist. The music classroom was a place Eileen was very happy for ten years teaching thousands of chorus students. In 2001, she traveled to Italy to see if she had a voice worthy of classical study.
Since leaving teaching in 2003, Eileen has been pursuing vocal mastery studying technique, languages, phrasing, acting, and movement. Taking the stage with a new voice full of potential, Eileen performed the Mozart roles of Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan Tutte), Marcellina (Le Nozze di Figaro), and First Lady (Die Zauberflöte) as a Young Artist with Intermezzo Opera, New York Opera Studio and Naomi Music. In recent years, since Eileen's voice has settled into the more dramatic soprano repertoire, she has been preparing roles of Verdi, Wagner, Bellini and Strauss.
An avid recitalist, Eileen has performed in America, Scotland and Italy and in 2009 will tour the region with several performances of her latest concert, "Between Heaven and Earth." Residing with her husband Duncan in Middletown, NY, Ms. Mackintosh maintains a private voice studio and holds the position of choir director and organist at the St. Paul's Methodist Church.
I was lucky enough to be born in Kenya and the home I grew up in was at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The Ngongs themselves rise a thousand feet above the floor of the Great Rift Valley, and its primordial immensity, giant volcanoes, vast savannahs, fall away in curtains of colour. Down on the Rift Valley floor you can see groups of Maasai with their cattle, small as ants, move in a cloud of red dust.
From a young age I was lucky enough to be let loose in a world of myriad creatures which lived and struggled in this incredibly beautiful land. It engendered in me a profound sense of the interconnectedness of life.
At nine years old I asked for, and received, my first guitar. My guitar teachers were expatriates who came and went on a regular basis, but I had some talent and within a few short years had become good enough to enter, and win, the East African Music Festival. I reached a point as a young teenager where music, and guitar playing, had become such a part of my psyche that I was naturally drawn to some wonderful African musicians. One who truly stands out was a blind man who was wholly a part of his instrument: a small home-made xylophone. I spent one brief evening with him in a little shack overlooking the Indian Ocean. As he began to play, the instrument became an extension of his body and the music poured out of him, gushing from the center of his being. I felt as inspired as looking out over the Great Rift Valley. His intricate and complex sound, along with unexpected and profound rhythms, left me awestruck and hungering for more.
I love to play and am constantly amazed at what the six strings of my instrument are capable of. In my desire to write music I keep myself connected with everything and everyone around me, and that wonderful, anonymous blind musician is often up front, egging me on.
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.
An avid advocate of expanding horizons, Carlos 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, Carlos 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. 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.
Carlos 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.
Alexander Rovang (luckbedamned.biz/5501.html)
Alexander Rovang (pianist/arranger/musical director) is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory. Raised in the treacherous wilds of suburban Nebraska, Mr. Rovang moved to New York 13 years ago following a dream: to buy a fresh kiwi at 3am YEAR ROUND ... perhaps even have it delivered! After a year teaching ballroom to spite an ex-girlfriend (long story), he found himself working on a wide variety of projects – The Boys' Choir of Harlem, the off-Broadway satire "Bush Wars," and the Susan Marshall Dance Co. (none of which provided fruit of any kind, fyi). He has played opera in Israel, tango in Argentina, and "Fame" in China. Someday Xander hopes to get a real job like his mother (a cardiologist) or just throw in the towel and race motorcycles like his dad. He will probably be survived by everybody.
Caterina Secchi (www.CaterinaSecchi-MezzoSoprano.com)
Caterina Secchi feels equally at home in Italy and in the United States, where she was born and where she began her vocal studies with the late Elio Gennari, graduate of the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro, Italy.
A longtime resident of Milan, Italy, Caterina Secchi made her debut at the Teatro Regio of Parma as a very young singer in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. She was immediately re-signed by the Teatro Regio and appeared as soloist in Bruckner's Mass in D Minor, singing in Parma, Modena, Ferrara, and Reggio Emilia. With the La Camerata Internazionale Rossiniana she performed frequently in Milan and on tour as soloist in Rossini's Stabat Mater and Petite Messe Solemnelle, as well as interpreting the part of La Monaca di Monza in Ponchielli's rarely-performed opera I Promessi Sposi. She has performed the leading mezzo-soprano roles in Nabucco, Aida, Un Ballo in Maschera, Cavalleria Rusticana, and Il Trovatore, among others. In Milan, Caterina performed in numerous gala and solo concerts and appeared on Italian television (Lirica in Salotto) and radio (Radio Meneghina).
In the United States, Caterina has performed with Palm Beach Opera, Fort Lauderdale Opera (Azucena in Il Trovatore) and in numerous orchestral works (Berlioz's Cleopatre and De Falla's El Amor Brujo with the San Fernando Valley Symphony Orchestra) as well as such oratorio works as Verdi's Requiem, and the Magnificat of both Bach and Vivaldi.
In April of 1999, Caterina sang two concerts at the Bay of Islands Arts Festival in New Zealand. The concerts included Italian and French song, Italian, French and Russian dramatic mezzo-soprano arias, and Mussorsky's Songs and Dances of Death. She has sung recitals and been featured in gala concerts with the Wagner Society of America (Chicago, 2004) as well as with the American Association of Verdi Studies Gala at Carnegie Recital Hall.
Tara Werner of the New Zealand Herald (6 April, 1999) wrote: "... Secchi is a dramatic mezzo with a big sound that could fill any venue ... She is most at home with large roles such as the gypsy Azucena in Il Trovatore and Dalila in Samson et Dalila, and she sang their arias with practised ease. And she was truly in her element with composers such as Mussorgsky, singing a powerful interpretation of the Songs and Dances of Death."
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."
To come
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, she 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.
