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Press Releases

Conductor Steven Mercurio leads "The Voice of Silence"

January 28, 2020 | By Grant Communications
Conductor Steven Mercurio
leads
"The Voice of Silence"
featuring two world premieres
by American Composer
Georgia Shreve
   
March 30, 2020
at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall
 
with
  sopranos Alexandra Nowakowski and Meredith Lustig,   
mezzo-sopranos Megan Moore and Carla Jablonski,  
tenors Adrian Dwyer and Roy Hage,  
and baritones Brandon Cedel and Timothy McDevitt  
 
Barnaby Fitzgerald, artist
 
New York, NY - American conductor Steven Mercurio, Music Director of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, returns to Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center to conduct "The Voice of Silence," a concert presenting the world premieres of two symphonic multi-media works by American composer Georgia Shreve. The works: Lavinia, inspired by the late award-winning writer Ursula K. Le Guin's feminist take on Virgil's Latin epic poem, The Aeneid, with a video montage of paintings by artist Barnaby Fitzgerald; and Portraits of the 20th Century, a ten-movement reflection on the dramatic events of the last 100 years.
 
Singing the works are: soprano Alexandra Nowakowski and Meredith Lustig; mezzo-sopranos Megan Moore and Carla Jablonski; tenors Adrian Dwyer and Roy Hage; and baritones Brandon Cedel and Timothy McDevitt with an orchestra comprising musicians from leading area ensembles.  
   
"The Voice of Silence"
Georgia Shreve: 
Lavinia
and 
Portraits of the 20th Century
 
Monday, March 30, 2020 at 7:30 PM
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC

Alexandra Nowakowski, soprano
Meredith Lustig, soprano 
Megan Moore, mezzo-soprano 
Carla Jablonski, mezzo-soprano
Adrian Dwyer, tenor
Roy Hage, tenor
  Timothy McDevitt, baritone
Brandon Cedel, bass-baritone
Steven Mercurio, conductor   
 
TICKETS:  
Available in person at the Box Office, online (click here) or by calling Center Charge at 212-239-6200.
From $25.
 
Directions: 1941 Broadway, New York, NY 10023 (Map)
 
Performers from top left, Row 1: Nowakowski, Lustig, Moore; Row 2: Jablonski, Dwyer, Hage;  
Row 3: McDevitt, Cedel, Mercurio.
 
Lavinia
A feminist take of The Aeneid focused on Lavinia, the third woman in Aeneas's life. As Virgil was dying when he was writing this section of the book, her presence is somewhat limited. Ursula K. LeGuin, the late award-winning author, has reconceived Lavinia in her novel of the same name in a more prominent and assertive role. American composer Georgia Shreve has merged the poem's original text with that of LeGuin's novel to create a vivid musical vision of this story of power, politics, land, the romance between Lavinia and Aeneas, and his victory over Turnus, the evil suitor who provokes a war to win her hand.

Lavinia includes a projected video montage comprising artwork featuring classical imagery reimagined with a contemporary vision by prominent artist Barnaby Fitzgerald, son of distinguished world-renowned Aeneid translator Robert Fitzgerald.   
 
Portraits of the 20th Century
The year 2000 closed not just a century, but a millennium, and the maladies and horrors of our civilization stood out in stark relief: the loss of home, homeland and family through war and racism, environmental concerns and the quest for peace and the voice of freedom. Georgia Shreve's first three movements of this oratorio, Environment, Depression and War, were performed at Carnegie Hall in 2016 with the Manhattan Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. This concert presents all ten movements (the others are Flight, Exile, Silence, The Names They Had, God Have Mercy, History, and Silence) of the complete work, for which Shreve has written original text for seven of those movements. Other texts are by Hildegard Von Bingen, Sun Tzu and James Agee. 
 
