ASO PRESENTS "PERCHANCE TO DREAM" IN FINAL CONCERT OF 08-09 SEASON
4/8/2009
For Immediate Release
April 8, 2009
Contact: William Martin
Phone: 410-269-1132
bmartin@annapolissymphony.org
www.annapolissymphony.org
ANNAPOLIS
The Annapolis Chorale, part of Live Arts Maryland, is a 36-year-old nonprofit arts organization whose mission is community enhancement through performing and presenting high-quality music. Each of its performing ensembles offers citizens of all ages the chance to participate in a cultural activity that adds depth and texture to the life of the community while fostering personal growth through music participation. The Annapolis Chorale’s Full Chorus performs regularly under the direction of Music Director J. Ernest Green and this season includes 150 singers. Mr. Green is an accomplished symphony and choral conductor. He is in his fourth season as a Cover Conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, where he has worked with such artists as Denyce Graves, Sir James Galway, Pinchas Zuckerman and Marvin Hamlisch. From 1995-98 he was the Principal Guest Conductor of the Boston Aria Guild and has served as the Conductor for the Teatro Lirico d’Europa in Paris. Mr. Green was the Music Director for the Young Victorian Theatre Co. 1985-2008. In 1986, he made his international debut conducting performances with the Fundacão Orquestra Sinfonica de Brazil, Associacão Opera de Brasilia, and the Orquestra Jovem de Brasilia and in 1993 made his Carnegie Hall debut. From 2004-2007, Mr. Green served as the Music Director of the Mozart Festival Opera. Additional recent engagements include the 2008 national Martin Luther King Day concert at the Kennedy Center with The National Symphony Orchestra, The Florida Orchestra, concerts at Carnegie Hall, Cumberland Valley Chamber Orchestra, the Sophia Symphony and Varna Symphony (Bulgaria), the Ballet Arabesque (Bulgaria) the Ballet Theatre of Maryland and the Teatro Lirico d’Europa. He has conducted orchestras both here and abroad including The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Lincoln Symphony, Orquestra Sinfonica Nacional (Santo Domingo), Mesa Symphony, Cumberland Valley Chamber Players and the Trinity Chamber Orchestra (Cleveland). His opera credits include the Hawaii Opera Theatre, Teatro Lirico d’Europa, Boston Aria Guild, Indiana Opera North, Associacão Opera de Brasilia, Boston Academy of Music and the Young Victorian Theatre Company. Mr. Green has a long track record as an avid advocate for the arts and was recently appointed to serve on its Maryland State Arts Council’s Strategic Planning Committee.
Actor Jon Spelman, narrating A Midsummer Night's Dream, has performed with a number of choirs, choruses, and symphonies, including The Baltimore Symphony in concerts in Frederick, Baltimore, and at Montgomery County’s Strathmore Performing Arts Hall. Spelman founded the Florida Studio Theatre, a non-profit professional actors and writers ensemble devoted to the creation of new work, and was its artistic director for its first seven years until he began working full time as a solo performer. He has frequently been a Featured Teller at the National Storytelling Festival and has represented American professional storytellers at The Colloquium on the Revival of Storytelling held in Paris, France (“Spelman's story was one of the big grand moments of this meeting,” said Association Le Renoveau du Conte).
Spelman has been called “world-class” (Los Angeles Times) and “a stunning wordsmith and a riveting performer” (Washington Post). The Bluemont Concert Series has labeled him “The Dean of American Storytelling.” He has received a Children's Radio Award, an Achievement in Children’s Television Award and two Emmies, presented by the Washington Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, for “Three Stories Tall”, which he hosted for six years. He is listed in Who's Who in America and has been admitted into The Circle of Excellence of the National Storytelling Network. He has performed on National Public Radio, at the Smithsonian Institution (for eleven weeks), Round House Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Lincoln Center, Wolf Trap Farm Park, Off-Broadway, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, England, Austria and France, at major performance festivals throughout the US and at over two thousand other locations in North America, including The Kennedy Center, which commissioned his Tall Tales, White Lies, Local Color and Monumental Views: Stories From The Nation’s Capitol. Spelman was also commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to collect and perform stories by and about children in elementary school and by the Washington Storytellers Theatre to collect and perform the stories in I Still Believe: the Lives of Children in Holocaust and Other Extremities. Round House Theatre commissioned his Off the Map and his new version of Frankenstein, both directed by Nick Olcott. Most recently, the Clarice Smith Center at the University of Maryland commissioned and presented the world premiere of Spelman’s full-length piece for adults, Digging into Shakespeare, which he performs with musician Tina Chancey. His stories have been published in a variety of formats. He is featured on five home videos and four audio collections of American storytelling and is a recipient of a Parents' Choice Gold Award.
Soprano Laura Choi Stuart, hailed as “a lyric soprano of ravishing quality” by the Boston Globe, is at home on the operatic, concert, and recital stage. Recent performances include Gilda in Rigoletto with Commonwealth Opera, Frasquita in Carmen with Annapolis Opera, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Opera North.
Laura has performed extensively in concert and chamber settings, both in traditional repertoire such as Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Eté, Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, and the Faure Requiem, and also in progressive works such as Louis Andriessen’s Trilogy of the Last Day and Hindemith’s Des Todes Tod. She has also gained recognition for her interpretation of art song and is currently performing on the Vocal Arts Society’s Art Song Discovery Series.
Angelic is the word that has most often been used to describe the silvery, pure, sweet tone of Esther Heideman's vocal artistry. In 2000, she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Licia Albanese Competition. In 2001, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut singing Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. These performances were immediately followed by her debut with the New York Philharmonic in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, and her European debut with the Prague Radio Symphony, singing in Mahler's Second Symphony.
Ms. Heideman's career began with her Carnegie Hall debut, singing Handel’s Messiah. Since this time, she has performed with major orchestras throughout the
As a native midwesterner, Ms. Heideman has performed frequently in Minnesota. She has been a featured soloist with quality ensembles like the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, performing with them in more than 30 different concerts, ranging from Handel's Messiah and Mozart's Requiem and Le Nozze di Figaro, to Ravel's L’enfant et les sortilege, Berg's Seven Early Songs, and Kernis Simple Songs. She has had the great fortune of working with such notable conductors as David Zinman, Eiji Oue, Jeffrey Tate, Bernhard Klee, Ingo Metzmacher, Thomas Ades, David Alan Miller, and William Eddins. While singing with the Minnesota Orchestra, her vocal prowess was even compared to the fine tunings of a Stradivarian violin.
Ms. Heideman's upcoming engagements include recitals in Washington DC, Wisconsin and Beijing, China, Previn’s Honey and Rue and Gershwin songs with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Faure’s Requiem with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, La Boheme with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony # 2 with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah and Beethoven’s Symphony # 9 with the National Philharmonic, Handel’s Messiah with the Jacksonville Symphony, Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Acadiana Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Annapolis Symphony, and the Poulenc Gloria and Beethoven Symphony #9 with the Modesto Symphony .
The ASO is participating in Arts Step Up In Support of State and County Employees. All Maryland State and County employees are offered a “Buy One, Get One Free” ticket offer valid for the remainder of the 2008-2009 season.
Single tickets to the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra Lexus Classic Series are $34-$44 for adults, and $10 for students ages 8 to 25. For tickets, subscriptions, or further information, call the ASO Box Office at
410-263-0907 or visit and order online at www.annapolissymphony.org.
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Photos of José-Luis Novo, Esther Heideman, Jon Spelman, and Laura Choi Stuart are available upon request.