Featured Artists

• February 9 & 10–Tucson Symphony Orchestra, “Siegfried Idyll” and “Wesendonck”, Wagner; “Leonore Overture No. 3″ and Abscheulicher from “Fidelio”, Beethoven
• February 15 & 17–Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Verdi’s “Requiem”
• An item in Opera News declared, “When Amber
  Wagner sings, her voice pours out big, beautiful
  arcs of sound, making the operas of Wagner, Verdi
  and Richard Strauss seem like a natural fit for her.”
  Indeed, in just a few years the soprano has quickly
  made her mark in the music of those composers. In
  the past few seasons, she has become especially closely
  identified with title role in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos.
  A winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National
  Council Auditions Grand Finals, she was featured in
  the documentary film “The Audition”, which opened
  nationwide in 2009.  The Lyric Opera of Chicago has
  been her unofficial artistic home base, but the past
  couple of seasons have also found her on opera stages
  in Spain, Germany and Canada, as well as New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

February 15-17  Passionately Piazzolla  at Temple of Music and Art

French-born, Argentine-based guitarist and singer
Brian Chambouleyron has performed the folk and
popular music of South America in award-winning
shows since the 1990s. He has given more than
100 performances of his Short History of Tango,
commissioned by the Buenos Aires Ministry of
Education and Department of Music. His first solo
CD featured tangos of Carlos Gardel, and he has published a book of tangos for guitar.

February 15 & 17–Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Verdi’s “Requiem”

New Jersey-born and bred tenor James Valenti has
made his reputation in the last few years portraying
the romantic heroes of Italian and French opera.
He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2010 as
nothing less than the mercurial lover Alfredo in Verdi’s
La Traviata, opposite Angela Gheorghiu and Thomas
Hampson; five years earlier, he’d taken on the same
role opposite Anna Netrebko at the Salzburg Festival.
He was the 2010 winner of the Richard Tucker Award,
having already gotten under his belt the lead tenor
roles in La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto, Faust,
and Lucia di Lammermoor.

February 15 & 17–Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Verdi’s “Requiem”

Jill Grove has taken on most of the important
mezzo-soprano roles in the core German and
Italian opera repertory, including a Woody Allen-directed
production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi.
Her recent appearances with symphony orchestras
include performances of the Brahms Alto Rhapsody,
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Handel’s Messiah,
the latter in a performance under the baton of Trevor
Pinnock. Among her many recordings and videos are
performances in Un Ballo in Maschera, Peter Grimes,
Die Meistersinger, and La Cenerentola.

• February 8, 9 & 10–Tucson Chamber Artists, “Petite Messe Solennelle”, Rossini
• Soprano Maria Jette’s wide-ranging career has
  encompassed everything from early Baroque opera
  to world premieres, in the United States and abroad.
  She describes herself as an ecumenical recitalist; her
  programs range from songs of Grieg or Fauré through
  Edwardian parlor music and Latin American chamber
  music, liberally interspersed with Tin Pan Alley and
  the Great American Songbook. She has performed in
  her own productions of Rob Kapilow’s Dr. Seuss inspired
  Green Eggs and Ham, and Gertrude McFuzz for
  more than 50,000 kids throughout the country, with
  pit bands, symphony orchestras, and even just piano
  and train whistle.

February 15 & 17–Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Verdi’s “Requiem”

A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann
Young Artist Development Program, bass Morris
Robinson made his debut at the Met in its production
of Fidelio. He has since appeared there as Sarastro in
The Magic Flute (both in the German original and the
new children’s English version), the King in Aida, and
in roles in Nabucco, Tannhäuser, and new productions
of Les Troyens and Salome. As a concert singer, he has
performed with the Chicago Symphony and many
other North American orchestras. His recent stage
credits include the Chicago Lyric Opera production of
Show Boat, in which he appeared with Nathan Gunn.

February 14–UApresents – Schumann’s Dichterliebe and songs by Schubert, Barber, Ives and Bolcom

In an appearance on The Colbert Report, Nathan
Gunn had to answer Stephen Colbert’s claim that the
baritone was sending the wrong message by singing
opera without a shirt. Gunn’s subsequent presence
on People magazine’s list of the sexiest men alive has
distracted casual observers from the acclaim he has
won solely on the basis of his singing and acting at
most of America’s and Europe’s leading opera houses.
He may be most familiar from singing Papageno in
the Met broadcast of Julie Taymor’s production of The
Magic Flute, but he has also created roles in many new
operas, including An American Tragedy, Man on the
Moon (as Buzz Aldrin), and Love and Other Demons. A
devoted recitalist, he often appears in concert with his pianist-wife, Julie.

February 8, 9 & 10–Tucson Chamber Artists, “Petite Messe Solennelle”, Rossini

At age 6, Philip Brunelle asked for a score of Handel’s Messiah for Christmas, thus sealing his fate as one of America’s leading choirmasters. In 1969, he founded the Minnesota ensemble now known as VocalEssence, and remains its artistic director, while also guest conducting many of the nation’s major choirs and orchestras. He has received awards and honors for his longtime advocacy of choral music in the United States, Mexico, Hungary, Sweden, the U.K., and his  home state of Minnesota. He played piano on the very first episode of A Prairie Home Companion in 1974, and has frequently been involved in that show’s choral and vocal features ever since.