Opera Star Leah Crocetto Set for CURRAN: UNDER CONSTRUCTION Series 'GROUNDBREAKERS'

Carole Shorenstein Hays announced today that for the next subject of Groundbreakers with Kevin Sessums, the Curran's Editor-at-Large will sit down with award-winning opera star Leah Crocetto, for a special evening titled "Leah Crocetto Talks Opera and Sings Jazz." Sessums will discuss Crocetto's early years in the New York cabaret scene, her rise to fame in the opera world, and her deep connection to the San Francisco Opera. Crocetto, who recently opened the SFO's 2015 season with her electrifying performance in the title role of Luisa Miller and made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Liù in Turandot, will perform three numbers throughout the evening.

Tickets for this event, taking place onstage at the Curran (445 Geary Street) at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 4, can be purchased for $25 via Eventbrite by visiting www.SFCURRAN.com. Groundbreakers with Kevin Sessums is Curran: Under Construction's recently announced occasional on-stage series of conversation and performance featuring today's most compelling thought leaders and artists.

Shorenstein Hays said, "I am thrilled to welcome the San Francisco Opera's Leah Crocetto to the Curran's stage for Kevin Sessums' Groundbreakers series. One of our missions at the Curran is to be part of the community of artists here in the Bay Area. Leah's appearance at the Curran is itself a statement of that mission."

"I have been a fan of Leah Crocetto since I first saw her in a San Francisco Opera production of La bohème," said Sessums. "Her performance last year in the title role of Luisa Miller at SFO, which opened its season, was a milestone for her and her fans. Her latest milestone was debuting at the Metropolitan Opera in the role of Liù in Turandot. I am happy that my Groundbreakers series at the Curran on February 4th will be her first San Francisco appearance since her Met debut. She then heads to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on February 26th for a concert appearance under the auspices of the Washington National Opera. We are lucky to get her between her last performance in Turandot at the Met on January 22nd and her eagerly awaited recital in Washington. But nobody is going to see and hear her the way we are at the Curran on February 4th. I can't wait to hear what jazz numbers she has planned for us. It's going to be fun."

Recognized as a rising star in the next generation of singers, Leah Crocetto represented the United States at the 2011 Cardiff BBC Singer of the World Competition where she was a finalist in the Song Competition. She is a 2010 Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was the First Place Winner, People's Choice and the Spanish Prize Winner of the 2009 Jose? Iturbi International Music Competition, and winner of the Bel Canto Foundation competition. A former Adler fellow at San Francisco Opera, Ms. Crocetto has appeared frequently with the company, most recently in the role of Mimì in La bohème. In her stellar 2015-16 season, Leah Crocetto makes two major debuts: her long-awaited Metropolitan Opera debut as Liù in Turandot, and her role debut as Semiramide in Rossini's seldom-heard opera of the same name, with Opera National de Bordeaux. Additional highlights of the season include Anna in Maometto II with the Canadian Opera Company, the title role of Luisa Miller with the San Francisco Opera, and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Santa Fe Opera. She also sings a solo recital at Washington National Opera with pianist Mark Markham. Last season, Ms. Crocetto performed Desdemona in Otello with English National Opera, followed by performances of Mimi in La bohème with San Francisco Opera, and Madame Lidoine in Poulenc's powerful Dialogues of the Carmelites with Washington National Opera. Her season closed at Opera Philadelphia singing Elisabetta di Valois in a new production of Don Carlo.

Kevin Sessums began his career as Executive Editor for Andy Warhol's Interview magazine before serving as contributing editor at Vanity Fair for fourteen years where he was also the Fanfair Editor. He has been a contributing editor for Allure and Parade magazines and his work has appeared in Marie Claire, Elle, Playboy, Out, and Travel+Leisure. For several years, he was a regular contributor to The Daily Beast. He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of FourTwoNine magazine. His Facebook page has a large and loyal following. Sessums's two memoirs, Mississippi Sissy and I Left It on the Mountain, have both been New York Times bestsellers. He lives at the top of Telegraph Hill in San Francisco with his dogs, Archie and Teddy.

"Curran: Under Construction" features an array of wildly inventive and diverse works, each with ties to the Bay Area. This ground-breaking festival began in September with The Events (September 23 - 26), The Object Lesson (October 14-18), Ghost Quartet (October 23-25 & 28-31), Steve Cuiffo is Lenny Bruce (November 19-21), Notes of a Native Song by Tony Award-winning writer/musician Stew December 3-5) and Story Pirates' Greatest Hits Show (December 12 - 20). Next up is Taylor Mac's A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (January 21-30).

Built in 1922, the Curran has housed some of the most important productions in theater history and has maintained a reputation over the course of its life as one of the most prestigious live entertainment venues in North America. Now, nearly 100 years after it welcomed its first Bay Area audiences, the Curran is undergoing a major restoration and renovation. Under the curation of eight-time Tony Award winner Carole Shorenstein Hays, the Curran will reopen as a 1,600 seat venue in late 2016 with the new mission. Inspired by the unique entrepreneurial spirit of the Bay Area, as well as Ms. Shorenstein Hays's lifelong passion for creatively daring, cutting-edge material, the Curran will provide a home for a handpicked selection of the most exciting stage works being conceived and created anywhere in the world.

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