San Francisco Opera to Conclude 2015 Adler Fellowship Season with 'THE FUTURE IS NOW' Gala, 12/12

San Francisco Opera Center presents the culminating concert of the 2015 Adler Fellowship season, The Future Is Now: Adler Fellows Gala Concert, on Saturday, December 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. The concert showcases the acclaimed Adler Fellows from San Francisco Opera Center's prestigious young artist training program in a gala concert of opera scenes and arias -- including works by Handel, Verdi, Rossini and Tchaikovsky -- with Stephen Lord, music director of Opera Theatre of St. Louis, leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.

The Future Is Now features sopranos Julie Adams (Burbank, California), Jacqueline Piccolino (Palatine, Illinois) and Maria Valdes (Marietta, Georgia); mezzo-soprano Zanda Šv?de (Valmiera, Latvia) and Nian Wang (Nanjing, China); tenor Chong Wang (Shijiazhuang, China); baritones Edward Nelson (Santa Clarita, California) and Efraín Solís (Santa Ana, California); bass-baritone Matthew Stump (Goshen, Indiana); bass Anthony Reed (Alexandria, Minnesota); and pianists/apprentice coaches Ronny Michael Greenberg (Montreal, Canada) and Noah Lindquist (Brooklyn, New York). This concert marks the final performance by Jacqueline Piccolino, Maria Valdes, Chong Wang and Efraín Solís as San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows.

Named for former San Francisco Opera General Director Kurt Herbert Adler, the Adler Fellowship Program is a performance-oriented residency offering advanced young artists intensive individual training, coaching, professional seminars and a wide range of performance opportunities throughout their fellowship. Adler Fellows also gain valuable professional experience by performing supporting roles in San Francisco Opera's mainstage productions. The Adler Fellows are selected from the young artists who have participated in the Merola Opera Program. The prestigious resident artist training program has nurtured the development of more than 150 young artists since its inception.

Tickets for The Future Is Now: Adler Fellows Gala Concert are priced from $30 to $65 ($65 tickets are sold out) and may be purchased at sfopera.com or by calling the San Francisco Opera Box Office at (415) 864-3330. $15 Student Rush tickets will be sold on the day of the performance from 11 a.m.-5:45 p.m. at the San Francisco Opera Box Office and from 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. at the Herbst Theater Box Office with valid ID, subject to availability.

Herbst Theatre is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. For more public transportation information, visit bart.gov and sfmta.com. If you plan on driving to the performance, take advantage of a special $5 event rate at Civic Center Garage which features an abundance of parking and is located a block away from the Herbst at 355 McAllister Street (between Polk and Larkin streets).

PROGRAM:

THE FUTURE IS NOW: ADLER FELLOWS GALA CONCERT 2015

Featuring the 2015 Adler Fellows

Stephen Lord, Conductor

San Francisco Opera Orchestra

Saturday, December 12, 2015; 7:30 p.m.

Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco

Selections From
(subject to change)

Die Fledermaus

Johann Strauss II

Rinaldo

George Frideric Handel

Pikovaya Dama (The Queen of Spades)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)

Gioachino Rossini

Scena di Berenice

Joseph Haydn

La Forza del Destino

Giuseppe Verdi

Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City)

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Les Pêcheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers)

Georges Bizet

Semiramide

Gioachino Rossini

Samson et Dalila

Camille Saint-Saëns

Le Caïd

Ambroise Thomas

Il Re Pastore

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Il Trovatore

Giuseppe Verdi

Eugene Onegin

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES:

