Opera Star Anthony Roth Costanzo and More Set for Salon/Sanctuary Concert Series, 9/28

Friday, September 28, 2012 at 7:00pm in the historic Players Club, Salon/Sanctuary Concerts-the series that presents early music in intimate alternative venues-opens its fourth season with a unique collaborative event featuring three renowned artists who share a love of baroque music. The performance will include songs of Henry Purcell, arias of Handel, and cantatas of Vivaldi. Program details will be announced shortly. A post-performance dinner with the artists follows at the club.

Anthony Roth Costanzo, fast-rising opera star, performs Purcell, Handel and Vivaldi with new choreography by Troy Schumacher, danced by NYCB principal dancer Jared Angle and the Met Opera's Bradley Brookshire on harpsichord.

The 30-year old countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo has established himself as an arriving opera star, with a string of press raves in inverse proportion to his years. Winner of the First Prize in Placido Domingo's 2012 Operalia Competition (watch his aria here), the singer was recently praised by Le Monde as "a perfect musician" and by Musical America for "perfectly placed vocalism" after his recent Metropolitan Opera appearances as Ferdinand and Prospero in The Enchanted Island. Mr. Costanzo graces the cover of Opera News this month for a cover story on the next generation of operatic stars.

Jared Angle is Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet, and beloved by audiences for his many featured roles in masterworks of Balanchine, Martins, Robbins, and others. Born in Altoona, Pennsylvania where he began his early dance training at age six at the Allegheny Ballet Academy, Mr. Angle became an apprentice with New York City Ballet in March 1998 and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in July 1998. He was promoted to the rank of soloist in February 2001, and promoted to principal dancer following a performance during a Company visit for the reopening of the Tivoli Concert Hall in 2005. When not dancing, Mr. Angle enjoys playing the piano and exploring interdisciplinary collaboration in new projects.

Troy Schumacher is Resident Choreographer and Ballet Director of Satellite Ballet, which he founded with Kevin Draper in 2010. Schumacher began dancing with New York City Ballet in 2004 after training at the School of American Ballet and Atlanta Ballet. Seeing ballet as rooted in history, he proposes a fresh perspective to the future, including direct involvement in the creation of original scores for the Satellite Ballet. His choreography forms an essential relationship with music and multimedia space: he selects highly individual dancers with inherent, unique movement qualities and creates dancer specific movement to advance the language of modern classical dance. Schumacher's work has been noted by Marina Harss of Faster Times for an "emphasis on expressivity and beauty."

Bradley Brookshire is an Assistant Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, where he most recently performed harpsichord for The Enchanted Island. Brookshire's distinctive approach to Bach's harpsichord music has led to sustained critical acclaim by The New York Times (his interpretation of Bach's French Suites was named a New York Times "Critic's Choice" Recording of year 2001), Goldberg magazine (who awarded his 2007 recording of The Art of the Fugue their top rating of five stars), and many others. He has served as musical assistant to legendary choreographer Trisha Brown, and as repetiteur for Les Arts Florissants/Paris.

Founded in 1888 by America's pre-eminent Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth, The Players Club is located in Booth's former home, a Greek Revival townhouse facing historic Gramercy Park. The club's 15 other founders include Mark Twain and General William Tecumseh Sherman. It was the first American Club of its kind, modeled after London's famed Garrick Club. Its purpose-"The promotion of social intercourse between members of the dramatic profession and the kindred professions of literature, painting, architecture, sculpture and music, law and medicine, and the patrons of the arts"-makes the club an ideal location for the opening of the Salon/Sanctuary season, as the series dedicates itself to interdisciplinary exploration.