The Puerto Rican baritone, a second-year Ryan Opera Center member, has been heard as Guglielmo/Così fan tutte with the International Vocal Academy of Rome; has participated in several recitals with the American Masters’ of Opera Academy in Moscow; and has appeared in several scene and concert presentations with the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel-Aviv. In Puerto Rico, he has had repeat engagements at the Performing Arts Center of San Juan and at the University of Puerto Rico Theater, appearing as the Notary/Don Pasquale, Maestro Spinelloccio/Gianni Schicchi, and Don Quixote/Maurice Ravel’s Master Peter’s Puppet Show as part of the 2016 Casals Festival. Rivera recently received his master’s degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he appeared with the Opera Department as Fiorello/The Barber of Seville, Starveling/A Midsummer’s Night Dream, and Marco/Gianni Schicchi. He is the recipient of a Richard F. Gold Career Grant and is a past participant in the Aspen Music Festival (Claudio/Béatrice et Bénédict, Angel #7/Luke Bedford’s opera Seven Angels) and VOICExperience programs. Rivera returned to Aspen last summer to understudy Germont/La traviata and sing Angel #7/Luke Bedford’s opera Seven Angels. In 2018/19, Rivera sang Schaunard/La bohème and Baron Douphol/La traviata and appeared in concert with the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn). In 2019/20, he sings Yamadori/Madama Butterfly.

In the spring of 2015, baritone Ricardo Rivera — who was a semi-finalist in the Met Opera National Council Auditions — made major debuts at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and San Diego Opera in the world premiere of El pasado nunca se termina, directed by Broadway and opera director Leonard Foglia, in the leading role of Acalán which he will perform in 2019 with Fort Worth Opera.

In the 2018/2019 season, Ricardo will perform as Lt. Gordon in Silent Night with Arizona Opera, as Acalán in El pasado nunca se termina with Fort Worth Opera, and as Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni in New York at the renowned Bay Street Theater.

Engagements from the past two seasons include performances as Hérode in Hérodiade with Washington Concert Opera with Michael Fabiano and Joyce El-Khoury; as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor and as Lt. Audebert in Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night with Opera San José; as Escamillo in Carmen with Musica Viva Hong Kong and Heartbeat Opera; as Schaunard in La bohème with Musica Viva Hong Kong; as El payador in María de Buenos Aires with Des Moines Metro Opera; and as Germont in La traviata with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra

Operatic performance highlights, of recent past seasons, include: Orsini in Rienzi and Mathieu in Andrea Chenier with the Opera Orchestra of NY in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall; Moralès and Escamillo (cover) in Stephen Wadsworth's new production of Carmen, Thomas Martin and the Hotel Managers in the world premiere of Theodore Morrison's Oscar, and Germont (cover) in La traviata at Santa Fe Opera; Marcello in La bohème and Escamillo in Carmen with El Paso Opera; Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with the Opera Company of Middlebury; Thomas Martin and the Hotel Managers in Oscar with Opera Philadelphia; Le chat in L’enfant et les sortilèges and Spinelloccio in Gianni Schicchi at the Castleton Festival with the late conductor Lorin Maazel; Moralès in Carmen and Fiorello/L'Ufficiale in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera North; Ashby in La fanciulla del West with Knoxville Opera; the baritone soloist in both Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Fauré’s Requiem with the Pioneer Valley Symphony; Uncle John in Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath with Sugar Creek Opera; and Corifeo in Jorge Liderman's opera Antigona Furiosa in Chicago with Contempo and members of the multi-Grammy Award-winning ensemble eighth blackbird.

Concert performance highlights include his Alice Tully Hall debut in an Eve Queler and Friends Concert with Eve Queler at the piano and his Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center debut in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Gala with Eve Queler conducting the Opera Orchestra of NY. Concert performance highlights of standard repertoire include the baritone solos in: Ein deutsches Requiem with both The New York Choral Society and The Westchester Chorale Society; Carmina Burana with Monmouth Civic Chorus; and Bach’s “Coffee Cantata” at the White Mountains Music Festival.

Ricardo is a graduate of Mannes College the New School for Music where his B.M. M.M. and PDPL were conferred. As a Mannes Opera Young Artist, he performed the title role in Don Giovanni, Ford in Falstaff, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, and Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas. At Mannes, he was mentored by Met Opera conductor and Music Director at The Glimmerglass Festival, Joseph Colaneri, and the great, late American mezzo-soprano Regina Resnik.

Ricardo was an apprentice singer with Santa Fe Opera, a young artist with Opera North, and an Eva and Marc Stern Fellow at SongFest where he coached with Martin Katz, Graham Johnson, and composer Lori Laitman on her music. As an apprentice artist at Chautauqua Opera, he covered Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor; performed the Sergeant and covered Lescaut in Manon Lescaut; and performed in two concerts with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.