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Georgia Shreve, composer  
New York-based American composer Georgia Shreve is a respected contemporary artist. As a composer, Shreve's creative voice, passion for music, words and visual imagery, combined with her interest in poignant, timeless themes and exploring the nature of relationships, has resulted in a growing body of compelling, dynamic works for orchestra, voice and small ensemble. Her settings of original texts and texts by renowned poets and writers have been presented by American Opera Projects, as well as performed by the Manhattan Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, and singers and musicians who regularly perform on top orchestral, operatic, Off-Broadway and Broadway stages. Having had her music performed at Carnegie Hall's Weill and Zankel Halls, Cami Hall, Steinway Hall, and National Sawdust in New York City and at the UK's Royal Over-Seas League in London, Georgia Shreve's work makes its Lincoln Center debut with "The Voice of Silence." A versatile, triple threat, Shreve's interests not only are in music, but span the written word and film. Several of her plays and musicals have been performed at New York's Daryl Roth 2, Heckscher Theater, and Theatre Row. Her Rock opera, Love Sick, and her musical, Dialogues of the Travelers, both debuted at National Sawdust to sold out runs. Shreve's talent has been acknowledged publicly: The New York Times praised her setting of T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock as "expansive, psychologically pointed"; her Piano Quartet won First Prize in the Contemporary Recording Society's Competition; her short story, "The Countess of M-" won the Stanford Magazine Fiction Award; and her poetry and writing has been published in magazines including Poetry, New Yorker, New Republic, and New Criterion. Her screenplay "Homes" was a top ten finalist in Creative Screenwriting's AAA Screenplay Contest, a Quarter Finalist in the Writer's Network Screenplay Competition, American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest, and Fade In Magazine Screenplay Competition, and "Western Waters" was a Quarter Finalist in the Writer's Network Screenplay Competition. Georgia Shreve has studied composition with composer/conductor/pianist Dr. Howard Cass. She also earned degrees from Stanford, Brown, and Columbia in in Creative Writing, Literature and Philosophy.
Alexandra Nowakowski, soprano
Recent winner of the 2019 Astral National Auditions and First Prize at the 2019 Partners for the Arts Competition, Polish American coloratura soprano Alexandra Nowakowski is currently a Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist at the Washington National Opera. Highlights of this season include singing Papagena and the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute at the Kennedy Center and Anna Gomez in The Consul staged by Francesca Zambello with the Washington National Opera DCYAP. Recent season highlights include: debuts as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos for Wolf Trap Opera; the soprano in Columbus Symphony's Mozart's Requiem; The Unicorn in The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me for Washington National Opera; Gilda in Rigoletto with the Verbier Festival, broadcast live on medici.tv; with The Philadelphia Orchestra; and in Bach's B minor Mass with the Bach Society Houston. Nowakowski's numerous awards include the 2019 Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Middle Atlantic Region. She is a First Prize winner of the Kosciuszko Foundation Marcella Sembrich International Voice Competition, the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition, the Vocal Arts D.C. Art Song Discovery Competition, and the Violetta DuPont Competition. An alumna of the Academy of Vocal Arts, at AVA Alexandra she performed Zerbinetta and Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos, the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, Pamina in Die Zauberflote, Gilda in Rigoletto, Sophie in Werther, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, and Musetta in La boheme. She earned her Bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Meredith Lustig, soprano
