Academy Alumni Shrader, Lee
to Perform in Hahn Hall April 8
Free Screening of 'The Audition' March 20
For Immediate Release March 9, 2010
Contact:
Tim Dougherty
805.695.7908
Santa Barbara, CA – Brilliant lyric tenor Alek Shrader will join pianist Keun-A Lee for a recital featuring works by Barber, Mozart, and Liszt, among others, at 7:30 pm Thursday, April 8, in the Music Academy of the West's Hahn Hall. Tickets cost $25. Campus parking is free.
The event is being co-presented by the Music Academy and the Marilyn Horne Foundation as part of the foundation's "On Wings of Song" recital series. Both performers are alumni of the Music Academy, Mr. Shrader having sung the role of bridegroom Dino Corelli in the 2008 Summer Festival production of William Bolcom's opera A Wedding.
Mr. Shrader, who also attended the Music Academy in 2006, made his San Francisco Opera main stage debut this season, replacing an indisposed Ramon Vargas as Nemorino in two performances of L'Elisir d'Amore. Following his triumphant Schwabacher Debut Recital in the Bay Area's Temple Emanu-El last year, San Francisco Classical Voice observed, "everything about this artist is natural and effortless, so different from just about everybody else." Currently an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera, Mr. Shrader also recently performed as Almaviva in Opera Cleveland's production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and returned to Opera Theater of St. Louis (where he made his professional debut) for Mozart's Il Re Pastore. A featured soloist in the 2009 Metropolitan Opera Concert in the Park series, Mr. Shrader made his European debut this season as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at the Grand Theatre de Bordeaux, and appeared as Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Egeo in a new production of Giovanni Simone Mayr's Medea in Corinto, both at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. At the end of the season, Mr. Shrader will make his Santa Fe Opera debut in the title role of Britten's Albert Herring. Upcoming concert appearances will include Messiah with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Mozart Requiem with the Pittsburgh Symphony and St. Louis Symphony. The recipient of a Sarah Tucker grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation, Mr. Shrader was featured in the award-winning documentary film The Audition chronicling the dramatic final week of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions. He was among the winners.
As a prelude to the April 8 Hahn Hall recital, the Music Academy will present a free screening of The Audition at 2 pm Saturday, March 20, in Hahn Hall. Doors open at 1:30 pm and patrons will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis. Among the film's highlights is Mr. Shrader singing nine high C's in Donizetti's "Ah, mes amis," the same fiendishly difficult aria that helped propel Pavarotti to stardom.
Following her debut at Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Korea in 1998, Ms. Lee has focused her career on collaborative performances. She has performed at such halls as San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House, New York's Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Chicago's Preston Bradley Hall, Toronto Centre for the Arts, the Hochschule für Musik Detmold in Germany, and Korea's Seoul Arts Center. She has also served as a vocal pianist at the Ravinia Festival and as an apprentice coach for San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program. Ms. Lee attended the Music Academy in 2006.
For additional information, call 969-8787.
Founded in 1947, the Music Academy of the West is among the nation's preeminent summer schools and festivals for gifted young classical musicians. The Academy provides these promising musicians with the opportunity for advanced study and frequent performance under the guidance of internationally renowned faculty artists, guest conductors, and soloists. Admission to the Academy is strictly merit based, and Fellows receive full scholarships (tuition, room, and board). Academy alumni are members of major symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras, ensembles, opera companies, and university and conservatory faculties throughout the world. Many enjoy careers as prominent solo artists. Based in Santa Barbara, the Music Academy of the West presents more than 200 public events annually, including performances by faculty, visiting artists, and Fellows; masterclasses; orchestra and chamber music concerts; and fully staged opera. The Music Academy began screening live performances by the world-renowned Metropolitan Opera at Hahn Hall in October 2008. For more information, visit www.musicacademy.org.