In a review of Ricardo’s performance in Sophia Gubaidulina's Perception with multi-Grammy Award–winning ensembles eighth blackbird and the Pacifica Quartet, the Chicago Tribune declared him "amazingly precise of musical and verbal gesture." In continuation of his commitment to the vitality of contemporary music, Ricardo performed Steven Stucky's Four poems of A.R. Ammons with the FLUX Quartet, the world premiere of Reinaldo Moya's Soliquio en las olas with the Arts Symphony Orchestra, and the world premiere of Aaron Dai's Con furia with the Chelsea Symphony. 21st-century operatic roles which have been composed for and have been performed by Ricardo include leading roles in Robert Cuckson's A Night of Pity and Horace: a Portrait, Christopher Park's Phaedra and Hippolytus, Alexander Berezowsky's The Nine Billion Names of God, and Andrew McManus's Killing the Goat.

Ricardo won 1st Prize in the Eastern Region of the 2012 Met Opera National Council Auditions (MONC) which led him to the semi-finals of that competition. He received two awards upon graduating from Mannes College: the Richard F. Gold Career Grant in 2008 and the Michael Sisca Memorial Opera Award in 2012. He was awarded 3rd Prize in the Gerda Lissner Competition, a Career Grant from the Licia Albanese-Puccini Competition, 1st and Audience Prizes in the NY Lyric Opera Competition, and Encouragement Awards from the Opera Index, Career Bridges, and Connecticut Opera Guild Competitions.

Gilley has been a pianist and coach with the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago for the past 13 years, performing frequently with members of the ensemble, coaching upcoming repertoire, playing for the final stage auditions, recording for WFMT, and playing with the Lyric Opera Orchestra. She served in the same capacity with Glimmerglass Opera for 15 seasons, having prepared several operas, including 3 world premieres. Other companies she has worked with include San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, San Diego Opera, Vancouver Opera, Opera Omaha, Tulsa Opera, Kentucky Opera, Sacramento Opera, Mississippi Opera, and the American Symphony Orchestra, with whom she has also recorded.

An avid chamber musician, Ms. Gilley has accompanied recitals at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Chicago Cultural Center, on the San Francisco Opera Schwabacher Series, and in other venues throughout the U.S. and Canada, collaborating with artists such as Amanda Majeski, Nicole Cabell, Alyson Cambridge, William Burden, and Mark Oswald. She is an accompanist for the Central Region Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, and as a faculty member of Northwestern University, she coaches in the voice department and assists in preparation of operas. Ms. Gilley holds degrees from Southern Methodist University, The Eastman School of Music, and Manhattan School of Music, where she also worked as a vocal coach and accompanist.

As a conductor, Laurann Gilley most recently led Midwest Opera Theater’s production of Suor Angelica and The Impresario. In 2018, she was selected by The Dallas Opera to be an observer at its Hart Institute for Women Conductors. She has conducted Il Barbiere di Siviglia from the piano with Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Opera in the Neighborhoods, and has conducted Don Pasquale from the piano for a touring production of Glimmerglass Opera. She served as Assistant Conductor for The Turn of the Screw at Northwestern University, and has a wide range of backstage and choral conducting experiences. Her conducting teachers include David Effron and Michael Christie, and she has worked as a pianist under Sir Andrew Davis, Richard Bonynge, Edoardo Müller, and Stewart Robertson.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2019
Ola Rafalo (Mezzo-Soprano) and Paul Dykstra (Piano)
Recital
"Goddesses and Mortals: The Feminine Experience"

Ola Rafalo, Polish-American mezzo has been called a "Vocal Powerhouse," and "a budding next Cossotto" by critics. “Ola Rafalo proved to be a mezzo to watch, with a strong Stride la Vampa.” said Anne Midgette, for the Washington Post, of The Washington Chorus’ Essential Verdi concert 2014, at the Kennedy Center, where Rafalo was featured in scenes as“A Mezzo with great promise”, Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun (Nabucco, Opera Baltimore 2014). Ola Rafalo, Polish-American mezzo has been called a "Vocal Powerhouse," and "a budding next Cossotto" by critics. “Ola Rafalo proved to be a mezzo to watch, with a strong Stride la Vampa.” said Anne Midgette, for the Washington Post, of The Washington Chorus’ Essential Verdi concert 2014, at the Kennedy Center, where Rafalo was featured in scenes as Azucena, and Amneris. “A Mezzo with great promise”, Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun (Nabucco, Opera Baltimore 2014).

