Vocal Arts DC to Present Elena Villalón in Recital

On Tuesday, March 15, Vocal Arts DC will present soprano Elena Villalón in recital with pianist Kathleen Kelly. The concert will take place at 7:30pm at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' Terrace Theater. The performance will feature pieces by Hugo Wolf, Jean Sibelius, Edvard Grieg and Sergei Rachmaninov, as well as works by prominent Latinx composers Alberto Ginastera, Fernando Obradors, Ernesto Lecuona and Ruperto Chapí. The concert will also include the premiere of Migrare Mutare, a short cycle of three songs by up-and-coming composer Reinaldo Moya, set to poems by Rossy Evelin Lima. This performance by Ms. Villalón is the 2021-2022 Vocal Arts DC Gerald Perman Fund for Emerging Artists recital. Established in 2013 to honor the 90th birthday of Vocal Arts DC founder Gerald Perman, a lifelong lover of vocal music and champion of emerging artists, the Perman Fund sponsors an annual Washington area solo recital debut by a singer of outstanding talent and potential who has just finished or is about to complete a training or degree-granting program.

Villalón, a Cuban-American soprano from Texas, is currently a third-year studio artist with Houston Grand Opera. A Grand Finals winner of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Villalón most recently took home several prizes in the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, including 2nd Prize, Audience Prize, CS Prize, and the Wil Keune Prize. Her 2021-2022 season features a number of debuts encompassing a variety of both operatic and concert repertoire. Notable opera engagements include house and role debuts at The Dallas Opera as Tina in Flight and at Austin Opera as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, as well as continued collaborations with Houston Grand Opera, where, earlier this winter, she created the role of Amy in the world premiere of Joel Thompson's The Snowy Day. Later this year, in Houston, she will debut the role of Juliette in Roméo et Juliette.

"Villalón is as gifted as any of the extraordinary Perman Emerging Artist Fund recitalists Vocal Arts DC has presented in the nine years that this fund has existed," says Peter Russell, General Director of Vocal Arts DC. "She is unusually passionate in her commitment to both song literature generally and to Latinx composers specifically, above and beyond her love of opera. It is fitting that the extraordinary Kathleen Kelly, Elena's mentor at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, will be her partner in a program that should give attendees bragging rights that "they were there" the night that Elena made her debut in the nation's capital."

Villalón's collaborator on the recital, pianist Kathleen Kelly, is a beloved figure in the opera world as a conductor, mentor and coach. The first woman and first American named as Director of Musical Studies at the Vienna State Opera, Kelly's projects and repertoire are wide-ranging and diverse. From Mozart to commissioned works by her peers, she is both deeply experienced in the classical vocal canon and engaged in new creation.

To ensure health and security, as well as the safety of performers, audience and staff, the Kennedy Center requires proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 and a valid photo ID. Unvaccinated children under 12 years of age and patrons with a medical condition or a closely-held religious belief that prevents vaccination, must provide either proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test conducted no more than 72 hours prior to attending an indoor performance or proof of a professionally administered Antigen test conducted no more than 6 hours prior to attending an indoor performance. Masks are required at all times for all patrons and visitors regardless of vaccination status in all indoor spaces at the Kennedy Center.

Tickets for the concert are $50 and are available at The Kennedy Center Box Office. Run time for the recital is approximately one hour and thirty minutes, including an intermission. Charge by phone at 202-467-4600 and purchase online at: https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/explore-by-genre/vocal-choral-music/2021-2022/vadc-villalon-kelly-r/

Mini-subscriptions comprised of one ticket each to this recital plus Vocal Arts DC's final concert of this season, a recital by mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and composer-pianist Jake Heggie on Wednesday evening, April 6 at 7:30 pm at The Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, are priced at $45 per ticket and are available through the Vocal Arts DC website at VocalArtsDC.org/subscribe

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