Previous Events
Anthology of Zarzuela
with
Ilya Martinez (soprano), Angel Feliciano (tenor)
Rafael LeBron (baritone), Josh Oxford (piano)
8pm Saturday
September 20, 2008
Center for the Arts
72 S. Main Street
Homer, NY
HOMER, NY
At 8pm on Saturday, September 20, a group of world-renowned singers/actors, will present a program of scenes from zarzuelas of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries at the Center for the Arts in Homer, NY. This will be done in collaboration with professional musicians from Cortland and Tompkins Counties, as well as dancers from the Syracuse area.
A zarzuela is a blend of Spanish language musical ensembles and arias; verse and prose dialogue; songs, comedy and dance.This performance will be a rare opportunity to hear zarzuela performed live in Central New York. Guest singers, soprano Ilya Martinez, tenor Angel Feliciano, and baritone Rafael LeBron, will present excerpts from the zarzuelas: Luisa Fernanda, Dona Francesquita, Verbena de la Paloma and El Barbillo de Lavapies.
Martinez, Feliciano and LeBron will be accompanied by Josh Oxford, piano, and the Central New York Concert Choir, which is comprised of students from area colleges. The choir will be performing arrangements by Dr. Stephen B. Wilson of SUNY Cortland, of several zarzuela choruses. Soprano Gina Sikora and baritone Don Davis, both of Cortland, will also perform solos and duets. Dances will be performed by La Joven Guardia del teatro y la danza Latina (The Latino Theater Dance Youth Troupe) from Syracuse, directed and choreographed by José Miguel Angel Hernández.
Ilya Martinez, soprano, studied at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Manhattan School of Music in New York. Her debut in Lincoln Center's Avery Fischer Hall was in Orff's Carmina Burana with Mid-America Productions. She sings regularly with a number of groups, including: Thalia Spanish Theater, the Puerto Rico Symphony, Amigos de la Zarzuela and Spanish Lyric Theater.She was recently awarded the "Medaille D'Argent" by the Academie des Arts, Sciences et Lettres in Paris.
Angel Luis Feliciano, tenor, described as having a beautiful lyric voice was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Puerto Rican parents. His vocal training commenced with the late Katherine Gardella. He is a graduate of the Harbor Performing Arts Center in New York, where he earned a master degree in music and continues to study voice with Siri Rico Berenstein. He began his career singing zarzuelas with various companies in the New York area under the direction of Pablo Zinger, Silvia Brito and others.
Rafael LeBron, baritone, obtained his education and degrees from the University of Puerto Rico and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. As a winner in the American Opera Auditions, he made his European debut in France with the Cincinnati Opera in Puccini's La Boheme. Presently, his repertoire includes eighty-five roles in opera, operetta, zarzuela and musical theater, in roles that range from romantic to comical and tragic, as well as a myriad of villans.
In addition to the Saturday 8pm performance, the guest singers will present a workshop for local high school and college Spanish students at the Homer Center for the Arts on Thursday morning, September 18. They will discuss--entirely in Spanish--the history, the musical variety, and the cultural significance of zarzuela to Hispanic culture. They will also perform several selections from the Saturday concert. This event will be free to all invited students and teachers.
This concert is made possible by a NYSCA Decentralization Grant, administered by the Cultural Resources Council of Onondaga County. Additional support was obtained from the New York State Music Fund, establish by the Attorney General at the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Tickets to the Saturday 8pm performance are $10 general admission, $5 for students. Tickets can be purchased at Jodi's Hallmark or Mando's Books, both on Main Street in Cortland, NY, or at the door. For further information, see the website ZarzuelaCNY.Org or call Gina Sikora at (607) 758-3670.
Directions
- Take Interstate 81 to Exit 12
- Follow signs to Downtown Homer
- At bottom of exit ramp, turn left on Main Street.
- The Center for the Arts is on the left on the corner of Cayuga and Main Streets.