Chosen by Opera News as one of the "25 most powerful names in U.S. opera," conductor STEPHEN LORD made his San Francisco Opera debut leading Rigoletto in 2006. He currently serves as music director for Opera Theatre of St. Louis and artistic director of opera studies at New England Conservatory, and he is the former music director of Boston Lyric Opera. Engagements in the current season include Norma with the English National Opera and Macbeth with the Michigan Opera Theatre. Other career highlights include Don Pasquale, L'Elisir d'Amore and Tosca with Lyric Opera of Chicago; La Donna del Lago at Santa Fe Opera; Lucia di Lammermoor and Un Ballo in Maschera with Toronto's Canadian Opera Company; Tosca, La Bohème and Rigoletto with English National Opera; and La Rondine with the Dallas Opera and New York City Opera. At Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Lord's conducting credits include Salome, Kát'a Kabanová, The Rape of Lucretia, Candide, The Beggar's Opera, La Fille du Régiment and Ariadne auf Naxos, among others.

JULIE ADAMS (Burbank, California) - A first-year Adler Fellow, Julie Adams made her Company debut as Mimì in San Francisco Opera's La Bohème for Families and most recently appeared as First Lady in this fall's The Magic Flute. She won the 2015 Elizabeth Connell prize for aspiring dramatic sopranos and was also a winner of the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She participated in the 2014 Merola Opera Program, where she performed the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. During her studies with César Ulloa at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Adams performed the roles of Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites, Mimì in La Bohème, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. Other credits include Lia (Debussy's L'Enfant Prodigue) at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv; Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara; and Magnolia Hawks (Show Boat) and Rose (Street Scene) with the Oakland East Bay Symphony.

JACQUELINE PICCOLINO (Palatine, Illinois) - Soprano Jacqueline Piccolino is a second-year Adler Fellow who appeared this season as Laura in Luisa Miller, First Lady in The Magic Flute, and Madeline Usher/Lady Madeline in The Fall of the House of Usher. She made her Company debut in 2013 as Stella in Les Contes d'Hoffmann and returned as a maid in the world premiere of Dolores Claiborne. Other San Francisco Opera roles include Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Clotilde in Norma, and Mrs. Hayes in Susannah. She recently appeared with Philharmonia Baroque as Fanní in Rossini's La Cambiale di Matrimonio. As a participant of the 2012 and 2013 Merola Opera Program, Piccolino appeared as Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro and Arminda in La Finta Giardiniera. As a studio artist with Wolf Trap Opera Company, she has appeared in that company's productions of The Inquisitive Women, Sweeney Todd, and Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Other career highlights include appearing in the Napa Festival del Sole's Bouchaine Young Artist Concert Series and participating in the Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Vocal Academy. Piccolino is a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation and winner of the New York Lyric Opera Theatre Competition and the Bel Canto Competition. Her upcoming roles include First Lady with Seattle Opera.

MARIA VALDES (Marietta, Georgia) - Soprano Maria Valdes is a second-year Adler Fellow who made her San Francisco Opera debut as Clorinda in La Cenerentola. Her other San Francisco Opera roles include Musetta in La Bohème for Families, Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Papagena in The Magic Flute. She appeared as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro as a participant of the 2013 Merola Opera Program. An award winner in the regional Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, Valdes is also the winner of the top prize at the Corbett Opera Scholarship Competition at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She has been heard in concert with a variety of ensembles, including the Georgia State University Singers, the Atlanta Chamber Players, the Atlanta Sacred Chorale, and the choirs of Emory University, Bent Frequency, and the Bellingham Festival of Music in Washington.

Zanda Šv?de (Valmiera, Latvia) - Latvian mezzo-soprano Zanda Šv?de is a second-year Adler Fellow and a participant of the 2013 Merola Opera Program. She made her San Francisco Opera debut as Flora Bervoix in La Traviata and returned as Tisbe in La Cenerentola. She also created the role of Lena in the 2015 world premiere of Marco Tutino's Two Women. This fall she appeared as Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor and Third Lady in The Magic Flute. Roles in her repertoire include the title role of Piazzolla's María de Buenos Aires, Endimione in La Calisto, and the title role of Massenet's Cléopâtre. On the concert stage, she has appeared as a soloist in Mozart's Requiem, Haydn's Missa in tempore belli, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Vivaldi's Gloria, and Liszt's Missa Coronationalis. She has studied at the Latvian Academy of Music in Riga, the Manhattan Summer Voice Festival in New York, Scuola Italia in Urbania, Italy, and the Tyrolean Opera Program in Austria. Her upcoming engagements include the title role of Carmen with Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Olga (Eugene Onegin) with North Carolina Opera.

