Riverside Opera Company to Present Free Parks Concert at The Conference House

The Riverside Opera Company presents A FREE family fun concert in the park Saturday, June 18th, 3 p.m. at Conference House Park, 7455 Hylan Blvd, Staten Island.

The opening act will be eGALitarian Brass, an all-female brass band with a repertoire emphasizing music by women composers and delighting with popular songs and original works.

Act two Sopranos Alison Madill, Holly Flack and tenor Kyle Tomlin sing your favorite opera, Broadway and Pop pieces. All will be accompanied by Margarita Anthoine on keyboard.

Featured pieces are : "Che il bel sogno O mio babbino caro," G. Puccini; "So in love," Cole Porter; "What I did for love,"Marvin Hamlisch; " Quando men vo," G. Puccini; "Der holle rache," WA Mozart; "Glitter and be gay ," Leonard Bernstein; "La donne e mobile,"G. Verdi; "Be my love," Cahn/Brodszky and more favorites.

ABOUT RIVERSIDE OPERA COMPANY

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 a 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.



About the performers:

eGALitarian Brass is a classical quintet by day and a brass band by night consisting of Kate Amrine and Melissa Muñoz on Trumpet, Blair Hamrick on french horn, Julie Dombroski on trombone, and Heather Ewer on tuba. eGALitarian Brass is dedicated to performing and commissioning new works by diverse composers and breaking boundaries of chamber music today as a classical quintet. They prioritize performing music by diverse composers and commissioning new repertoire with an emphasis on music by women composers, who have often been historically underrepresented in brass repertoire. eGALitarian Brass also performs as a brass band, collaborating with Shelby Blezinger-McCay on drums; performing jazz, commercial and New Orleans music. In addition to their performances, they have also presented educational workshops at both Rutgers University and Concept Lab, collaborating with composers on developing new compositions and writing for brass quintet.

eGALitarian Brass has been invited to perform and collaborate with the International Women's Brass Conference, New York Women Composers, and Spectrum's Female Composers Festival. eGALitarian has also presented recitals at churches throughout New York City, Long Island, and New Jersey. As a brass band, eGALitarian has performed throughout NYC at venues including HONK Brass Band Festival, Nublu, The Sampler, as well as private parties, parades and events.

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.

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.

Kyle Tomlin is a tenor making a name for himself both on the opera stage and as a concert soloist. He has made appearances with companies across the country including Virginia Opera, Toledo Opera, St. Petersburg Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, as well as with the National Symphony Orchestra, Fairfax Symphony, Tallahassee Symphony, National Cathedral Choral Society, Handel Choir of Baltimore, and the Washington Bach Consort.

While he regularly performs the standard repertoire, Mr. Tomlin is no stranger to new music. As a Gate City Bank Young Artist with Fargo-Moorhead Opera, he covered roles in the world premieres of Buried Alive and Embedded, two operas commissioned by the American Lyric Theatre for the Poe Project. He also originated the role of John in the premiere of Rockland, an opera commissioned by the Pine Mountain Music Festival, where he was a Resident Opera Artist for three years.

Mr. Tomlin is a member of the United States Army Chorus and holds degrees from Penn State University and the University of Michigan.

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