ONLINE PERFORMANCE
Due to the continued uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, with the safety of the artists and audience members as its top priority, CAIC is strategizing to bring its 20 / 21 Season performances and educational events online.
This performance will be broadcast on April 30, 2021 on Facebook and on the CAIC website at 7pm. Following the premiere broadcast, the performance will be available for on-demand streaming through May 2, 2021, free of charge.
Due to the continued uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, with the safety of the artists and audience members as its top priority, CAIC is strategizing to bring its 20 / 21 Season performances and educational events online.
This performance will be broadcast on April 30, 2021 on Facebook and on the CAIC website at 7pm. Following the premiere broadcast, the performance will be available for on-demand streaming through May 2, 2021, free of charge.
ARTISTS |
Anna Laurenzo, mezzo-soprano & Vocal Chamber Music Fellow
Shannon McGinnis, piano |
This Lieder Lounge recital is a special showcase of the 20 | 21 Vocal Chamber Music Fellow, Anna Laurenzo.
For more information about this unique fellowship opportunity, please click the button below:
For more information about this unique fellowship opportunity, please click the button below:
PROGRAM |
HECTOR BERLIOZ: Les nuits d'été
CÉCILE CHAMINADE: selected songs PAULINE VIARDOT: selected songs KURT WEILL: selected songs |
ARTIST
BIOGRAPHIES
ANNA LAURENZO,
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Noted for her “lovely tone and convincing dramatic arc” mezzo-soprano and CAIC Vocal Chamber Music Fellow Anna Laurenzo has gained experience in a wide range of repertoire over her diverse career. In the spring of 2020, Ms. Laurenzo made her Off-Broadway debut understudying the role of Mrs. Van Buren and singing in the ensemble of the world premiere of Intimate Apparel at the Lincoln Center Theater by Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage (postponed due to COVID19.) Additional recent engagements include, Janáček's The Diary of One Who Disappeared, a role and company debut as Dorabella in Così fan tutte with the Glacier Symphony followed by Dorabella with the Metropolitan Opera Guild and her Fall 2019 return to Chicago Opera Theater, performing the role of Meg Weathers in the Chicago premiere of Everest.
A passionate interpreter of art song, Ms. Laurenzo has joined the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago as their Vocal Chamber Music Fellow for the 2020-21 season, featured in their Fall Festival virtual programming, as well as making appearances in future events yet to be announced. In the Summer of 2020, she was proud to be an Inaugural Vocal Fellow with the Crested Butte Music Festival. The 2018-19 season saw her join LOFTrecital for The Rose and the Knife, a provocative staging of Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été and the Center for Contemporary Opera for Joel Feigin’s Outcast at the Gate. Ms. Laurenzo also joined the roster of Chicago Opera Theater as the cover for the role of Brother in Stefan Weisman and David Cote's critically acclaimed The Scarlet Ibis in the work's Chicago premiere and the spring of 2019, Ms. Laurenzo made her Carnegie Hall debut under the auspices of MidAmerica Productions as the mezzo soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria and Haydn’s Mariazeller Mass. Within the standard operatic repertoire, Ms. Laurenzo has most recently performed Mercédès in Carmen and covered Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, both with Fort Worth Opera. She has also been heard and seen as Pedrillo in a rare mounting of Telemann's Don Quichotte, Farnace in Mozart's adventurous early work Mitridate, re di Ponto, Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Ida in Die Fledermaus, Emma Jones in Street Scene, and Paquette in Candide. Noted for her performance of contemporary American works, Ms. Laurenzo is a veteran of multiple world premiere productions. Her collaborations with composers have included work with Carlisle Floyd, Jeff Myers, Scott Wheeler, David T. Little, and Libby Larsen. During her recent two-season residency with Fort Worth Opera as a Lesley Apprentice Artist, Ms. Laurenzo participated in the company's new works initiative Frontiers as well as workshops of Libby Larsen's A Wrinkle in Time and David T. Little's JFK. She went on to cover the role of Jackie Kennedy in the Fort Worth Opera world premiere production of JFK and also performed in the company's 2016 and 2017 festival seasons as GPS in Patrick Soluri's Embedded, the Undertaker in Jeff Myers' Buried Alive, and Alycia Simpson in Matthew Peterson's Voir Dire. Ms. Laurenzo made her initial appearances within the New York City classical performance scene in the autumn of 2017. She was heard in performances with New York Theatre Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, and the American Opera Society. Ms. Laurenzo has been recognized on the vocal competition circuit, most recently winning the New York district of the 2018 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 2017 she was second place winner for the Fielder Grant, and in 2016 she won an encouragement award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, was honored as a finalist for the American Prize, and competed as a semi-finalist in the Opera Birmingham competition. |
SHANNON MCGINNIS,
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Pianist and CAIC Director of Education Shannon McGinnis has been recognized for her partnerships with some of the brightest stars in the classical vocal music world. Her playing has been described as “excellent” (Opera News), “strong and supportive” (Chicago Tribune), and “boldly projected, characterful, and delicately nuanced” (Chicago Classical Review). Recent season highlights include appearances with mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson-Cano, as part of the 2018 Collaborative Works Festival, recitals with baritone Michael Kelly and soprano Melody Moore, and multiple live broadcasts on WFMT with tenor Nicholas Phan. 2019-2020 brought a series of concerts, including three world premieres, with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society’s “Emerging Voices” series, featuring sopranos Joélle Harvey and Sarah Shafer, mezzo-sopranos Amanda Lynn Bottoms and Corinne Winters, tenor Nicholas Phan, and baritones Douglas Williams and Roderick Williams.
A passionate advocate for art song, McGinnis is a founder of Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, where, as Director of Education, she oversees a series of master classes and workshops for singers and pianists, as well as the organization’s Vocal Chamber Music Fellowship. Also at home in the world of opera, McGinnis has held internships and appointments with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, DePaul University Opera Theater, DuPage Opera, and Kentucky Opera. In 2015 she served as vocal coach and ensemble pianist for the world-premiere performances of Matthew AuCoin’s Second Nature, presented by Lyric Opera of Chicago and “Lyric Unlimited”, and has served recently as an official pianist for the Joyce DiDonato Master Classes at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. In 2015 McGinnis joined the faculty of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where she serves as Assistant Teaching Professor of Diction and Vocal Coaching. In addition to her regular teaching responsibilities at CCPA, she has taught a popular graduate seminar on the topic of modern and contemporary American art song; in fall 2020 she will inaugurate a seminar exploring folk song and identity. McGinnis serves as head vocal coach for “Prague Summer Nights”, a four-week opera and orchestra festival based in the Czech Republic and comprised of young artists from across the globe, culminating in performances at the historic Estates Theatre. In addition, McGinnis is a co-creator of RISE (Resound: Immersive Song Experience), a tuition-free program for emerging artist-entrepreneurs hosted by the Crested Butte Music Festival; RISE enjoyed its inaugural season, remotely, in summer 2020. Prior to moving to Chicago in 2006, McGinnis held the position of Assistant Professor of Piano and Coordinator of Accompanying at Truman State University. She was awarded the Doctor of Musical Arts in Accompanying and Chamber Music from the University of Michigan, as a student of Martin Katz, and is a recipient of the 2017 Emerging Artist Award in Music, given by the School of Music Theatre and Dance Alumni Society Board of Governors. |
all performance and master class photography by Ryan Bennett, Mike Grittani, and Elliot Mandel