Meredith Lustig is establishing herself as an artist of great versatility and sophistication. A former Resident Artist with Pittsburgh Opera and Young Artist with the Glimmerglass Festival, Lustig has appeared with such distinguished opera houses at the New York City, Virginia, Syracuse, Gulfshore, Middlebury, and Hong Kong operas. She has sung with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, American Modern Ensemble, New Amsterdam Singers, and the New York City Ballet, as well as on Pops concerts at Caramoor. Equally accomplished and at home in musical theatre, Lustig has been a featured soloist at New York's Town Hall Theater, where she was named one of their 2010 Broadway Rising Stars. She has sung at Boston's Symphony Hall as a soloist on the prestigious radio program "From the Top," in Alice Tully Hall under the direction of William Christie, and at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall with the New York Festival of Song. A New Hampshire native and a proud graduate of the Walnut Hill High School for the Arts, Lustig holds Bachelor and Master Degrees from the Juilliard School, where she was the first recipient of the Juilliard Novick Career Grant in 2011. She attended the Aspen Summer Music Festival and participated in Caramoor's Vocal Rising Star Program. A 2012 District winner and 2013 third place Regional winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Lustig was also a 2015 semi-finalist in the American Traditions Competition.   
Megan Moore, mezzo-soprano 
Mezzo-soprano Megan Moore is making waves as a young artist of versatility and depth. Third Prize winner of the 2019 Gerda Lissner Lieder & Song Competition, Moore is currently enrolled at The Juilliard School's Artist Diploma program. Recent season highlights include: singing Arsamene in Haymarket Opera Company's historically-staged production of Serse; Costanza in Haydn's L'isola disabitata with Opera Naples; in concert with baritone Steven LaBrie for the St. Hugh-Steinway Concert Series in Miami, Florida; as soloist with the Charleston Pops; in the premier of songs commissioned by Lynx Project with texts written by children with autism; and performing with the Nurnberg Symphony and on Bavarian Radio Franken at the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie. Among Moore's many honors are being a finalist in the 2018 Kosciuzko Foundation's Marcella Sembrich International Voice Competition; 3rd place and the Rachmaninoff Award at the 2018 Talents of the World, Inc. Vocal Competition; a 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council District Winner, and winner of the Eastman School of Music's Concerto Competition. Moore currently studies with Edith Wiens. She is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and she received her Bachelor of Music degree from Miami University. Moore has studied closely with Manny Perez, Anthony Manoli, Gina Lapinski, Miriam Leskis, and Christina Haan.
Carla Jablonski, mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano Carla Jablonski's vocal versatility has captivated audiences on both the opera and concert stage. Recent season highlights include Samson et Dalila, Mefistofele, and Otello with The Metropolian Opera, and the title role in Dido and Aeneas with Heartbeat Opera. She has sung with the Wolf Trap Opera Company, Opera Santa Barbara, Chautauqua Opera, Central City Opera, American Opera Projects, and Manhattan Opera Studio, to name a few. Equally at home on the concert stage, Ms. Jablonski made her Lincoln Center debut at Alice Tully Hall singing Five Songs by Charles Ives arranged for orchestra by John Adams, followed by her Carnegie Hall debut as the alto soloist in Handel's Messiah with the St. Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra. She has been a featured artist in the New York Festival of Song, and at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. She has sung with the St. George Choral Society, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Norwalk Symphony, among others. A native of Pittsburgh, and a former member of Florida Grand Opera's Young Artist Program, Jablonski holds a Master of Music from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music from Manhattan School of Music.
Adrian Dwyer, tenor
Praised for his wide-ranging vocal ability and vivid theatrical presence, tenor Adrian Dwyer has sung in many of the world's greatest opera houses and concert halls. Following his professional debut in Los Angeles as Rodolfo in Baz Luhrmann's Broadway production of La boheme (and winning an LA Stage Alliance "Ovation" Award for Outstanding Performance), he has since embarked on an international career. Engagements for the 2019-20 season include a return to the Royal Opera House as D'Esperaudieu in Gerald Barry's The Intelligence Park, as well as the world premieres of Antony Bolton's The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko for Grange Park Opera and Georgia Shreve's The Silence of Voices at New York's Alice Tully Hall. Recent season highlights include main stage debuts at the Israeli Opera (Salome); Opernhaus Zurich (Sweeney Todd); and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (War and Peace revival). He has appeared with such distinguished opera companies as the English National Opera, Dutch National Opera Welsh National Opera, Cape Town Opera, Opera Queensland, Opera de Toulon, Scottish Opera, State Opera of South Australia, Teatro Real, Opera North, and Irish National Opera. Festival credits include the Edinburgh