Kelly Kuo, piano
Adriana Zabala, mezzo soprano
Andrew Garland, baritone
This performance is made possible by support from the Center for American Music.
Program
Warning for young listeners: This program contains some mature language.
David Conte
Everyone Sang
Jared W. Hedges
Nellie Bly at Blackwell Island
Dominick Argento
A Few Words About Chekhov
Scott Gendel
Enlightenment
Sam Krahn
Missed Connections
Gabriel Kahane
Craigslistlieder
Edie Hill
To a Stranger (world premiere)
Biographies
Mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala enjoys a vibrant career that spans performance and recording of new opera, song, and concert works, as well beloved operatic roles, traditional concert and oratorio works, German Lieder, French Mélodie, and American and Spanish song. In addition to an extensive repertoire of traditional works, Ms. Zabala is a champion of new music: in opera, concert, and song. For her recording with composer and pianist Gregg Kallor, Exhilaration: Dickinson and Yeats Songs, Opera News Online says, "Kallor has found a wonderful exponent in Adriana Zabala, a gifted, agile mezzo-soprano. Kallor knows how to make these words sing, and Zabala gives perfect flight to them. Singing with uncommon clarity and natural beauty, she seems to be deep inside both the poems and Kallor's musical realizations." The duo has performed these songs at Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall, on the Carnegie Room Series in Nyack, NY, in the Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis, and on the Salzburg International Chamber Music Series in Austria. With baritone Matthew Worth, she will give the premiere of Kallor's new song cycle at New York City's Subculture in spring of 2015.
Ms. Zabala has been seen on the stages of The Seattle Opera, The Minnesota Opera, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Wolf Trap Opera, the Wildwood Festival, The Syracuse Opera, the Arizona Opera, the Atlanta Opera, the Lyric Opera of San Antonio, Opera Carolina, the Lake George Opera, Opera Pacific, and Utah Opera, among others. Her most frequently performed traditional roles are Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the title role in Rossini's La Cenerentola, and Cherubino in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. Other career highlights include many appearances with the New York Festival of Song, soloist at the Caramoor International Music Festival with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, alto soloist with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with Bryn Terfel as Elijah, recitals in the Barns at Wolf Trap, the The Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage, The Dallas Museum of Art, Ventford Hall in Lenox, MA, and in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Ms.Zabala made her European debut under the late Maestro Lorin Maazel as Mercedes in Carmen at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain and returned for the same role and as the Page in Salome with Maestro Zubin Mehta.
Adriana Zabala was raised in Miami, Caracas, Venezuela, and Lake Jackson, Texas. She earned her undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University, was a Fulbright Scholar in Salzburg, Austria, studying German Lieder at the Mozarteum and earned her masters degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She was an Artist Resident for two seasons with the Minnesota Opera, was a Young Artist with the Seattle Opera, and is an alumna of the apprentice programs at the Berkshire Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, and the Wolf Trap Opera Company.
Professor Zabala is a proud member of the voice faculty at the University of Minnesota, where in addition to her thriving studio, she teaches graduate vocal literature, administrates a program of collaboration between the Minnesota Opera and the University of Minnesota, teaches a Freshman Seminar titled Shakespeare in Film and Music, and a May Session Global Seminar, Vive les Arts!, in Paris. Ms. Zabala is managed by Ana de Archuleta at ADA Artist Management & Representation in New York City. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two daughters.
Baritone Andrew Garland is widely recognized as a leader in recital work with dozens of performances around the country including Carnegie Hall with pianist Warren Jones and programs of modern American songs all over the Unites States and in Canada. Jones, Marilyn Horne, Steven Blier, a number of American composers, and several major music publications all endorse him as a highly communicative singer leading the way for the song recital into the 21st century. He brings his highly communicative style to the concert stage with orchestras including the Atlanta Symphony, Boston Baroque, The Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Youth Symphony, National Philharmonic, Albany Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Washington Master Chorale at the Kennedy Center and National Chorale at Lincoln Center.
Garland is a regular with the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) and has given multiple recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Ravinia festival, Vocal Arts DC, Marilyn Horne Foundation, The Bard Festival, Camerata Pacifica, Andre-Turp Society in Montreal, Voce at Pace, Huntsville Chamber Music Guild, Fort Worth Opera, Seattle Opera, Fanfare in Hammond, LA, Cincinnati Matinee Musicale, Cincinnati Song Initiative, Tuesday Morning Music Club and dozens of college music series around the country. In 2014, he was the featured recitalist for the NATS National convention where that organization’s president declared him “the next Thomas Hampson.”
Particularly suited for baroque repertoire, Garland has sung numerous performances with Boston Baroque, The Handel and Haydn Society, and the Colorado Bach Ensemble and sang in Cincinnati Opera’s first Baroque production (La Calisto). He has also soloed with Emmanuel Music in Boston. Garland is the winner of the Lavinia Jensen, NATSAA, Washington International, American Traditions, NATS and Opera Columbus Competition and was a prize winner in the Montreal International, Jose Iturbi, Gerda Lissner, McCammon and Palm Beach International Competitions. He was an apprentice at the San Francisco Opera Center and the Seattle Opera and Cincinnati Opera Young Artists programs.
His latest solo CD American Portraits, with Donna Loewy, piano went to Number 1 on Amazon classical. Garland has five other recordings on the Telarc, Naxos, Roven Records and Azica Labels. In addition to sustaining a busy performance schedule, Garland has recently joined the voice faculty at The University of Colorado-Boulder.