UT Presents CARMINA BURANA
The University of Toledo Department of Music will present Carl Orff’s irreverent CARMINA BURANA Sunday, April 19 at 3 p.m. It will be performed by the University Concert Chorale and Community Chorus, and members of the Whiteford Agricultural High School Choir. Soloists Eric Smith (tenor), Dr. Denise Ritter Bernardini (soprano), and Ryan de Ryke (baritone) will also perform.
The music, utilizing the arrangement for piano and percussion, will be performed on two pianos by Christina Montri, UT graduate student in piano performance, and Phil Clark, a UT alumnus who earned his master’s degree in piano from the Department of Music. Dr. Olman Piedra and the UT Percussion Ensemble will accompany.
The name Carmina Burana refers to a large body of poems written in the Middle Ages as a form of poetic rebellion against the religion and social mores of the times. Some poems mock the clergy, while others celebrate love and the return of spring, as well as drinking, gambling and other forms of mischief. The surviving manuscript contains more than two hundred poems. German composer Carl Orff collected 25 of the poems together and set them to music, and it is his composition that will be performed.
About the Soloists
Eric Smith (tenor) is a graduate student at Eastern Michigan University where he is studying choral music. An accomplished singer, Eric has performed the roles of Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Acis in Handel’s Acis and Galatea and Léon in Pasatieri’s one act opera Signor Deluso. His opera scene performances include works by Gilbert and Sullivan, Donizetti, Loesser and Bizet. Eric has also performed as soloist in Bach’s Magnificat, Britten’s Choral Dances from Gloriana and Wilberg’s Requiem.
Dr. Denise Ritter Bernardini (soprano) is the director of Opera Ensemble at The University of Toledo where she also teaches voice. She appears on both the concert and opera stage in music of many periods. She is known for her ability to sing a variety of styles, her brilliant high notes, pure tone, communicative warmth and musical intelligence. As an active recitalist this year Denise performed a program of all American Song in Tbilisi, Georgia (former USSR), Italy, London (UK), Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Illinois, North Carolina and Michigan. Denise recently performed her one-woman classical cabaret show in Leibnitz, Austria where she performed for the International University of Global Theater to an audience representing 32 different countries. Dr. Bernardini was also a featured recitalist at the annual convention for the American Liszt and Wagner Societies, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Ryan de Ryke (baritone) appeared last season with Haymarket Opera in the title role of Telemann’s Pimpinone. He also appears often with Chamber Opera Chicago, where he has premiered leading roles in new operas based on novels by Jane Austen including Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion. Ryan is a passionate advocate for song recitals and concert repertoire as a founding member of the Baltimore Lieder Weekend and a frequent performer on WFMT Chicago. He studied at the Peabody Conservatory with John Shirley Quirk and the Royal Academy of Music in London with Ian Partridge. He is also an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Institute in the UK and the Schubert Institute in Austria where he worked with great artists of the song world such as Elly Ameling, Wolfgang Holzmair, Julius Drake, Rudolf Jansen, and Helmut Deutsch.
Tickets are available in advance or at the door for $10 for general admission; and $5 Students and seniors 60+. Fees apply only on credit card orders. Visit www.utoledo.Tix.com or call 419.530.2375
Press Release Contact Name: Angela Riddel
Press Release Contact Email: [email protected]
Press Release Contact Phone: 4198938287
Organization Name: UT Department of Music
Website or Link: www.utoledo.edu/comm-arts/music/
Organization Address: 2801 W Bancroft St, Toledo, OH, 43537