National Opera Center Streams DIVINE ROSE

Soprano Celia Castro and pianist Max Lifchitz join forces on March 15, 2021, for an intimate, late-afternoon concert featuring vocal and instrumental music by composers from the US and the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean.

The recital will be streamed live from the National Opera Center in Manhattan. It will start at 4 PM (EST) and end at approximately 5:15 PM. It can be accessed @
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWuF3z-RDm0G3N2rv4rB6kQ

The program will feature Art Songs by Aura Marina del Rosario from the Dominican Republic and William Ortiz from Puerto Rico. Piano compositions by Texas-based John McGinn and Bay Area resident Sheli Nan will be heard for the first time in New York. The virtuosic Salsa y tres soneos for piano by Puerto Rican Raymond Torres-Santos will also be part of the most diverse and refreshing program. The event will conclude with a performance of Lifchitz's Rosa Divina (Divine Rose) inspired by a sonnet penned by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, the 17th century Mexican poet and philosopher.

Half Puerto Rican and half Dominican, soprano Celia Castro has appeared in recitals featuring music by Latin American composers at Lincoln Center's Bruno Walter Hall; the Upper West Side's Christ & St. Stephen's Church; and at the University of Albany's Performing Arts Center in Upstate, NY. Ms. Castro has also participated in operatic productions of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and La Clemenza di Tito; as well as in excerpts from Verdi's Aida and Puccini's Suor Angelica. Currently, she is compiling works by BIPOC and women composers to share with her many students and for future recitals.

Active as pianist and composer, Max Lifchitz has appeared as soloist with among others, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Sheboygan Symphony, México's National Symphony Orchestra and the Neuchatel Orchestra in Switzerland. The director of the North/South Chamber Orchestra now celebrating its 41st consecutive season, his numerous recordings are widely available through Amazon, AppleMusic, Naxos, Spotify, YouTube and many other streaming services.

The event is 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 Zethus Fund and many generous individual donors is gratefully acknowledged.

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