Jessye Wright, mezzo soprano
Mezzo - soprano Jessye Wright is admired for her rich, colorful voice – a rare instrument with both brilliance and depth – as well as her impeccable musicianship and striking stage presence. She was among just four mezzos earning distinction as an “Upwardly Musical Artist on the Move” in Symphony Magazine’s recent Guide to Emerging Artists.
Miss Wright’s 2007 season began with a debut performance in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall of Mozart’s Requiem with Maestro Martin Josman and the National Chorale. In 2008, Miss Wright joins both Chattanooga Symphony and Opera and DuPage Symphony Orchestra as Hansel in Hansel and Gretel. Miss Wright will then appear as a soloist in the International Advent Singing Festival in Vienna, Austria, followed by Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de Confessore with Maestra Jane Glover and Chicago’s Music of the Baroque in 2009.
In the 2005-2006 season, Miss Wright received rave reviews for her portrayal of the title role in Carmen at Ravinia Music Festival with Opera Theatre North. Later that year, Jessye was heard as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with Chattanooga Opera, and as Meg Page in Verdi’s Falstaff with New Jersey Opera Theatre. Other recent operatic performances for Miss Wright include Third Lady in Magic Flute with Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, and Pitti-Sing in The Mikado with Nashville Opera.
In March of 2004, Miss Wright made her Carnegie Hall debut in a performance featuring solos from the Messiah with the New England Symphonic Ensemble and MidAmerica Productions. That same year, Jessye made her European debut as a featured alto soloist in the Festival Internazionale di Musica in Tuscany, Italy. Subsequent concert performances for Miss Wright include Verdi’s Requiem with Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Ninth with Illinois Philharmonic and Mobile Symphony.
A past national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions, Miss Wright received the Ardis Krainik Memorial Prize in Voice from Chicago’s National Bel Canto Foundation, and won 2nd place in the 2005 International Classical Singer Competition.
|
Howard Levy, harmonica
Howard Levy’s musical adventures include journeys into jazz, pop, rock, world music, Latin, classical, folk, blues, country, theater, and film. He has appeared on hundred of cd’s, won a Grammy (1997), won a Joseph Jefferson Award (1986) for Best Original Music for a Play, and has performed many times on American and European television and radio.
Universally acknowledged as the world’s most advanced diatonic harmonica player, Howard developed a fully chromatic style on the standard 10 - hole diatonic harmonica, revolutionizing harmonica playing and taking the instrument into totally new territory. He is also an accomplished pianist and composer, and plays many other instruments as well, including flute, ocarina, mandolin, saxophone, and percussion.
Howard was a founding member of the Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. He toured and recorded two albums with Kenny Loggins, and formed Trio Globo with Eugene Friesen and Glen Velez . Howard has also performed and/or recorded with Dolly Parton, Styx, Bobby McFerrin, Paul Simon, John Prine, Paquito D’Rivera, Ken Nordine, as well as touring and recording extensively in Europe with artists such as Rabih Abou Khalil and The Riessler/Levy/Matinier Trio. Howard has recorded on over 200 cd’s, and his harmonica playing has been featured on movie soundtracks for “Striptease”, “A Family Thing”, and “A Time to Kill.” He is also a frequent guest on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion”.
Howard is music director of Chévere, Chicago’s hottest Latin/Jazz/Fusion band, also leads Acoustic Express, a far- ranging 4- piece group with roots in swing, blues, and jazz. He is music director of The Genesis World Music Ensemble, which has played concerts at the Kennedy Center and in Casablanca, Morocco.He collaborates with pianist Anthony Molinaro in “The Molinaro/Levy Project”.
Howard also has his own record label, Balkan Samba Records. He has released cd’s of Chévere, a duo cd with classical violinist Fox Fehling, and a DVD, “Harmonica Out of the Box, Vol.1”, featuring Chris Siebold.
In 2001, Howard composed the first concerto written for the diatonic harmonica. He has performed it 20 times with orchestras in the US and Europe, and recorded it with The Czech National Symphony. Howard’s website is www.levyland.com. He lives in the Chicago area.
|
Anthony Molinaro, piano
Already being hailed as "one of the hottest young pianists in the world," Anthony Molinaro's stunning performances and unique versatility have captivated audiences and critics alike since his victory at the 1997 Naumburg International Piano Competition in New York City. Acclaimed for his "edge-of-the-seat brilliance" and "musically imaginative mind," Mr. Molinaro's performances have taken him to major music centers throughout the country including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, and New York's Alice Tully Hall. He has been featured on Ravinia's Rising Stars Series, The Young Artist Series at the Kravis Center, The Santa Fe Jazz Festival, The Charles Vanda Master Series in Las Vegas, The Grand Teton Music Festival and Eastern Music Festival among many others. Recent concerto engagements include the Arkansas, Boise, Lake Forest, Louisville, Napa Valley, Naples, Richmond, and Syracuse Symphony Orchestras. He has also performed with the Canton, Cape Cod, Eugene, Flint, Savannah, and Catskill Symphonies as well as with the Chicago Sinfonietta and Chicago Jazz Orchestra. Outside the U.S. Anthony has recently played in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Canada.
In addition to his traditional concert repertoire, Mr. Molinaro is also a gifted composer and jazz artist, giving him a musical dimension uncommon to artists of his generation. He often plays his own cadenzas in Mozart and Beethoven concerti, and his "free-wheeling" and "unconventional" rendition of Rhapsody in Blue features improvised cadenzas. In November 2004 he premiered his first Piano Concerto with the Catskill Symphony and later that year returned to The Chicago Jazz Orchestra to debut his big band arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue. Highlights of the upcoming 2008-2009 season will include an all Gershwin program with The Utica Symphony and a pair of performances with The Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra playing Prokofiev’s Third Concerto. He will present various recitals throughout the U.S. and return to Europe for a solo tour to include stops in Vienna, Rome, and Zurich. His continued collaboration with the harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy (The Molinaro-Levy Project – featured in the February 2004 issue of Downbeat Magazine) will also include concerts both in The U.S. and Europe.
Mr. Molinaro records exclusively for Nineteen-Eight Records, a label he founded in 2001 to support creative music of all genres. His debut CD, "The Bach Sessions" features The Goldberg Variations and the F Minor and A Major Concertos with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Orchestra conducted by Andrew Litton. His follow-up recording, “New Blue,” is a Gershwin collection featuring his own solo version of Rhapsody in Blue. Titled "New Blue," the disc also includes Three Preludes and Anthony's arrangements and improvisations on the Gershwin classics Summertime, Someone To Watch Over Me, Embraceable You, and I Got Rhythm. His most recent recording, “The Molinaro-Levy Project, LIVE” is a collection of performances from The Green Mill in Chicago and a pair of venues in upstate NY.
Mr. Molinaro currently lives in his native Chicago. He studied at the University of North Texas and Northwestern University and has won several awards in addition to the Naumburg Prize, most notably the William C. Byrd International Piano Competition and the 1995 National Piano Fellowship from the American Pianist Association. When not concertizing, Anthony devotes considerable time to music education and for three summers coordinated a music program for physically challenged children in South Hampton, New York. Beginning in the fall of 2008 he will be joining the faculty at Loyola University (Chicago) and is also an avid runner and triathlete.
For more please visit www.anthonymolinaro.com |
