| April
5 , 2007
The Maryland Symphony Orchestra’s 25th Anniversary Season
Finale Features An Acclaimed Roster of Special Guests in Orff’s
Choral Masterpiece “Carmina Burana”
The Maryland Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Elizabeth Schulze
will present “An Elegant Evening of Berlioz and Brahms”
on March 24 at 8:00 pm and March 25
at 3:00 pm at the historic Maryland Theater in downtown
Hagerstown. The fourth concert in the MSO’s 2006-2007 Masterworks
Series, the performance includes Symphony No. 1 in C
minor, Op. 68 by Johannes Brahms and the Overture
from Hector Berlioz’s Beatrice et Benedict. Nationally-acclaimed
mezzo soprano Susanne Mentzer joins the MSO to perform
Berlioz’s deeply emotional song cycle Les Nuits d’Ete.
Introduced to opera as a teenage usher in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Susanne
Mentzer has become one of today’s foremost mezzo-sopranos. A
rare performer with equal vocal and acting gifts, she is widely admired
as a specialist in trouser roles, most notably for her portrayals
of Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro and Der Komponist in Ariadne
auf Naxos. She also specializes in the music of Mozart, Strauss,
and the Bel Canto repertoire. Ms. Mentzer enjoys a significant concert
and recital career, with a particular interest in chamber music, and
is known as an interpreter of the vocal works of Mahler and a proponent
of women’s music. She has appeared with the great opera companies
and orchestras in North America and Europe, the Teatro Colón
in Buenos Aires, and on tour to Japan with the Metropolitan Opera,
the Bavarian State Opera, and Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart
Festival
As a respected interpreter of the music of Berlioz, Susanne Mentzer
participated in the recent bicentennial celebrations with performances
of Romeo et Juliette and Béatrice et Bénédict
with the New York Philharmonic under the batons of Lorin Maazel and
Sir Colin Davis. She also appeared as Mary in L’enfance
du Christ with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles
Philharmonic and sang Les nuits d’été
with three different orchestras (the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Indianapolis
Symphony Orchestra, and the IRIS Orchestra). In 2005 she sang the
role of Marguerite in concert performances of Berlioz’s La
Damnation de Faust with both the New York Philharmonic
and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Mentzer’s extensive discography includes two Haydn rarities:
the opera L'Isola Disabitata (Costanza) and the dramatic
cantata Arianna a Naxos on Arabesque; Mozart's Le nozze
di Figaro (Cherubino) with Sir Charles Mackerras for Telarc;
Idomeneo with Sir Colin Davis for Philips Classics; Mozart's
Don Giovanni (Zerlina) with Riccardo Muti and Rossini's Il
barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina) for EMI; Donizetti's Anna Bolena
(Jane Seymour) with Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge on Decca,
Gounod's Faust (Siebel) with the Welsh National Opera for
Teldec, and Rossini's Petit Messe Solenelle and Il Turco
in Italia conducted by Sir Neville Marriner on Philips; and Grammy
nominated recording of Arlecchino by Busoni. Susanne Mentzer
appeared on PBS broadcasts Live from the Met in productions
of Le Nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Ariadne
auf Naxos, and on the James Levine 25th Anniversary Concert.
She was featured as Artist of the Week on the A&E Network series
Breakfast with the Arts. She can be seen on DVD in Don
Giovanni from Teatro alla Scala and Les Contes d’Hoffmann
from the Opéra de Paris.
In addition to her active performance career, Ms. Mentzer has been
appointed Professor of Voice at Rice University’s Shepherd School
of Music and is currently Associate Professor of Voice at the DePaul
University School of Music in Chicago and is on the faculty of the
Aspen Music Festival and School. Ms. Mentzer is a board member of
the William M. Sullivan Foundation, which awards study grants to young
singers, and organized the annual Jubilate benefit concert to support
Chicago's Bonaventure House, a residence for people living with AIDS.
Born in Philadelphia and raised in Maryland and New Mexico Ms. Mentzer
began her studies in music therapy at the University of the Pacific
and later transferred to the Juilliard School where she received her
Bachelor and Master degrees. She honed her craft in the Houston Grand
Opera Studio and studies voice with Norma Newton. Ms. Mentzer resides
in the Chicago area with her teenage son.
The Maryland Symphony Orchestra Guild is the Celebration
Sponsor for “An Elegant Evening of Berlioz and Brahms. The MSO
is also supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council,
an agency funded by the State of Maryland and the National Endowment
for the Arts.
Ticket prices for the March 24 and 25 performances range from $21
to $79 and are available at the MSO Box Office at 30 West Washington
Street in downtown Hagerstown, or at 301-797-4000. Student and group
discounts are available. Information about the concert, musical selections
and audio program notes are available at www.marylandsymphony.org
The Maryland Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Elizabeth
Schulze, is currently celebrating its twenty-fifth season as the area’s
premiere professional orchestra, dedicated to providing musical performances
and programs that educate and entertain while enhancing the cultural
environment of Western Maryland and the quad-state region.
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