NIAN WANG (Nanjing, China) - Mezzo-soprano Nian Wang is a first-year Adler Fellow who made her San Francisco Opera debut as Ascanius in Les Troyens. She appeared this fall as Second Lady in The Magic Flute. She recently appeared with Philharmonia Baroque in Rossini's La Cambiale di Matrimonio. Wang also participated in the 2014 Merola Opera Program, where she performed excerpts as Juno in Semele, Federica in Luisa Miller, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, and the title role of Carmen. At the Curtis Institute of Music, her credits there include the title roles of La Cenerentola and Rinaldo, Mother Jeanne in Dialogues des Carmélites, Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Kate in Owen Wingrave, Second Lady, Siebel in Faust, and the First Witch in Dido and Aeneas. Other credits include Nicklausse (Les Contes d'Hoffmann) with the Martina Arroyo Foundation; Chinese Tea Cup, Female Cat, Shepherd, and Squirrel in Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges and Mother in Mazzoli's Song from the Uproar at Bard College; and Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro) with Princeton Symphony. Wang also performed in the Dawn Upshaw and Donnacha Dennehy Young Artist Concert at Carnegie Hall, and she received fourth prize in the 2012 Opera Columbus Irma M. Cooper Vocal Competition and the 2013 Opera Index Encouragement Award.

CHONG WANG (Shijiazhuang, China) - Tenor Chong Wang is a first-year Adler Fellow who made his Company debut as Hylas and Helenus in Les Troyens in summer 2015. This fall, he was Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor and First Armored Man in The Magic Flute. Wang participated in the 2014 Merola Opera Program where he performed excerpts as Goro in Madama Butterfly, Don José in Carmen, and the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto. Wang has performed a number of roles at Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts, including the Steersman (Der Fliegende Holländer), the Messenger (Aida), Dr. Caius (Falstaff), Ruiz (Il Trovatore), and Rodolfo (Guglielmo Tell). He is a graduate of the Conservatory of the People's Liberation Army in China.

EDWARD NELSON (Santa Clarita, California) - A first-year Adler Fellow, baritone Edward Nelson made his San Francisco Opera debut as John Buckley in the 2015 world premiere of Two Women. This fall, he appeared as Second Priest in The Magic Flute, Hermann Ortel in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Fiorello in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and L'Ami in The Fall of the House of Usher. As a participant of the 2014 Merola Opera Program, he appeared in the title role of Don Giovanni. Other recent engagements include the Ferryman (Britten's Curlew River) with the Tanglewood Music Festival and Montreal's Ballet-Opéra-Pantomime. He has also performed the title role of Owen Wingrave, Dandini in La Cenerentola, and Forester in Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he holds undergraduate and graduate degrees. On the concert stage, Nelson has been a soloist with the American Choral Directors Association and the Reno Philharmonic. A national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, he is a winner of the 2013 Opera Columbus International Vocal Competition.

EFRAÍN SOLÍS (Santa Ana, California) - Mexican-American baritone Efraín Solís is a second-year Adler Fellow who made his Company debut in 2014 as Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly and most recently appeared as Papageno in this fall's The Magic Flute. His other San Francisco Opera roles include Christian (Un Ballo in Maschera), Sciarrone (Tosca), Dandini (La Cenerentola), and Schaunard (La Bohème for Families). As an Adler Fellow, he also collaborated with New Century Chamber Orchestra in their production of Donizetti's Rita, as well as Rossini's La Cambiale di Matrimonio with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. In the spring of 2013, he joined Opera Santa Barbara as a member of their Studio Artist Program, where he sang the role of Il Notario and covered Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale. As a participant of the 2013 Merola Opera Program, he sang Junius in The Rape of Lucretia and covered Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. Chosen as a finalist for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and Houston Grand Opera's Eleanor McCollum Competition, Solís holds degrees from Chapman University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he performed the title roles of Don Giovanni and Gianni Schicchi, in addition to Guglielmo in Così fan tutte.

