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| Event Detail |
Bel Canto by Candlelight |
Sunday, December
7, 3:00 PM |
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[bel can·to),
Italian: “beautiful singing”] Celebrate the holiday season
with a gift to yourself of a memorable concert of favorite
arias and ensembles in a lovely candlelight setting. Piano accompaniment
and commentary by Maestro Ron Gretz.
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 The 2008-2009 season promises to be an exciting one for soprano Maria Alu, who has been praised for her “lyrical grace” and “sparkling stage presence.” This season, she makes company and role debuts with West Bay Opera as Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Taconic Opera as Monica in The Medium, and Empire Opera covering Belinda in Dido and Aeneas. She will also be featured in concerts with Annapolis Opera and Schola Cantorum on Hudson. Her 2007-2008 season included the role of Diana in Bronx Opera’s production of Orpheus in the Underworld (January ’08), as well as her company debut with Opera San José as The Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute (April ’08), and a well-received return to The Princeton Festival, where she covered the role of Musetta in La Boheme, and sang the role of Madame Gateau in Mirette, a new musical by the creators of The Fantasticks.
During the 2005 - 2006 season, Ms. Alu was an Apprentice Artist with Utah Symphony and Opera, during which time she appeared in over 200 outreach performances throughout the state of Utah, several symphony concerts, and 2 mainstage opera productions. Upon completing her apprenticeship, Maria was re-engaged by Utah Opera to perform the roles of Annina (La traviata) and Fiametta (The Gondoliers).
The New Jersey native is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, where she performed the roles of Calisto (Cavalli’s La Calisto), Pamina (The Magic Flute), The Fairy Godmother (Cendrillon) and the Governess (The Turn of the Screw). Before moving to Boston, Maria earned her Bachelor’s degree at New York University, where she appeared in several operas including The Telephone (Lucy), The Old Maid and the Thief (Laetitia), and L’Enfant et les Sortlileges (La Princesse cover). She has also performed with Longwood Opera, The Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Society, and Opera Festival of New Jersey.
On the concert stage, Ms. Alu has performed John Harbison’s Mirabai Songs with the New England Conservatory Contemporary Ensemble, Mozart’s Exultate, jubilate at the 2007 Madeleine Festival in Salt Lake City, an evening of arias & duets to commemorate the re-opening of NYU’s Villa La Pietra in Florence, Italy (2002), NYSTA’s Afternoon of American Song (2000), and numerous engagements with the Pennsylvania Chamber Arts Guild.
She was recently awarded Third Place in the 2007 Classical Singer AudComps, Emerging Professional Division. In 2005, Ms. Alu was named a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions - New England Region.
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 Hailed by The Washington
Post as “…a commanding tenor” who
possess “a pure, clear tone” American
tenor, Colin D. Eaton II is a singer with a promising
future.
In 2002, Colin made his regional operatic debut with
the Municipal Opera Company of Baltimore when he performed
the lead tenor role of Remus in Scott Joplin’s
opera Treemonisha. Two years later, SFC Eaton made
his debut with the Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia
in Carl Zytowski’s Pinocchio under the direction
of John Edward Niles. In 2005, SFC Eaton made his National
Philharmonic opera debut performing the role of Monostatos
in their concert production of Die Zauberflöte.
2006 saw SFC Eaton return to The National Philharmonic
Opera performing the roles of Don Basilio and Don Curzio
in their production of Le Nozze di Figaro. In 2007,
Colin had the opportunity to make his Tulsa Opera debut
performing the role of Robbins in their production
of Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess under the direction
of Dr. Carol Crawford. The 2008 season has seen Colin
make a return to The National Philharmonic to perform
the roles of Mingo, Peter, and Robbins in their concert
production of Porgy & Bess.
Since moving to the DC area in 2000, Colin has performed
as tenor soloist with such esteemed groups as The Oratorio
Society of Charlottesville, The Masterworks Chorale,
The Washington Street United Methodist Chancel Choir & Orchestra,
The George Mason University Orchestra and Chamber Singers,
the Maryland Choral Society, the New Dominion Chorale
and The National Philharmonic. In addition, he maintains
a position as first tenor with the United States Army
Chorus, one of only three all male professional choruses
in the U.S. Some of Colin’s varied performance
repertoire with the aforementioned groups includes
Mozart’s “Requiem”, both Haydn’s “Mass
in Time of War” and “Lord Nelson Mass”,
Bob Kurd’s “Jazz Mass”, Dubois’ “The
Seven Last Words of Christ”, Anton Bruckner’s “Te
Deum”, Mendelssohn’s “St. Paul”,
and Verdi’s Requiem respectively. In June of
2004, Colin was a featured soloist at former President
Ronald Reagan’s interment service held in Simi
Valley, California where he performed “Precious
Lord” for an audience of some of Hollywood’s
finest, and some of politics’ elite.
Bel Canto by Candlelight will be Colin Eaton’s
debut with Annapolis Opera.
