SISTERS IN SONG PERFORM IN BEL CANTO SERIES
The University at Albany Department of Music is pleased to present soprano Kala Maxym and mezzo-soprano Kara Cornell as featured performers in the Bel Canto series spotlighting Capital Region vocal artists at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the uptown campus.
The two will perform a concert entitled “Sisters in Song” on Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 4pm. They will be accompanied by pianist Joshua Tanis. The program will celebrate friendship and sisterhood with a lively and varied selection of duets, arias and songs ranging from baroque lament to spicy Zarzuela. The pair will also participate in The Singer’s Life, an informal talk conducted in an “Inside the Actors Studio” inspired format, on Friday, March 18, 2011 at 4pm. UAlbany’s voice coach Frances Wittmann will host the interview which will focus on the young singers’ lives, achievements and career goals. Both events will take place in the Recital Hall.
German-born Maxym has been praised by the Boston Globe for her “lustrous” voice. She opened the 2011 season as Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette with Chesapeake Concert Opera and looks forward to performing the Nymph in Britten’s Fairy Queen with Big Apple Baroque in June. Last season, she performed numerous recitals in New York City and Chile and ended the year as soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Camerata de la Universidad Andres Bello. Previously, she was a Principal Artist with Diva Opera, the UK’s foremost chamber opera company, where she sang over 40 performances of Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel in venues throughout the UK, Switzerland and France. She has also been a Young Artist at Opera Santa Barbara and Chicago Opera Theater. Other recent roles include ones with Aspen Opera Theater Center and The Boston Conservatory Opera. Maxym has presented several recitals for Hawaii Public Radio and has performed frequently as a featured soloist with the 46 Barrow Street Recital Series in New York City. She has presented solo recitals or been featured in recital at the Freeport Memorial Library, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the University of Hawaii and the Faulkner Gallery in Santa Barbara and has collaborated with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Musica Viva, The Choral Arts Society of Washington, The Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble and The Boston Conservatory Women’s Chorus.
Cornell is rapidly gaining acclaim as an emerging vocal talent, possessing a voice that is “impeccably focused, bright but rich in color, and with phrasing that is a marvel of taste and an intuitive sense of form.” (Berkshire Review) Her fine acting has made her quite a busy and versatile performer, portraying roles ranging from Cinderella in Into the Woods to Carmen in The Tragedy of Carmen. She has recently performed leading roles ranging from evil witches to pubescent boys with Union Avenue Opera, Center City Opera (Philadelphia), St. Petersburg Opera (Florida), Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Mosaic-Arts, Capital Opera, Stony Brook Opera, Musaic Concert Series, Northport Opera and Hubbard Hall Opera Theater. Local upcoming performances include the complete Messiah with The Burnt Hills Oratorio Society in May and Orfeo ed Euridice with Mosaic-Arts in June. Equally comfortable on the concert stage, Cornell has been a concert and recital soloist with numerous orchestras and choirs including The US Naval Academy, Aspen Opera, The California Music Festival, The Pittsburgh Camerata, The Opera Theater of Lucca, and in New York with Lake George Opera, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Long Island Fringe Festival, Sembrich Opera Museum, The Octavo Singers, Burnt Hills Oratorio Society and Albany Pro Musica. A fan of collaboration and cross-over, she often performs in non-classical genres, including concerts with jazz bands, dance troupes and “opera electronica”.
Other performers featured in the Bel Canto series during the 2010-11 season were Carla Fisk and artists from Hubbard Hall Opera Theater. The series will also host The Eastern New York Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Art Song Festival in early March. The final performer in the series, Richard Slade, was scheduled for a January concert and talk that was postponed due to illness. Those two events have not yet been rescheduled.
