Riverside Opera Company to Present DIVAS TO DIE FOR with Live 52-Piece Orchestra

The Riverside Opera Company presents an evening of divas with music from operas, Broadway and films featuring three popular ROC sopranos accompanied by a 52-piece live orchestra with the performance of Divas to Die For Saturday, June 11, 8 pm at St Teresa Church, 1634 Victory Blvd, Staten Island, NY 10314. Purchase tickets by visiting: https://www.musae.me/roc/experiences/1331/riverside-opera. Tickets are $15 advance / $20 door. Free for students and children

The concert features Sopranos Holly Flack, who has performed the highest note ever at Lincoln Center, Staten Island's Got Talent and reappearing ROC performer Allison Madill and Amy Yekel, who has been billed as having been " born to sing Turandot."

Featured pieces are the "Liebestod" from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, "In Questa Reggia" from Turandot by Puccini and music from Broadway and films including "Let It Go" from Frozen.

Watch Riverside Opera Company and featured performers here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiyS0tQFcI0

Founded in 1996, the Riverside Opera Company (ROC) is the longest-running and only opera company on Staten Island. ROC performs fully and semi-staged productions with full orchestra conducted by Maestro Alan Aurelia, who has conducted in Italy and the U.S.

Its singers are winners of open public auditions held in New York City. ROC also provides yearly workshops for professional and emerging professional singers and free opera in the schools as educational outreach.

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About the Sopranos:

Holly Flack

Holly Flack is a coloratura soprano with a unique range that extends beyond an octave above high C. Ms. Flack's operatic roles include the title role in Semele, Gilda in Rigoletto, Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, Ophélie in Hamlet, Morgana in Alcina, Elvira in L'Italiana in Algeri, and Dinorah in Dinorah (Le Pardon de Ploërmel) for which she received a "Star-Making Performance" award from Mr. Fred Plotkin in his Seventh Annual "Freddie" Awards for Excellence in Opera.

Internationally, Ms. Flack made her debut at the Trentino Music Festival in Mezzano, Italy singing the role of the Vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen. She has traveled multiple times to China with the iSing!

In 2019, she performed the highest note ever sung at Lincoln Center, a B-flat above high C, as a featured soloist in a Golden Night Concert celebrating China's Mid-Autumn Festival at David Geffen Hall in New York City. In 2021, she surpassed this record singing a B natural above high C in the East/West: A Symphonic Celebration concert at David H. Koch Theater.

Originally from Portland, Oregon, she holds a Bachelor's Degree in Vocal Performance from St. Olaf College, and a Master's Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Kentucky, where she studied with renowned soprano Cynthia Lawrence.

Alison Madill

Alison Madill received a undergraduate degree in music from West Virginia University as well as a masters in music from Bowling Green State University. She has performed as a young artist with the Toledo Opera and was a featured performed with The Huron Playhouse and Emerald Island Repertory Theater. She has sung with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra as well as the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. She has studied at the Austrian- American Mozart Academy in Salzberg Austria where she performed such roles as Die Konigan Der Nacht from die Zauberflute and Valencienne from Die Lustige Witwe. She is currently splits her time between raising her family, working on Wall Street and working as the creative arts assistant for the Church at the Gateway in Staten Island.

Amy Louise Yekel

Deemed "Born to sing Turandot" by the Toledo Blade, soprano Amy Louise Yekel made her professional debut in 2012 with Toledo Opera. Other operatic roles include Sieglinde in Die Walküre, Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos, Lia in L'enfant Prodigue, The Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Terentia in Captain Lovelock.

Dr. Yekel received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Akron, Master of Music from Arizona State University where she also completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts. She has received awards from The Wagner Society of New York and The Wagner Society of Ohio. Dr. Yekel is a former first place winner of Palm Springs Opera Scholarship Competition, Arizona Lyric Opera Scholarship Competition, The Canton Civic Opera Scholarship Competition, Akron Symphony Chorus Scholarship, Tuesday Musical Club Scholarship, Mary S. Bower's Scholarship, The John MacDonald Scholarship, and The McDowell Scholarship. She was also a Liederkranz finalist in 2012. Amy Louise Yekel

Deemed "Born to sing Turandot" by the Toledo Blade, soprano Amy Louise Yekel made her professional debut in 2012 with Toledo Opera. Other operatic roles include Sieglinde in Die Walküre, Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos, Lia in L'enfant Prodigue, The Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Terentia in Captain Lovelock.

Dr. Yekel received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Akron, Master of Music from Arizona State University where she also completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts. She has received awards from The Wagner Society of New York and The Wagner Society of Ohio. Dr. Yekel is a former first place winner of Palm Springs Opera Scholarship Competition, Arizona Lyric Opera Scholarship Competition, The Canton Civic Opera Scholarship Competition, Akron Symphony Chorus Scholarship, Tuesday Musical Club Scholarship, Mary S. Bower's Scholarship, The John MacDonald Scholarship, and The McDowell Scholarship. She was also a Liederkranz finalist in 2012.

Amy Louise Yekel

Deemed "Born to sing Turandot" by the Toledo Blade, soprano Amy Louise Yekel made her professional debut in 2012 with Toledo Opera. Other operatic roles include Sieglinde in Die Walküre, Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos, Lia in L'enfant Prodigue, The Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Terentia in Captain Lovelock.

Dr. Yekel received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Akron, Master of Music from Arizona State University where she also completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts. She has received awards from The Wagner Society of New York and The Wagner Society of Ohio. Dr. Yekel is a former first place winner of Palm Springs Opera Scholarship Competition, Arizona Lyric Opera Scholarship Competition, The Canton Civic Opera Scholarship Competition, Akron Symphony Chorus Scholarship, Tuesday Musical Club Scholarship, Mary S. Bower's Scholarship, The John MacDonald Scholarship, and The McDowell Scholarship. She was also a Liederk.