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 Yeonjune Suh began her voice studies in her native city of Seoul, Korea. Following graduation from the prestigious Sunwha Art Middle and High School, whose alumni include Sumi Jo and Young Ok Shin, she was awarded a scholarship to the Chicago College of Music of Roosevelt University where she studied with Carmen Mehta. Following her dream to study in Italy, she was then accepted to the esteemed Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milano, where she was granted a Voice Fellowship to study with admired teachers such as Maria Luisa Cioni, Katia Angeloni, and Stefano Gibellato. Upon graduation she was invited to participate in the Conservatorio’s selective Post-Graduate teaching program.
She has appeared in concerts and opera productions throughout the Italian cities of Milano, Bergamo, Bari, Tocco dei Casauria and Taranto, Sicilia. Ms. Suh recently graduated from Mannes The New School for Music in New York City, where she was accepted in the Opera Program under the direction of Joseph Colaneri, Susan Caldwell, and Ted Taylor and studied privately with Ruth Falcon. While in New York, she has appeared on stage as Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, as Barena in the Vertical Players Repetoire production of Janacek’s Jenufa, as Musetta in the Amato Opera Company’s productions of Puccinni’s La Boheme, as Sandrina in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera with The Little Opera Company, and the lead role of Adina in the New Jersey State Repertory Opera’s production of L’Elisir d’Amore. Ms. Suh is also a founding member of the Midnight Moon Ensemble.
Ms. Suh recently returned from Texas, where she participated in the El Paso Young Artist Program as Papagena in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. She has also been a finalist in the Harold Haugh Light Opera Competition and Camillo de Nardis Competition, and has received third prize in the Mario Lanza Competition as well as an encouragement grant from from the Gerda Lisner Foundation. Her current teachers are Patricia McCaffrey and Kevin Murphy of the Metropolitan Opera.
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 Daniel Collins is a “deep, rich baritone” building his path for a long standing operatic career. Daniel is a sixth generation central Texan who grew up playing piano and trumpet. Through many annual, family reunion talent shows, his vocal ability was noticed in his early teenage years, and he began serious vocal study during high school. Mr. Collins went on to attend the University of North Texas where he first performed multiple operatic roles and received his Bachelor’s degree in voice performance.
Perhaps due to years of racing homing pigeons in his youth, Daniel has a natural affinity for performing Papageno (the bird-catcher) and has done so with the Louisville Ballet, El Paso Opera, and at the University of North Texas, among others. Tim Page, with the Washington Post, most recently described Mr. Collins as a “funny, exuberant and enormously likable” Papageno during Summer Opera Theater’s performance of Die Zauberflöte.
In the fall of 2005, the Post praised Daniel in the Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia’s Barber of Seville as a “bright and bouncy” Figaro who delivered his lines with “aplomb.” Additional highlights from his emerging career also include Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Masetto, Sharpless, Escamillo, Sid, and Bottom. Mr. Collins has sung at the Kennedy Center, the Meyerson Center in Dallas, the French Arts Alliance in New York City, the President’s Church of St. John’s Episcopal, and the White House. Daniel has sung alongside such superstars as Dolora Zajick, Patricia Racette, Catherine Malfitano, Emily Pulley, Kim Begley and Gordon Hawkins.
In the 2007-2008 season, Mr. Collins was praised by the Opera News Review Online for his “haughty” Mandarin in Kentucky Opera’s Turandot. While a member of the Kentucky Opera Studio Program, Daniel also sang Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors, and in Dialogues of the Carmelites, he portrayed the 1st Officer, 2nd Commissioner, and Jailor with uniquely menacing personalities. Daniel then went on to Amarillo Opera to sing the role of Clayton McAllister in the newest Floyd opera, Cold Sassy Tree, and later Schaunard in Belcantanti Opera’s, La Boheme.
In the upcoming 2008-2009 season, Mr. Collins will be returning to Amarillo Opera to sing Falke in Die Fledermaus, Kentucky Opera for Johann in Werther, and will be debuting with Portland Opera as Dandini in an outreach production of La Cenerentola.
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Nathan M Carlisle BM in vocal performance from the University of North Texas 2003. From 2003-2008 he served in the official chorus of the United States Air Force, the "Singing Sergeants". Nathan has been a vocalist at the presidential funeral for Ronald Reagan at Washington National Cathedral 2004 as well as Gerald Ford’s ceremony in 2006. He was a soloist for a CSPAN live broadcast for Veterans Day 2005. Tenor soloist and vocalist for 14 white house dinners. In 2006 he was tenor soloist for Mendelssohn’s “Lobesang” with the AU Symphony Orchestra and chorus. Recently making his debut with VPR Opera in Brooklyn, NY he sang the roles of “Spalanzani” and “Frantz” in the Tales of Hoffman. Nathan studies with Claudia Cantania and is a current member of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus in New York, NY.
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With Maestro Ronald J Gretz at the piano |
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