International, Aldeburgh, Amsterdam, Nevill Holt and Longborough Festivals. On the concert stage he has appeared in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall; with Orchestra de Paris at the Opera Comique and Theatre Mogador (Paris); with Munchen Runfunkorchester at the Munich's Prinzregententheater; and with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Concert Orchestra, Cambridge Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, RTE Symphony Orchestra, the symphony orchestras of Melbourne, Queensland and Adelaide, and at Opera City (Tokyo), Queen Elizabeth Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Glyndebourne, and the Sage Gateshead. As a prizewinner in the Australian Singing Competition, he studied under full scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio (London), and at the Steans Institute (Ravinia Festival, Chicago), the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, the Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne) and the Wagnerjahr Meisterkurs at the Bayreuth Festival.
Roy Hage, tenor
Lebanese-American tenor Roy Hage has performed with numerous orchestras and opera companies, including the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras, the Saint Louis, Columbus, and New Jersey symphonies, and with Opera Philadelphia, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Maryland Lyric Opera. Music Festival credits include Aspen, Chautauqua, and Miami. He has performed over 40 operatic roles, including the title roles in The Tales of Hoffmann, Romeo et Juliette, The Rakes Progress, Candide, La Clemenza di Tito, and Pelleas and Melisande. Hage's performances have been broadcast on US and Lebanese television and radio, and he is featured on the multi-GRAMMY® nominated Pentatone recording of Jennifer Higdon's opera Cold Mountain. A versatile and inquisitive artist, Hage has been involved in a number of experimental and immersive adaptations of operatic and classical works, including performing La Traviata at New York City's famous cabaret, The Box, alongside celebrated Metropolitan Opera soprano Inna Dukach and star baritone, Paul La Rosa; creating the role of Paul in the premiere of Georgia Shreve's Rock opera Love Sick; and performing alongside Broadway veterans in Georgia Shreve's latest musical-play, Dialogues of Travelers, both at Brooklyn's National Sawdust. Hage has performed a number of premieres, including Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Stucky's The Stars and the Roses for tenor and chamber ensemble; the roles of Horus / The Beloved in David Hertzberg's The Rose Elf during Opera Philadelphia's 2016 Double Exposure performance; the world premieres of Tony Solitro's More Beautiful Than Night; Kurt Rohde's Three Minutes with Ned for tenor and piano; Jonathan Bailey Holland's Must All Then Amount to But This, Peter Ash's opera The Golden Ticket; Jennifer Higdon's opera Cold Mountain; and the East Coast premieres of Theodore Morrison's Oscar. Hage holds a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory, a Master of Music from Curtis Institute of Music, and an Artist Diploma from the Academy of Vocal Arts.
Timothy McDevitt, baritone
American baritone Timothy McDevitt has established himself among the industry's most versatile young performers of today. His unique ability to thrive in the worlds of both opera and musical theatre is represented by his diverse schedule nationally and abroad. This past season included his German debut as Harry Easter in Street Scene at Oper Koln; Maximillian in Candide with the Philadelphia Orchestra alongside actor Bradley Cooper; Call Me Madam with NY City Center Encores; Bruce Ismay in Titanic in Greenville; Zelenka's Missa Omnium Sanctorum with the American Classical Orchestra; and a return to Ravinia for the revival of Bernstein's Mass with the Chicago Symphony [to be broadcast on PBS Great Performances spring 2020]. On the opera stage he has starred in Les Mamelles de Tiresias at both the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, L'Isola Disabitata at Alice Tully Hall, Zaide with the New World Symphony, La Fanciulla del West with the New York City Opera, and Les Enfants Terribles with the North Carolina Opera. Theatre and concert credits include: the Emmy Award winning Carousel for Live from Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic; Guys and Dolls at Carnegie Hall; West Side Story with the NHK Symphony in Tokyo as well as with the Philadelphia Orchestra; South Pacific at Ash Lawn; The Secret Garden at Baltimore Center Stage/Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; The Dreyfus Affair at BAM; Thou Swell with the NY City Ballet, Bernstein's Mass with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and several appearances with NY City Center Encores. McDevitt has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Ghostlight Records, and New World Records. A native of Reading, Pennsylvania, McDevitt is a graduate of The Juilliard School.
