LONESOME TEARS Will Stream Next Week

On Monday evening March 14, 2022, the award-winning Venezuelan American soprano Maria Brea joins forces with pianist Max Lifchitz for an intimate recital featuring music from Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the US. Included will be music by Miguel Astor, Harry Bulow, Hector Campos-Parsi, Antonio Estevez, Max Lifchitz, Sheli Nan, William Ortiz, Joseph Rivers and Joel Eric Suben.

The livestream event will start at 8 PM (EST) and will originate from the National Opera Center in New York.

It may be accessed by going to https://www.youtube.com/user/NatOperaCenterLIVE

María Brea, soprano, is a native of Caracas, Venezuela. A "very classy and versatile soprano" is how The Arts Desk described her. The Tampa Bay praised her as a "luxurious soprano with a voice that mixes brilliance and richness."

A co-founder of the Instagram platform Latina Women in Opera, Ms. Brea was a scholarship student at both Manhattan School and Juilliard.

A proud recipient of a Novick Career Advancement Grant, Ms. Brea has earned awards in many singing competitions including Opera Cultura, Mary Truman Art Song, Giulio Gari, New York Lyric Opera and the Gerda Lissner Art Song Competition.

Her performance of Cav+Pag with New Camerata Opera in Fall 2021 was celebrated by Opera News, who said, "Maria Brea was an absolute delight as Nedda, ...demonstrating a natural theatrical instinct. She also has a lovely voice." In the current season, Brea will appear in the role of Norina in Don Pasquale with The Barn Opera in Vermont, in the recital "Susanna: Evolution of the Ingenue" with the Metropolitan Opera Guild, as the headliner of Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid's "A Song for Venezuela" concert, and as the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana with the Cecilia Chorus of New York at Carnegie Hall.

Max Lifchitz - composer and pianist - was awarded first prize in the 1976 International Gaudeamus Competition for Performers of Twentieth Century Music held in Holland. Robert Commanday, writing for The San Francisco Chronicle described him as "a young composer of brilliant imagination and a stunning, ultra-sensitive pianist." The New York Times music critic Allan Kozinn praised Mr. Lifchitz for his "clean, measured and sensitive performances" while Anthony Tommasini remarked that he "conducted a strong performance." Payton MacDonald writing for the American Record Guide observed:"Mr.. Lifchitz is as good on the podium as he is behind the piano."

North/South Consonance's activities are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support from the BMI Foundation and the Music Performance Trust Funds as well as gifts from many generous individuals are also gratefully acknowledged.

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