Witness the timeless wit and splendor of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in KSU Opera Theatre\u27s 2016 Spring Opera Gala, Modern Mozart. This special performance features beloved scenes by the Classical master with a fresh, modern twist and absolutely no powdered wigs.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1036/thumbnail.jp

Cole, Judy

Moremen, Eileen

Tazawa, Erika

Wedge, Todd

English

DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University

KSU Opera Theatre presents2016 Spring Opera GalaEileen Moremen, directorTodd Wedge, assistant directorJudy Cole, vocal coach and accompanistErika Tazawa, vocal coach and accompanistSaturday, April 16, 2016 at 8 p.m.Dr. Bobbie Bailey & Family Performance Center, Morgan HallOne Hundred and Ninth Concert of the 2015-16 Concert SeasonprogramI.Scenes from IDOMENEOAct III, No. 2, “Andrò ramingo e sola” II.Scenes from DON GIOVANNIAct I, No. 4, “Madamina” Act II, No. 19, “Sola, sola in bujo loco”IlliaElectraIdamanteIdomeneoMafia membersBodyguardSiobhan RodriguezLeah HedrickEmily BatemanMatthew BoatwrightMatthew WelshSierra MansonRachel SteinHannah SmithSean EliasonLeporelloDonna ElviraDon OctavioDonna AnnaMasettoZerlinaTimothy MarshallDeondria WestCaleb StackEmily CrispTerrell FlemingsChristina Ruth Grace VeharIII.Scenes from LA CLEMENZA DI TITOAct I, No. 9, “Parto, parto, ma tu ben mio”Act I, No. 10, “Vengo! aspettate!”IV.Scenes from LE NOZZE DI FIGAROAct I, No. 3, “Se vuol ballare”Act I, No. 5, “Via resti servita”Act I, No. 6, “Non so più, cosa son, cosa faccio”Act 2, No. 10, “Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro”Act 3, No. 20, “Sull’aria”V.Scenes from DIE ZAUBERFLÖTEAct I, No. 1, “Zu Hülfe!”SestoVitellia AnnioPublioCamille HathawayVictoria Caracci Hallie SkeltonMatthew WelshFigaroSusannaMarcellinaCherubinoCountessCountSean EliasonVictoria CaracciRachel SteinLeah HedrickEmily CrispTimothy MarshallTaminoFirst LadySecond LadyThird LadyMatthew BoatwrightSierra MansonHannah SmithEmily BatemanVII.Chorus from DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAILAct I, No. 5, “Singt dem grossen Bassa Lieder”Act I, No. 12, “In uomini, in soldati”Act I, No. 13, “Alla bella Despinetta”DespinaFiordiligiDorabellaDon AlfonsoFerrandoGuglielmoSiobhan RodriguezHallie SkeltonZiara GreeneSean EliasonCaleb StackTerrell FlemingsSoloistsOpera Theater EnsembleEmily CrispLeah HedrickMatthew BoatwrightSean EliasonEmily BatemanVictoria CaracciTerrell FlemingsZiara GreeneCamille HathawaySierra MansonTimothy MarshallSiobhan RodriguezHallie SkeltonHannah SmithCaleb StackRachel SteinChristina Ruth Grace Vehar Deondria WestMatthew Welsh VI.Scenes from COSÌ FAN TUTTEAct I, No. 10, “Soave sia il vento”FiordiligiDorabellaDon AlfonsoDeondria WestCamille HathawayMatthew Welshprogram notesWolfgang Amadeus Mozart is celebrated in history as a master of many musical talents, though he is most widely recognized as the prolific and influential Austrian composer of classical music. When asked the question, “Who is Mozart?”, it is common for his admirers to answer with an excerpt from Symphony No. 40 or Rondo Alla Turka, or even a melody from one of his famous operas—perchance Le Nozze di Figaro or Die Zauberflöte. However, his identity can more precisely be found in the incredible mind and philosophy behind the mask of his famed compositions. Throughout his life, Mozart was societal outlier. He had much success as a child prodigy under the tutelage of his father, worked as a composer for multiple royal families, and all the while managed to put his personal desires at the forefront of his actions. At the age of five he was proficient in playing the violin and had completed his first composition. By his sixth year, he mastered public performance of the piano. In his young adulthood, he indulged himself by leaving a secure position composing in Salzburg for one that was more appealing in Vienna. Into adulthood, he used his musical status to perpetuate his ideals and individualism as well. Perhaps his most artful craft was his ability to use his music to criticize social norms—most of these involving women. Consider the