Brandon Cedel, bass-baritone
American bass-baritone Brandon Cedel is a recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and was an ensemble member of Oper Frankfurt from 2016-2019. Highlights of his 2019/20 season include singing Masetto in Don Giovanni for Lyric Opera of Chicago; Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia for Canadian Opera Company;  Garibaldo in a European and American tour of Rodelinda with The English Concert under Harry Bicket; and Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Opera Orchestra of Valencia and James Gaffigan. Elsewhere, Cedel has sung Masetto in Don Giovanni for the Metropolitan Opera; Leporello in Don Giovanni and Argante in Rinaldo for the Glyndebourne Festival; Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia for the Boston Lyric Opera; the title role in Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Philadelphia; Colline in La boheme for the Canadian Opera Company; and made his Kennedy Center debut recital with the Vocal Arts Society in Washington, D.C. His many roles for Oper Frankfurt include Sprecher in Die Zauberflote, Lieutenant Ratcliffe in Billy Budd,  Ariodate in Xerxes, Cesare Angelotti in Tosca, Brander in La damna­tion de Faust and Achior in Mozart's La Betulia Liberata. Future seasons see Cedel return to the Metropolitan Opera and the Glyndebourne Festival and make his debut at Teatro alla Scala, Milan.
Steven Mercurio, conductor
An internationally acclaimed conductor, composer and arranger whose musical versatility encompasses the symphonic and operatic worlds, Steven Mercurio became the Music Director of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in 2019. Previously, he held positions as Music Director of the Festival dei due Mondi in Spoleto Italy and Charleston, South Carolina, and as Principal Conductor of the Opera Company of Philadelphia. A sought-after collaborator, Mercurio has many award-winning recordings, arrangements and film projects to his credit. Mercurio has appeared at many of world's best loved opera houses, and he has conducted more than 45 different operas in seven different languages. In the orchestral arena, his symphonic appearances have included the London Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, the Royal Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg, Prague Philharmonia, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Sacramento and San Diego Symphony Orchestras. A prolific recording artist, Mercurio has over 40 CDs to his credit for SONY Classical and Decca Records. Mercurio has conducted opera and symphonic pieces for several telecasts in the US and Italy, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra's "Christmas in Vienna" series for Sony Classical highlighted by the 1999 concert featuring "The Three Tenors," and the PBS broadcast special "American Dream - Andrea Bocelli's Statue of Liberty concert," among others. He also led the worldwide tour of Sting, featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, for "Symphoni-cities," culminating in the DVD "Live in Berlin." As a composer, Mercurio's compositions include songs, chamber works, and pieces for large orchestra. "For Lost Loved Ones," was given its world premiere by Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. "Mercurial Overture," was given its world premiere by the Oslo Philharmonic in a concert telecast honoring the Nobel Peace Prize winners with Mercurio conducting. An acclaimed arranger, Mercurio has created arrangements for a wide array of artists, including Andrea Bocelli, Placido Domingo, Fabio Armiliato, Carl Tanner, Ben Heppner, Bryn Terfel, Marcello Giordani, Secret Garden, and Sting. Mercurio is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Boston University.
Barnaby Fitzgerald, artist 
Barnaby Fitzgerald divides his time between teaching and painting in the United States, and painting and video work in Togo, West Africa, and Umbria, Italy. His artwork has been shown in Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and New York City. Currently he is represented by Meredith Long & Co., Houston, and Valley House Gallery in Dallas, Texas. A 1979  fellow of the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, where he painted and drew Provençal landscapes for a year, Fitzgerald later won an award from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, New York City. Fitzgerald's work is in several private collections and in the Yale Art Gallery print collection, Boston University, the Barrett Collection in Dallas, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and other museums.
 
Press Contact : 
Laura Grant, Grant Communications
TEL: 917.359.7319; E-mail: Laura@grant-communications.com

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