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 it's 20 / 21 Season performances and educational events online.
This performance will be broadcast on June 4, 2021 on Facebook and on the CAIC website at 7pm. Following the premiere broadcast, the performance will be available for on-demand streaming through June 6, 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 it's 20 / 21 Season performances and educational events online.
This performance will be broadcast on June 4, 2021 on Facebook and on the CAIC website at 7pm. Following the premiere broadcast, the performance will be available for on-demand streaming through June 6, 2021, free of charge.
ARTISTS |
Kelley O'Connor, mezzo-soprano
Brian Locke, piano |
PROGRAM |
EDVARD GRIEG: selected songs
FRANCIS POULENC: selected songs ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG: Zwei Gesänge, Op. 1 ROBERT SPANO: new settings of poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke (program subject to change) |
ARTIST
BIOGRAPHIES
KELLEY O'CONNOR,
|
Possessing a voice of uncommon allure, the Grammy® Award-winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor has emerged as one of the most compelling performers of her generation. She is internationally acclaimed equally in the pillars of the classical music canon – from Beethoven and Mahler to Brahms and Ravel –as she is in new works of modern masters – from Adams and Dessner to Lieberson and Talbot.
Kelley O’Connor joins Alan Gilbert for his inaugural performances as Chief Conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester in Bernstein’s “Jeremiah” Symphony. Other highlights of the artist’s impressive 2019-20 season include Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Saint Louis Symphony and Lieberson’s Neruda Songswith the Philadelphia Orchestra, both under the baton of Stéphane Denève, Adams’ El Niño with David Robertson leading the Houston Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Jun Märkl and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Krzysztof Urbański, both with the Indianapolis Symphony, and Korngold’s Abschiedsliederwith Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Mahler’s Eighth Symphony brings Kelley O’Connor together with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony and with the San Francisco Symphony for Michael Tilson Thomas’ final concerts as Music Director. John Adams wrote the title role of The Gospel According to the Other Mary for Kelley O’Connor and she has performed the work, both in concert and in the Peter Sellars fully staged production, under the batons of John Adams, Gustavo Dudamel, Grant Gershon, Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Simon Rattle, and David Robertson. She has sung the composer’s El Niño with Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra and continues to be the eminent living interpreter of Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs having given this moving set of songs with Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra, with Bernard Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with Robert Spano and the Minnesota Orchestra, and with David Zinman and the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich among many others. Operatic highlights include the title role of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia presented by Boston Lyric Opera in a new production by Broadway theater director Sarna Lapine conducted by David Angus, Carmen with Los Angeles Opera conducted by James Conlon, Donizetti’s Anna Bolena at the Lyric Opera of Chicago conducted by Patrick Summers and directed by Kevin Newbury, Madama Butterfly in a new production by Lillian Groag at the Boston Lyric Opera and at the Cincinnati Opera under the baton of Ramón Tebar, Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict at Opera Boston, Falstaff with the Santa Fe Opera, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Canadian Opera Company. Her vivid recital career includes performances in Boston with Thomas Adès in a program of Brahms, Purcell, and Stravinsky, in Chicago offering works of Debussy, Massenet, and Chausson, in Cincinnati with pianist Louis Langrée in programs of Brahms and Ravel, and in Jackson Hole with the music of Brahms and Bernstein in a collaboration with Donald Runnicles. |
BRIAN LOCKE,
|
Brian Locke is an American pianist, organist, coach, and répétiteur whose career spans throughout academia, opera, concertizing, and church music. Having been called "a stand out" (The Whole Note, Toronto), he has appeared before discerning audiences in cities and venues in North America and Europe. Brian has performed with the Atlanta Community Symphony Orchestra, the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, and has coached operatic repertoire with companies including Opera Birmingham, Opera in the Ozarks, and recently joined Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Music Director of the Artists-in-Residence. Brian is active in church music, currently serving as Associate Director of Music and Parish Organist at St. Mary's Episcopal, Park Ridge, IL. He has previously served at parishes throughout the American South and Midwest, namely St. James' Cathedral, Chicago; the Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta; and Trinity Cathedral, Columbia, South Carolina. Brian directs the Handel Week Festival Chorus (Oak Park, IL) and has been reductionist with Bach Week Festival Chorus (Evanston, IL) since 2014. Moreover, Mr. Locke’s specialty lies in chamber music and repertoire for the voice, increasingly in demand by instrumentalists and singers to coach and perform with him in this specialized niche.
Brian Locke has served on the music faculty at Loyola University, Chicago and the Interlochen Center for the Arts; as coach/pianist at DePaul and Northwestern Universities; and Mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor, Tenor Marco Panuccio, Musicians from the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and Artists with the Ryan Center of the Lyric Opera of Chicago are among his regular partners. He has frequented festivals as performer and pedagogue throughout the United States and Canada including Brevard, Heifetz, Interlochen, Southeastern, and Toronto Summer Music and has sat on the jury for the Arthur Frasier International Piano Competition. He is a member of the artist roster with the Piatigorsky Foundation and is a member of the Association of Anglican Musicians. Former teachers and mentors include Katherine Collier, Barry Snyder, André Watts, Douglas Weeks, and Oxana Yablonskaya, and he holds degrees from the University of South Carolina (BM) and the University of Michigan (MM), from which his primary teachers are Marina Lomazov and Martin Katz - www.lockepiano.com |
all performance and master class photography by Elliot Mandel