The Great American Songbook, Classically Speaking

About the Artists

Leah Crocetto

Described by the New York Times as possessing an “agile coloratura technique and a feeling for the Italianate style... with warmth, full penetrating sound and tenderness,” soprano Leah Crocetto continues to astonish audiences with her moving portrayals of opera’s greatest heroines. The 2022/23 season begins with her San Diego Symphony debut in Verdi’s breathtaking Requiem under the baton of Rafael Payare. She also returns to the Sydney Opera House for Opera Australia’s Aida and debuts the fiendish role of Odabella in Attila at Teatro Petruzelli. In recital, she will appear at the Butler School of Music in Austin, Texas, where she is currently on faculty as a lecturer in vocal arts. Hook ‘em Horns! Leah Crocetto also tours with her newly founded trio Momenti, featuring bass-baritone Christian Pursell and pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg, for their first concerts in San Francisco, Napa, and her native Adrian, Michigan. Aiming to create unique and empowering music, performing genre-less, yet extensive, rich, and innovative repertoire, they released their first EP on February 10, 2023.   

Donnie Ray Albert

Donnie Ray Albert is a regular guest of opera companies and symphony orchestras around the world, including numerous appearances with Opera Pacific, Houston Grand Opera, and opera houses across the U.S., Canada and Europe. He is a resident artist with the Center for Black Music Research at Chicago’s Columbia College. Mr. Albert may be heard on RCA’s Grammy Award and Grand Prix du Disque winning recording of Porgy and Bess, NOW’s recording of The Horse I Ride Has Wings with David Garvey on piano, EMI’s Frühlingsbegräbnis and Eine Florentinesche Tragodie by Zemlinsky conducted by James Conlon, and Simon Sargon’s A Clear Midnight on the Gasparo label.

James Maverick

James Maverick is lecturer in music in voice and collaborative piano at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He was previously head of music staff at Cincinnati Opera, Since 2020, he has been music staff and Assistant Chorus Master at Cincinnati Opera, and has also been music staff at Austin Opera since 2023. He was chorus master and keyboardist for productions of Les pêcheurs des perles and Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, where he was also a Resident Artist from 2017-2019. While in Kansas City, he served on the coaching faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory. He has prepared workshops of new operas through Austin Opera's LatinX Residency, Cincinnati's Opera Fusion: New Works program, and Opera Philadelphia. served on the collaborative piano and opera faculty at The University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory. He has previously been a fellow with Wolf Trap Opera, the Merola Opera Program, and the Tanglewood Music Center. He holds degrees in piano performance, choral conducting, and collaborative piano from Lawrence University and Indiana University.

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Upcoming Events

PATRICK HUGHES, horn & COLETTE VALENTINE, piano
Monday, September 28, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

STEVEN BRENNFLECK, tenor & RICK ROWLEY, piano
Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin
Monday, October 5, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

ANTON NEL & FRIENDS
Monday, October 12, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

Butler Opera Center Presents
I CAPULETI E I MONTECCHI
October 16, 18, 23 & 25
McCullough Theatre
 

Butler Opera Center Presents
MOZART EVERLASTING
Scenes from beloved Mozart operas celebrating his 250th birthday
Free Admission
December 2 & 3, 7:00 p.m.
McCullough Theatre
 

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