Robinson Music Blog

 Robinson Music Soprano to Present

Vissi d’arte - Vissi d’amore . . . Così è la vita!

I live for art - I live for love . . . Such is li

06/07/14 – WORCESTER, MA – Soprano Karen Amlaw, accompanied by pianist Mark McNeill, will present Vissi d’arte - Vissi d’amore . . . Così è la vita! I live for art - I live for love . . . Such is life! on Sunday, June 7th, 2014 at 3 PM in Birches Auditorium at Briarwood Community Center, 65 Briarwood Circle, Worcester, MA.  Admission to this performance is free and open to the public (donations to defray the costs of preparing and presenting this program will be accepted at the door).

The program, selections of women’s musing moments in songs & arias, is planned to open with Amy Beach’s Three Browning Songs followed by Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder.  The second half of the program includes arias from Puccini’s Tosca, Verdi’s Ernani, Cilèa’s Adriana Lecouvreur, and Ponchielli’s La Gioconda.

Ms. Amlaw, first alternate in Connecticut Concert Opera’s 2013 American Opera Idol Competition, recently has been proclaimed as “magnificent,” “absolutely gorgeous,” and “destined to sing.”  In 2003 she returned to singing after a 15 year leave and since then has sung several partial roles including Verdi heroines Aida (Aida), Elvira (Ernani), Desdemona (Otello), Leonora (La forza del Destino), Elisabetta (Don Carlo) and both Amelias (Un ballo in maschera & Simon Boccanegra).  Other partial roles have included Nedda (Pagliacci), Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana), Maddalena (Andrea Chénier), and the title roles in Tosca, La Gioconda, Madama Butterfly, and Adriana Lecouvreur, among others.  She sang Mother Gerald in Boston Opera Collaborative’s production of Dialogues of the Carmelites under the direction on Marc Astafan and Michael Strauss and has been featured in programs with Longwood Opera, Opera Worcester, Mass Theatrica, Greater Worcester Opera (formerly known as Worcester Opera Works) and Lowell Opera Company.  Ms. Amlaw is currently under the tutelage of world renowned dramatic mezzo Sondra Kelly and acclaimed New York based coach/conductor Douglas Martin.  When not singing you can find Ms. Amlaw in Studio #5 at Robinson Music teaching Kids on Keys as well as private piano.

A sought after collaborative pianist, Boston native Mark McNeill is a graduate of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA, where he earned a graduate performance diploma with distinction in collaborative piano with an emphasis in vocal accompaniment.  As a Stern Fellowship recipient at Pepperdine University‘s Songfest in Malibu, California Mr. McNeill worked with Martin Katz, Graham Johnson, and Margo Garrett.   He has served as assistant music director for Intermezzo, the New England Chamber Opera Series, and has further experience with both stage and musical directing, conducting and arranging for small orchestra, and audio recording/production.  Past recitals have taken him to Germany, Austria, Greece, and throughout the Northeast.  His current and past teachers include Brian Moll, Elena Roussanova Lucas and Meropis Kollarou.
 

To find out more about Ms. Amlaw or this upcoming performance

Visit Ms. Amlaw’s website at www.karenamlaw.com/Karen-Amlaw-Soprano.html

Check out this event on Facebook at www.facebook.com/events/1411825355750464

View a flyer for this event at www.karenamlaw.com/Recital_Poster_2014.jpg