MATTHEW STUMP (Goshen, Indiana) - Bass-baritone Matthew Stump made his San Francisco Opera debut as a Trojan Soldier and Sentry in Les Troyens in summer 2015 and most recently appeared as An Officer in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Hans Foltz in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He is a first-year Adler Fellow and participant in the 2014 Merola Opera Program, where he appeared in the Schwabacher Summer Concert as Count Walter in Luisa Miller and Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola. He has performed the title role of Sweeney Todd, the Prime Minister in Cendrillon, the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance, and Capulet in Roméo et Juliette at the University of North Texas, as well as Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), and Frank (Street Scene) at Luther College, where he holds a bachelor's degree. Stump holds awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and Dallas Opera Guild.

ANTHONY REED (Alexandria, Minnesota) - Bass Anthony Reed made his San Francisco Opera debut in Les Troyens as the Greek Captain, Mercury, and Second Sentry in summer 2015. He returned this fall as The Speaker and Second Armored Man in The Magic Flute, Hans Schwarz in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Doctor Primus in The Fall of the House of Usher. He is a first-year Adler Fellow and participant of the 2014 Merola Opera Program. He appeared with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in a program of concert arias and as Norton in Rossini's La Cambiale di Matrimonio. Roles in his repertory include Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Truffaldin in Ariadne auf Naxos, Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Dulcamara in L'Elisir d'Amore, Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola, and the Four Villains in Les Contes d'Hoffmann. His orchestral performances include Mozart's Requiem with Berkeley Symphony and Haydn's Missa in tempore belli with Oakland East Bay Symphony. Reed received a 2011 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Regional Encouragement Award and has been a young artist at the Wolf Trap Opera Studio and the Seagle Music Colony, in addition to studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of Wisconsin.

RONNY MICHAEL GREENBERG (Montreal, Canada) - Pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg is a first-year Adler Fellow and participant of the 2014 Merola Opera Program where he prepared A Streetcar Named Desire and Don Giovanni. Most recently, he worked on the Company's fall productions of The Barber of Seville and The Magic Flute, in addition to last summer's Two Women world premiere. His performing experiences range from guest soloist appearances with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra to concerts in venues such as Steinway Hall, the Canadian Museum of Civilization for the Glenn Gould Exhibit, and Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium as part of the WorldStrides Heritage Performance Programs. Since his arrival to the Bay Area, he has appeared on the KQED's "The Do List," the Human Rights Watch Annual Inauguration, and the celebration concert for Cantor Roslyn Barak of Temple Emanu-El. Upcoming engagements include performances with Musica Marin, Lines Ballet at Yerba Buena Arts Center, and the Silicon Valley League of the San Francisco Symphony.

NOAH LINDQUIST (Brooklyn, New York) - Pianist Noah Lindquist is a second-year Adler Fellow and a participant of the 2013 Merola Opera Program where he prepared Le Nozze di Figaro and The Rape of Lucretia. As a member of the music staff of San Francisco Opera, he has been involved with productions of The Fall of the House of Usher, The Magic Flute, Luisa Miller, Le Nozze di Figaro, Madama Butterfly, Show Boat, Susannah, La Bohème and La Bohème for Families. He also served as rehearsal conductor for Rossini's La Cambiale di Matrimonio with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. A native of New York City, he completed his master's degree in collaborative piano at the Mannes College of Music in 2013, studying with Cristina Stanescu. Lindquist has performed in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall and Isaac Stern Auditorium.

Photo Credit: Matthew Washburn

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