|
The Board of
Directors of Opera Las Vegas
& the Impresario
Society Committee
Request the Pleasure
of Your Company
Wednesday January
30th, 2008
6:30 to 9:30 pm
at the home of
Michele Rizza
and Tandy Coggs III
8029 Golfers Oasis
Drive
Las Vegas 89149
$95 per Person
Performance by the
Opera Las Vegas Young Artists
Wine and Hors De
Oeuvres
Please respond by
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Enjoy a wonderful
Musical Program featuring
Colotura Soprano...
Athena Mertes
Lyric Tenor...
Stewart Cramer
Pianist... Petya
Karakoleva
Young American soprano, Athena Mertes, is quickly establishing herself
as one of our generation's most promising classical singers with a
stunning and warm
Italianate sound. Having already performed in Graz, Austria, Las Vegas,
Nev., Los Angeles, Calif., and Lexington, Ky., Mertes opera credits
include Morgana (Alcina),
Musetta (La Bohème), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Abigail (The Crucible),
Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Nella (Gianni Schicchi), Little Red (Little
Red's Most Unusual Day)
and soprano soloist in Vivaldi's Gloria. This is her second performance
with the Las Vegas Philharmonic.
In addition to her success as an opera and concert performer, Mertes has
garnered several awards in a very short time. Among these are 1st place
in the Dean Allen
Scholarship Competition, 1st place (District Winner) for the National
Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award, the Metropolitan Opera
National Council
Encouragement Award, and the National Association of Teachers of Singing
1st place award. Her voice teacher is Alfonse Anderson, DMA, of the
University of
Nevada, Las Vegas.
Stewart Cramer, tenor, is currently pursuing his M.M. in Vocal
Performance at
UNLV and is a student of Dr. Alfonse Anderson. A native of Indiana, he
earned
his Bachelor's of Music in Vocal Performance from Indiana University.
Mr. Cramer has served as professional soloist and ensemble member in
many church and concert venues. He has performed with San Diego Opera,
the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra with Garrison Keillor, the Indiana
University Opera Theater, and the KomischeKammerOper in Germany. His
roles include Oronte in "Alcina",
Dr. Cajus in "Falstaff", Spoletta in "Tosca", tenor soloist in
Bernstein's "MASS", Dickon in "Secret Garden", The Wiz in the "The Wiz",
and the Angel City Four tenor in "City of Angels." He also appeared
with small ensembles throughout Southern California, including a
performance for the Shakespeare Festival at The Old Globe Theater in San
Diego. Pianist Petya Karakoleva
Petya Karakoleva graduated magna cum laude from the National School of
Music
"Dobrin Petkov" in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in 2002 with a degree in piano
performance
and pedagogy. Her acceptance as a piano performance major with a full
scholarship brought her to the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where she
studied with Dr. Mykola Suk and received her B.M. in 2006. Ms.
Karakoleva won the Grand Prize in the 2003 James K. Huntzinger Solo
Competition and appeared as a featured soloist the following season with
the UNLV Symphony Orchestra. She has received the UNLV piano
department's honors jury award several times. She has also been the
staff pianist for the music and dance departments at UNLV since August
2002. In August 2004 she began playing for the Cecchetti Society USA's
yearly seminars, and in July of 2005 she was the pianist for the
national conference of the Ballet Masters of
America
in Las Vegas. She has also been the accompanist for the Dance Educators
of
America's yearly summer seminars since 2004. In November 2006, she
performed with flautist Mr. Paul Edmund-Davies, former London Symphony
Orchestra Principal.
She has recently joined the Nevada Ballet Theater as their ballet
accompanist.
Ms. Karakoleva is currently on the faculty of the Nevada School of the
Arts
as a piano teacher and a staff accompanist.
Opera Las Vegas is a
Non-profit 501C3 Organization EIN # 88-04391165 |
