San Francisco Opera Center Presents Adler Fellows At Herbst Theatre

San Francisco Opera Center will showcase the talents of the 2021 class of Adler Fellows in The Future Is Now: Adler Fellows Concert on Friday, December 10.

Held in the Herbst Theatre, the concert marks a return to this annual culminating concert of the Adler Fellowship Program following the cancellation of 2020 events due to the pandemic. Celebrating the artistry of the Adler Fellows, a group of top young performers selected for residencies at San Francisco Opera, the program will feature Adlers in concert with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted by Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim.

The night's performers include sopranos Anne-Marie MacIntosh, Elisa Sunshine and Esther Tonea; mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh; tenors Zhengyi Bai, Christopher Colmenero and Christopher Oglesby; baritone Timothy Murray; bass Stefan Egerstrom and pianists Kseniia Polstiankina Barrad and Andrew King.

Together, these Adler Fellows will perform a range of opera scenes, arias and duets from works including Bellini's Il Pirata, Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles, Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Lucia di Lammermoor, Mozart's Don Giovanni and Idomeneo, Ponchielli's La Gioconda, Puccini's La Bohème, Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress and Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer.

The 2021 Adlers concluding their fellowships at the end of this year are mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh, tenors Christopher Colmenero, Christopher Oglesby and Zhengyi Bai and pianist Kseniia Polstiankina Barrad. Stefan Egerstrom, Andrew King, Anne-Marie MacIntosh, Timothy Murray, Elisa Sunshine and Esther Tonea continue in the program as third-year fellows in 2022.

San Francisco Opera Center Artistic Director Carrie-Ann Matheson and General Manager Markus Beam shared in their program note:

As we reflect upon the first year of our tenure as the leadership team of the San Francisco Opera Center, some important and overarching themes come to mind: resilience, gratitude, connection, and joy. The eleven talented young artists that you will hear this evening spent the first half of this year singing and playing into a computer, physically distanced from their colleagues and their mentors. They adapted to new ways of learning and collaborating, and they did so with determination, flexibility, and intelligence. They embraced a new curriculum with open minds and hearts, knowing that the world would be different when we were finally able to return to live collaboration.

As the Adler Fellows made their first tentative steps back into the "real world" of in-person rehearsals and performances, it felt strangely uncomfortable. They persisted and within no time at all, the joy of being reconnected and making music with their colleagues, coaches and teachers replaced any sense of fear or trepidation. Gratitude reigned supreme and remains a palpable part of daily life in the Opera Center.

More information about the program and artists are available in the digital version of the 2021 Adler Fellows Concert program sfopera.com/on-stage/adler-fellows-concert. of the 2021 Adler Fellows Concert program book (print programs will also be available at the concert).

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