Sandra Moon, Mary Thorne and Anna Tonna Will Sing Art Songs By Latino Composers on February 16 @ 8 PM

Vocalists Sandra Moon, Mary Thorne and Anna Tonna will join forces with pianist Max Lifchitz in an intimate celebration of the Art Song as practiced by Latino Composers during the last 100 years.

The soiree -- part of the Composers Now Festival -- will highlight intriguing and stimulating song cycles penned by composers originally from Cuba and Mexico who have resided and flourished artistically in New York City. Vocal works by Carlos Chavez and Max Lifchitz (from Mexico) as well as Jorge Martin and Julian Orbon (from Cuba) will be featured.

The free-admission event will be held at the National Opera Center's Marc A. Scorca Hall located at 330 Seventh Ave (FL 7) in New York City. The auditorium is ADA accessible. The concert will start at 8 PM and end around 9:30 PM. No tickets required.

Soprano Sandra Moon has sung on stages throughout the world. At the Metropolitan Opera she sang several roles under the baton of James Levine and next to Renée Fleming. With over 100 roles in her repertoire Sandra has sung on the stages of Vienna, Munich, Chicago, Carnegie Hall, Zürich, among others. In addition to her vocal repertoire, she has performed the role of Maria Callas in Terrence McNally's Tony Award winning play, Master Class.

Soprano Mary Thorne has been praised by the press as an "engaging soloist, bright and agile" and for her "knowing sexiness, effortless coloratura runs and solid acting skills." Frequently heard in Mozart roles, she has appeared with the Amore and Amato Opera companies, Hubbard Hall Opera Theater, the Bronx Opera, Opera Company of Brooklyn, and New York Metro Vocal Arts Ensemble. Last season's highlights include joining New York City Opera in Aleko/Pagliacci at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater.

"A born star who effectively stole the show" is how the press describes mezzo-soprano Anna Tonna. Her performances have been depicted as "...full of charm and magnetism with her dark, compact lyric mezzo-soprano ideally suited for the flamenco-like vocal flourishes of Spanish music." Well known for her commitment to the music of Spain and Latin America, Ms. Tonna was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study and perform in Spain upon her graduation from the Mannes College of Music.

Pianist Max Lifchitz has appeared on concert stages throughout Europe, Latin America and the US. The San Francisco Chronicle described him as "a stunning, ultra-sensitive pianist" while the New York Times praised him for his "clean, measured and sensitive performances." Lifchitz appears as collaborative artist and conductor in over fifty compact disc albums, including nine widely praised solo albums featuring piano music from the Americas.

Carlos Chavez (1899-1978) is one of Latin America's best-known composers. A powerful figure in the cultural life of Mexico, his innovative research into the musical traditions of pre-Columbian cultures provided Mexican artists with a new sense of identity and brought an unprecedented international visibility to Mexican music. The program will feature the first US performance of his earliest vocal compositions grouped under the title of Cinco Poemas (Five Poems). Written in 1921, these songs were recently unearthed and edited for publication by Max Lifchitz. Eminently romantic in spirit, the songs are based on poems in French, German and Portuguese by the19th century writers Victor Hugo, Heinrich Heine and Jose Asuncion Silva.

Max Lifchitz started his musical education in his native Mexico City before moving to New York to study with Luciano Berio at The Juilliard School. His song cycle Forget Me Not was inspired by poetry of the 19th century American writer Lillian E. Curtis. The recently completed composition consists of four contrasting songs that deal with descriptions of nature as well as feelings of loss, euphoria and gaiety.

Jorge Martin (b. 1959 in Santiago de Cuba) has lived in the US since 1965. He studied at Yale and Columbia University and has received fellowships from the Cintas and Bogliasco Foundations as well as an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His one-act opera Tobermory won first prize in the National Opera Association's Fifth Biennial Chamber Opera Competition while his full-length opera Before Night Falls -- based on the 1992 autobiography of Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas -- was given its world premiere at the Fort Worth Opera. Martin's A Cuban in Vermont is a collection of five affable and witty songs inspired by the composer's longing for Cuba while residing in Vermont.

Julian Orbon (1925-1991) was praised by Aaron Copland as "Cuba's most gifted composer of the new generation." Born in Spain, Orbon's family settled in Cuba in 1940 where he studied with Jose Ardevol, joining him as a co-founder of a Cuban school of composers, Grupo de Renovacion Musical. An invitation from Carlos Chavez to join the faculty of Mexico's National Conservatory provided him with the opportunity to leave Cuba in 1960. In 1964 Orbón moved to New York City where he taught composition at Barnard College and the Hispanic Institute of Columbia University. Orbon's Libro de Cantares (Book of Ancient Songs) is an extended song cycle based on folk melodies from the Asturias province of Spain. The work was written in 1987 and is Orbon's very last composition.

For the complete Winter/Spring concert series schedule visit http://www.northsouthmusic.org/calendar.as

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