character of Susanna from Le Nozze di Figaro: she takes the limelight by being the true mastermind in most devious interactions, whereas the title of the opera suggests that the story revolves around a male character. She knows everyone’s secrets, desires and plans, and manipulates her adversaries until she gets what she wants, and she wants to be granted the peace of marrying Figaro. By giving this power to a woman, Mozart deftly suggests that women possess the same cleverness and strength as men. Writing with this female-centric perspective demonstrates that his prodigious childhood fostered his non-conformist attitude as an adult, and thus shows how he became one of the first large-scale feminist composers. The women in our evening of Modern Mozart do not fall short in ferocity or cleverness. Tonight you will see Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni persistently push others aside for the sake of winning back the man who left her. Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito care for nothing if not defending the honor of their fathers, who have been killed. Despina, the perceptive maid in Cosi fan tutte, colludes with the men to create a comically desperate situation. The Countess in La Nozze di Figaro watches as her husband destroys their marriage by courting any other woman that tickles his fancy.  She creates a sting operation to trap him at his disloyalty. The Three Ladies from Die Zauberflöte are warriors who ironically save the hero, Tamino. These seven scenes capture the intellectual humor and drama of Mozart in his music, his men, and particularly his women. Our evening is full of wit and wile, and we sincerely hope you enjoy discovering Mozart’s complexity. Notes by Victoria CaracciOpera Theatre Assistant SINGERSEmily BatemanMatthew BoatwrightVictoria Caracci Emily CrispSean EliasonTerrell FlemingsZiara GreeneCamille HathawayLeah HedrickSierra MansonTimothy MarshallSiobhan RodriguezHallie SkeltonHannah SmithCaleb StackRachel SteinChristina VeharDeondria WestMatthew Welshopera theatre personnelopera theatre staffEileen Moremen, DirectorTodd Wedge, Assistant DirectorJudy Cole, Coach AccompanistErika Tazawa, Coach AccompanistJoseph Greenway, Lighting DesignDan Hesketh, Webpage DesignJosh Stone, Graphic Poster ArtVictoria Caracci, Student AssistantEileen Moremen, SupertitlesDirector of Opera Theater, Lecturer of Music/VoiceEileen Moremen, delighting audiences for years, has been praised for her intelligence of interpretation and clear-voiced sweetness of tone. Her career began in Boston as soloist with Early Music ensembles, Baroque Opera and oratorio of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Vivaldi, and Mozart. A wide variety of opportunities have carried her to Georgia, where performing, conducting, teaching and opera directing have kept her in demand.In the Atlanta area, Ms. Moremen has become a sought after singer, conductor and teacher. She has been a soprano in the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers, she joined the voice faculty at Emory University, she was Artistic Director of the Atlanta Feminist Women’s Chorus for 7 years and Music Minister at two area churches for 20 years. She was a founding Board Member of the Atlanta Early Music Alliance (from which the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra and many ensembles have originated). She has been on the KSU voice faculty since 1995, where she originated the KSU Faculty Chamber Music Series. With acting lessons at Atlanta’s Actors Express, she began directing opera and created KSU Opera Workshop class. This has become the KSU Opera Theater Program with Gala Opera Scenes and full productions. Her director credits include Dido and Aeneas, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Old Maid and the Thief, Hansel and Gretel, The Hotel Casablanca and The Three Hermits.Beginning with specializing in Early Music with Boston Baroque, New England Baroque Ensemble, Belmont Chamber Ensemble, Much Ado – a Renaissance Consort, and award winning performances at the Boston Early Music Festival, Ms. Moremen is also known for performing in many other