Works In Progress – Midtown Arts Common

WORKS IN PROGRESS
Excerpts from three new operas about faith, hope and love.

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS

William David Cooper is an award winning composer of opera, orchestral, chamber and choral music. His operas have been featured by Fort Worth Opera, West Edge Opera, the National Opera Association, and Operation Opera at the University of Michigan. A graduate of the Juilliard School, and UC Davis, he serves on the music faculty of the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and is organist and choirmaster at St. James Episcopal Church in New London, CT.

Eun Young Lee has worked with many ensembles including the New York Music Ensemble, eighth blackbird, Pacifica String Quartet and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Holding degrees from the University of Chicago, the Manhattan School of Music, and Ewha Womans University, she serves on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and was a visiting faculty member at Tufts University.

Dr. Bálint Karosi has served as Cantor at Saint Peter’s Church since 2015. In 2016 he founded the Bach Collegium to facilitate historically informed performances of J.S. Bach’s cantatas and passions in a worship setting. Cantor Karosi is the first prizewinner of the prestigious J.S. Bach Competition in Leipzig, as well as the Dublin International and Miami International competitions. He is the recipient of the 2014 Charles Ives Scholarship by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has recorded four CDs, released on the Hungaroton and Dulcian labels, including The Art of Fugue and the Clavier-Übung III by Bach, and an album of his own compositions. Cantor Karosi studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, the Conservatoire de Genève, the Oberlin Conservatory, and earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition at Yale University.

ABOUT THE SINGERS

Known for her soaring voice and richly nuanced characters, soprano Carrie Hennessey is consistently thrilling audiences and critics in opera and concert appearances around the world. She has sung in venues across the world,

including the Houston Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Oakland Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, the Concertgebouw in Bruges, the International Mahler Festival in Jihlava, Czech Republic, Sacramento Opera and West Edge Opera. Ms. Hennessey continues to give master classes in the communities in which she works and keeps a busy vocal studio in Northern California.

Critically acclaimed bass singer Paul An has sung with the Metropolitan Opera, the opera companies of Orlando, Aspen, Nashville, and Palm Beach, the London Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, National Symphony orchestra, and the Brooklyn Art Song Society. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Paul served as a Staff Sergeant in the United States Army, where he performed for many dignitaries and presidents of the United States.

Program

Hagar and Ishmael - Act 1 - Scene 3 -- William David Cooper

Soo and Hyun - Soo's Call Home -- Eun Young Lee

Lonely Hearts - Biro and Pamela Duet -- Bálint Karosi

Hagar and Ishmael - Act 2 - Scene 1 - Hagar's Aria - "Sixteen years ago" -- William David Cooper

Soo and Hyun - Hyun's Aria -- Eun Young Lee

Hagar and Ishmael - Excerpt from Act 2 - Scene 3 -- William David Cooper

Musicians

Carrie Hennessey -- Soprano
Paul An -- Bass
William David Cooper -- Piano