An advocate of the healing power of music, Ulla 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. 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. Always a student, Ulla 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.
Ulla holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School; 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.
Ulla also has many credits 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.
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.
Anna Tonna (www.annatonna.com)
Mezzo-soprano Anna Tonna returned recently from Madrid where she served as U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Spain from 2007-2008. She completed an investigation of the Spanish composer Julio Gómez (1886-1973) at La Fundación Juan March, under the tutelage of the distinguished Spanish pianists Miguel Zanetti and Jorge Robaina of the Escuela Superior de Canto of Madrid. In the fields of recital and concerts, Anna Tonna has bowed with the following organizations: Música de Cámara, Los Amigos de la Zarzuela, Elysium Between Two Continents and Joy in Singing in Nueva York. The mezzo-soprano has appeared in Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Center), Weil Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall) CAMI Hall, Merkin Hall and New York's Town Hall.
Anna is dedicated to the performance of art songs from Spain and Latin America, as well as contemporary American song. She is a co-founder of New Music New York, a chamber ensemble group that premieres and commissions works by both established and up and coming composers.
Michelle Trovato (www.michelletrovato.com)
Michelle Trovato is quickly becoming recognized internationally for her warm and agile Lyric Coloratura Soprano voice and dynamic stage presence. Her most recent triumphs were to win the Concorso Lirico International Opera Competition U.S. Division, and 3rd Prize at the 10th Annual Marie Kraja International Opera Competition in Albania. In May 2009, a review by Nino Pantano stated, "Ms. Trovato deftly and adroitly banished all vocal obstacles with ease and gave us hope … for the future where she will surely shine among the luminaries".
Most recently, the dynamic young soprano traveled to Italy as the first American singer to compete in the Grand Finals Concert of the Concorso Internazionale di Canto Lirico "P. Cappuccilli". Michelle was a featured soloist with the Utah Festival Opera Company Orchestra and was a Festival Artist with the company, covering the roles of Micaëla in Carmen and Nedda in I Pagliacci. In the spring of 2009, she returned to Opera Colorado as a guest artist to sing Despina in Così fan tutte for the student matinee performance with the Colorado Symphony. In the fall of 2008, the dynamic young soprano joined the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program, singing the roles of Tatyana in Eugene Onegin and, in 2009, Helena in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Michelle's collaboration with award-winning composer Sophia Serghi recently brought her to The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage for her debut singing Mystic Odes. In 2006, Critic John Shulson said of Michelle's performance in the World Premiere work Full Moon Haiku by Sophia Serghi with the Williamsburg Symphonia, "Trovato's interpretation was sensitively focused and appropriately lyrical. A solid singer, she drew poetic expression from the music that brought added light to the thoughtful lines, all the while musically navigating the often gymnastic proportions of a score that challenged the extreme heights and depths of her extensive range. Her presentation, poise and finesse added to the appeal of "Full Moon". Brava!"
A graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Michelle has been awarded several scholarships and study grants that enabled her to do summer study in Perugia, Italy at the University for Foreigners, and at the prestigious Chautauqua Institute for Voice. She swept the Les Azuriales Opera Young Singers' Competition in France by winning 1st Prize and the Junior Prize for Most Promising Young Singer. She has also been awarded an Opera Index, Inc. Encouragement Grant Award, a 2009 Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges Grant Award, the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions, 3rd Prize for the St. Andrew's Arts Council International Aria Competition in Canada, and the Harold A. Norblum Outstanding Artist Award from Opera Colorado.
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.
Soprano Baoguo Wang was born in Inner Mongolia, China, and has performed over 500 concert performances throughout China as a member of the Central Song and Dance Ensemble of China, Beijing. She has appeared in concerts with Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea, Siena Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra, New Rochelle Opera, Siena Symphony Orchestra, NYPR Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, New York Virtuoso Symphony Orchestra.
The Middletown Journal said of Baoguo's performances of Madame Butterfly with the Sorg Opera Company in Ohio and the Whitewater Opera Company in Indiana, "In the title role, Baoguo Wang debuted as a lyrical, almost ideal Butterfly. Delicate of voice and figure, she sang passionately, portraying a woman both fragile and strong willed in her love for her American husband and in her desire to become Americanized. Throughout the opera, her voice remained warm-toned and she displayed a ravishing pianissimo." The Palladium (Richmond, IN) said, "Wang's vocal power was readily apparent in several of her arias, and her singing was often sublime. Some of Wang's high notes were, as one character described Butterfly herself, 'as delicate as spun glass'." Of Baoguo's performance of the title role of Leila in Bizet's Les Pêcheurs des Perles, the Boston TAB wrote, "Wang delivered a gutsy, passionate performance in what's essentially a pretty wimpy role."
Baoguo has performed the title role of Cio-Cio San in Madam Butterfly with Miami Lyric Opera, New Jersey State Repertory Opera, The Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea, the New Rochelle Opera (NY), Jefferson Performing Arts Center (Metairie, LA), Henry Street Settlement, Abron Arts Center (New York City), and the New Orleans Opera Company. Other roles performed since coming to New York include Nedda, Donna Anna, Micaela, and Musetta with the Hudson Opera Theater, Opera Arts Ensemble and Opera Asia. Recent recitals include Great Neck Concert series, Beethoven Festivals of the Arts, New York Virtuoso Symphony Orchestra Benefit Concert, Alice Tully Hall Orchestral Concert, The Friends of Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and an "Evening of Chinese Songs" in Merkin Hall. Baoguo was a Finalist in the Liederkranz Vocal Competition and the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition.
Baoguo received her Bachelor of Music degree with honors from Boston Conservatory of Music and her Master of Music degree from the Mannes College of Music.
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