styles. Along with opera roles as Nanetta (Falstaff), Despina (Cosi Fan Tutte), Papagena (The Magic Flute), Nora (Riders to the Sea), she created characters for musical theater productions including Rose (Gypsy), Carrie Pipperidge (Carousel), biographiesLittle Mary (Little Mary Sunshine). As an interpreter of contemporary music, World Premieres of vocal works by composers Jose Martinez, John Polifrone, Rene Leibowitz, and Galt McDermott were featured by her at the Aspen Music Festival. She also performed throughout the United States as a song recitalist, oratorio soloist and chamber musician.While in Boston, she became a student of the world renowned teacher, Nina Hinson. With this connection and building her teaching skills, she progressed to Chair of Voice Faculty at the New England Conservatory Extension Division, where she expanded the outreach programs with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, summer high school scholarship programs and continuing education development.Born in Portland, Oregon, Ms. Moremen received her Bachelor’s degree in Performance and Opera from the Eastman School of Music and her Master’s degree in Performance and Music History at the University of Michigan. As a conductor, she has studied at the New England Conservatory, Westminster Choir College, and Georgia State University. She is Director of Opera Theater at KSU and studio voice teacher, where she is a sought after vocal clinician, adjudicator and master class teacher. Her voice students at KSU have been first place winners in the NATS competition and second place in the National Opera Association Scenes Competition.Assistant Professor of VoiceTodd Wedge, tenor, received his B.M. from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Vocal Performance and Music Education and furthered his studies at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music where he earned a M.M. in Vocal Performance and Literature.He has been a recipient of awards from the Friends of Austria Lieder Competition, The American Opera Society, Bel Canto Society, and the Loretta Kearns Award for Excellence in Music Education. In 2013, Mr. Wedge was selected by the San Francisco Classical Voice as “Music Educator of the Year” which led to a nomination for the GRAMMY Foundation “Music Educator of the Year” - of which he was a semifinalist. In 2014, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Mr. Wedge to be a summer scholar which gave him the opportunity to study the operas of W. A. Mozart in Vienna, Austria.After his training as a Young Artist with Chicago Opera Theater, Mr. Wedge was an active soloist in the Chicago area while simultaneously maintaining a private studio and teaching courses in vocal pedagogy at the University of Notre Dame. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Wedge was invited to join the GRAMMY award-winning men’s ensemble, Chanticleer. For three seasons Mr. Wedge helped bring audiences to their feet in over 200 cities in 13 different countries on some of the world’s most prestigious stages. In addition to touring, Mr. Wedge can be heard on the following Chanticleer albums: And on Earth, Peace: A Chanticleer Mass; Let it Snow; The Best of Chanticleer; A Chanticleer Christmas; The Mission Road-Our Journey Back; (DVD & CD), and The Singing Life (DVD).From 2009-1015, Mr. Wedge served as the Head of the Vocal Music department at the San Francisco School of the Arts. While in the bay area, he was frequently seen as a recitalist, guest conductor, lecturer, and clinician. In the fall of 2015, Mr. Wedge was delighted to join the faculty of Kennesaw State University as an Assistant Professor of Voice. He is a member of NATS, NAfME and ACDA.Artist-in-Residence in Collaborative PianoJudy Cole is considered by local area colleagues to be one of the most versatile pianists and accompanists in the Atlanta commercial music scene. