Friday, September 26, 2008

Get your B-9 shot!

The Oregon Symphony will perform Beethoven's 9th this weekend. With Carlos Kalmar at the helm it should be a terrific jolt for anyone who needs a classical music booster shot. I'll be singing with the Portland Symphonic Choir for this concert, and the program also features Vaughan Williams "Serenade to Music," a very gorgeous work with words by Shakespeare.

By the way, the featured soloists in this concert (or concerts since it runs Saturday, Sunday, and Monday) are soprano Kelley Nassief, mezzo Hannah Penn, tenor Brendan Tuohy, and baritone Philip Cutlip.

Nassief is a graduate of Portland State University who hit the big time after winning the Met Opera auditions - the entire thing. She has sung with the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Mazur and also his Gewandthaus Orchestra in Leipzig. She has also sung with Portland Opera and Chicago Lyric Opera.

Hannah Penn and Brendan Tuohy are two exceptionally gifted singers in the Portland Opera Studio Artist program.

I'll hear Cutlip for the first time tonight at our rehearsal with the orchestra. He has fine credentials, so he should be a good fit for the Beethoven.

I hope that you will get to hear one of our performances! See you at the Schnitz.

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