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying with Marvin Blickenstaff.After taking a year off from school, during which she toured the United States playing in a show band, she was invited to attend the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she earned her Master of Music degree in Accompanying, with a concentration in Musical Theatre and Chamber Music. Her teachers included Olga Radosavlovich at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Dr. Robert Evans, Babbette Effron and Dr. Kelly Hale at CCM.Here at KSU, Mrs. Cole teaches academic classes in music theory, coaches Opera and Musical Theatre, musically directs for the Theatre and Performance Studies division of COTA, and accompanies both faculty and student recitals. As often as scheduling allows, she plays in the pit orchestra for Broadway touring shows playing at the Fox Theatre. She has also been selected by the Educational Testing Service to serve as an Aural Skills Reader for the national Advanced Placement Music Theory exams for several years.Mrs. Cole has worked professionally and made a successful career over the last 30 years as a free-lance pianist and commercial musician playing in a variety of settings. To quote J. Lynn Thompson, founding Artistic Director of the Atlanta Lyric Opera, “Judy Cole is one of those rare artists who can move effortlessly between styles ranging from opera to Broadway, jazz to rock and roll. She is a conductor’s and singer’s dream of a pianist.” Mrs. Cole has been featured on numerous recordings both as an accompanist and as a soloist, including her own CD By Request, and has several solo recordings in process at this time.In addition to local performances, Mrs. Cole travels routinely to accompany classical, instrumental, vocal, and religious Jewish music concerts throughout the U.S. where she is known for her ability to arrive, rehearse and perform demanding concert material all within a span of several hours. She has collaborated with many of the top Cantors and musicians in the Jewish music world, including Hazzan Naftali Herstik, Cantor Asher Hainovitz, Simon Sargon, Bonia Shur, Michael Isaacson, and Debbie Friedman. Judy is a member of the Guild of  Temple Musicians (the national organization of Jewish musicians and composers), the American Federation of Musicians, and the Musical Theatre Educators Alliance. She is the staff accompanist at The Temple in Atlanta and is still an active commercial musician, playing both as a soloist and as a keyboardist/vocalist in her band.Judy is a mom to daughters Katy and Rebekah, their husbands Mike and Richard, an ecstatic grandmother to Charlotte, and is happily married to Cantor Herb Cole.Vocal Coach and AccompanistErika Tazawa, hailed as “a superb collaborator, boldly undertaking the demanding keyboard parts with boundless tech-nique, dynamic range, and expres-sive understanding” by American Re-cord Guide, has captured audiences across the U.S. and internationally. Winner of the prestigious Beverly Hills National Auditions in 2013, Tazawa is quickly gaining recognition as a versatile collaborative artist. Her performances, with repertoire ranging from traditional chamber music to avant-garde, have been featured in radio programs such as BBC London, National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and WSKG New York. In the field of vocal accompanying and opera, Tazawa serves as a repetiteur for the Opera Studio of AIMS in Graz, Austria, actively engages in contemporary opera projects with the Center For Contemporary Opera in New York and the Atlanta Opera, and has accompanied masterclasses of artists such as Barbara Bonney, Linda Watson and Stephanie Blythe. Currently located in Atlanta, she collaborates with Kennesaw State University Opera Theater as a coach-accompanist. A 2016 Stern Fellow, Erika will join SongFest in Los Angeles, where she will appear throughout the 20th Anniversary season. Tazawa's first solo album, Rhythm of Silence, featuring 21st century piano work from the U.S., Italy and Netherlands, was released in January 2016 through Belarca, distributed internationally by Naxos Records. Music EducationJudith BealeJanet BonerKathleen CreasyJohn CulvahouseCharles JacksonCharles LauxAlison MannAngela McKeeRichard McKeeCory MealsHarry PriceTerri TalleyAmber Weldon-StephensMusic History & AppreciationDrew DolanEdward EanesHeather HartKayleen JustusMusic Theory, Composition, TechnologyJudith ColeSteve DanczKelly FrancisJennifer Mitchell Laurence SherrBenjamin WadsworthJeff YunekWoodwindsRobert Cronin, FluteTodd Skitch, Flute Christina Smith, Flute Elizabeth Koch Tiscione, Oboe John Warren, Clarinet, Chamber Music Laura Najarian, Bassoon Sam Skelton, SaxophoneBrass & Percussion Doug Lindsey, Trumpet, Chamber MusicMike Tiscione, TrumpetJason Eklund, HornTom Gibson, TromboneNathan Zgonc, TromboneBrian Hecht, Bass Trombone Martin Cochran, EuphoniumBernard Flythe, Tuba/EuphoniumJohn Lawless, PercussionStringsHelen Kim, Violin Kenn Wagner, ViolinJustin Bruns, Chamber MusicCatherine Lynn, Viola Paul Murphy, ViolaCharae Krueger, CelloJames Barket, Double BassJoseph McFadden, Double Bass Elisabeth Remy Johnson, Harp Mary Akerman, Classical GuitarVoiceJessica JonesEileen MoremenOral MosesLeah PartridgeValerie WaltersTodd WedgeJana YoungPianoJudith Cole, Collaborative Piano & Musical  TheatreJulie CoucheronRobert HenryJohn Marsh, Class PianoDavid WatkinsSoohyun YunJazzJustin Chesarek, Jazz PercussionWes Funderburk, Jazz Trombone, Jazz  EnsemblesTyrone Jackson, Jazz PianoMarc Miller, Jazz BassSam Skelton, Jazz EnsemblesLester Walker, Jazz TrumpetTrey Wright, Jazz Guitar, Jazz CombosEnsembles & ConductorsLeslie J. Blackwell, Choral ActivitiesAlison Mann, Choral ActivitiesCory Meals, Concert Band, Marching BandOral Moses, Gospel ChoirEileen Moremen, OperaNathaniel Parker, Symphony OrchestraCharles Laux, Philharmonic OrchestraDebra Traficante, Concert Band, Marching  BandDavid T. Kehler, Wind EnsembleSchool of Music StaffJulia Becker, Administrative Specialist IIIKimberly Beckham, Coordinator of Band Operations and OutreachDavid Daly, Director of Programming and   FacilitiesSusan M. Grant Robinson, Associate  Director for AdministrationJoseph Greenway, Technical DirectorDan Hesketh, Digital Media SpecialistJune Mauser, Administrative Associate II Andrew Solomonson, Facility Operations  ManagerEnsembles in ResidenceAtlanta Percussion TrioKSU Faculty Jazz ParliamentGeorgia Youth Symphony Orchestra  and ChorusKSU Faculty Chamber PlayersKSU Faculty String TrioKSU Community and Alumni ChoirSchool of Music Faculty and Staff     Director, Stephen W. Plate about the school of music`/musicKSU     t@musicKSU     y/musicKSU         @musicKSUmusicKSU.comVisit musicKSU.com and click "Live Streaming" to watch live broadcasts of many of our concerts and to view the full schedule of live streamed events.Please consider a gift to the Kennesaw State University School of Music. http://community.kennesaw.edu/GiveToMusicconnect with usWelcome to our campus! The School of Music is an exciting place to live, learn and work. Housed in the College of the Arts, the School is infused with masterfully skilled and dedicated performing teachers who care deeply about their profession, our programs, our community and every student involved in music and the arts. Our facilities are aesthetically functional and well equipped, our professional staff first-class, and our motivation perfect; to prepare students to be accomplished, creative arts leaders - diversely trained, acutely challenged and well-practiced to ensure employability and empowerment to take the 21st-century music world by storm. Our students come to us from the leading musical arts and honors organizations from across the southeast, and as a School of Music, we are dedicated to the purpose of furthering the arts and cultural offerings of our region and beyond.Please take the time to meet our faculty, students and staff. Interact with them, talk shop with them - their enthusiasm is contagious whether on or off the stage. I look forward to a long and rewarding relationship, and with your involvement as an audience member and patron, there are no limits to what we can become. If we can be of assistance to you, simply ask.Stephen W. Plate, DMADirector, School of MusicKennesaw State University

2016 Spring Opera Gala,  Modern Mozart

https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&amp;context=musicprograms

2016 Spring Opera Gala, Modern Mozart

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