Upcoming engagements include Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana with Opera Forza in New York City, Ola’s debut with Chicago Opera Theater as the Old Gypsy in Aleko, her debut with the Israel Philharmonic as Emilia in Verdi’s Otello under Maestro Gianandrea Noseda, as well as a recital with the prestigious Dame Myrna Hess Memorial concert series in Chicago.

Other Concert highlights include Carnegie Hall as the Alto soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria, as well as soloist in De Falla’s El Amor Brujo with the Pacific Symphony,which she sang with a “fine dusky quality”-L.A. Times. Ola has sung many galas including; Gulfshore Opera Legends of Opera featuring Samuel Ramey., Springfield Symphony’s Arabian nights, as well as concerts in Italy at Teatro Curci in the province of Bari. She joined the Paderewski symphony several times for their and Karnaval Concert, and the American premier of the Poniatowski Mass, an important work of Polish history and art. Rafalo has enjoyed an active recital and chamber music schedule in New York and Chicago, including a very successful duo with superstar bass Andrea Silvestrelli.

Ms. Rafalo carries dual passports for the U.S. and Poland, and speaks fluent English, Italian, Polish. Making her also a natural interpreter slavic repertoire, in roles such as Olga in Eugene Onegin, Konchakovna in Prince Igor, Pollina in Queen of Spades, and Jadwiga in Straszny Dwor. Other roles in her diverse repertoire include Adalgisa in Norma, Venus in Tannhauser, and Dalilah in Samson et Dalilah. Upcoming engagements include Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana with Opera Forza in New York City, Ola’s debut with Chicago Opera Theater as the Old Gypsy in Aleko, her debut with the Israel Philharmonic as Emilia in Verdi’s Otello under Maestro Gianandrea Noseda, as well as a recital with the prestigious Dame Myrna Hess Memorial concert series in Chicago.

Other Concert highlights include Carnegie Hall as the Alto soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria, as well as soloist in De Falla’s El Amor Brujo with the Pacific Symphony,which she sang with a “fine dusky quality”-L.A. Times. Ola has sung many galas including; Gulfshore Opera Legends of Opera featuring Samuel Ramey., Springfield Symphony’s Arabian nights, as well as concerts in Italy at Teatro Curci in the province of Bari. She joined the Paderewski symphony several times for their and Karnaval Concert, and the American premier of the Poniatowski Mass, an important work of Polish history and art. Rafalo has enjoyed an active recital and chamber music schedule in New York and Chicago, including a very successful duo with superstar bass Andrea Silvestrelli.

Ms. Rafalo carries dual passports for the U.S. and Poland, and speaks fluent English, Italian, Polish. Making her also a natural interpreter slavic repertoire, in roles such as Olga in Eugene Onegin, Konchakovna in Prince Igor, Pollina in Queen of Spades, and Jadwiga in Straszny Dwor. Other roles in her diverse repertoire include Adalgisa in Norma, Venus in Tannhauser, and Dalilah in Samson et Dalilah. the symphony and opera.

Paul Dykstra began working as a conductor/pianist at a dinner theater in southern Wisconsin, and since moving to Chicago, he’s focused predominantly on his two loves — chamber collaborative piano and vocal accompaniment, especially song and operatic. Among his musical achievements are founding the Lira Symphony in Chicago and premiering the Weinberg Piano Trio in Warsaw at the Singer Festival.

Reception - 7:00 pm
Program - 7:30 pm Ganz Hall
Roosevelt University
430 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2019
JIM HOLMAN
"THE SYMPHONY: FROM BEETHOVEN TO WAGNER"

Photo courtesy of WETA

JAMES K. HOLMAN is Chairman of the D.C. Wagner Society, a well-known Wagner expert, AND an Evanstonian will present a lecture on "The Symphony: From Beethovan to Wagner" with an audio/visual presentation much like his wonderful presentationS in the past. Mr. Holman's starting point will be Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. He will trace the development of symphonic music and opera from Berlioz to Mendelssohn, from Schumann to Liszt then to Wagner, whose mature music dramas may be seen as the true heirs of the style and sensibility of Beethoven and the ultimate reconciliation of both the symphony and opera.

Reception - 3:00 PM
Program - 3:30 PM

HILTON ORRINGTON HOTEL
1710 Orrington Avenue

Wednesday, May 29, 2019
WAGNER 206th BIRTHDAY MUSICAL EVENT
VIKTORIA VIZIN, mezzo-soprano

and
MARIA CONSAMUS, mezzo-soprano

with
DANA BROWN, piano

PROGRAM

R. Strauss: September (VV)
Schumann: Frauenliebe und Leben (MC)
Wagner: Einsam wachend in der Nacht (VV)

INTERMISSION

Cilia: Acerba voluta (MC)
Wagner: Seit er von dir gechieden - Waltraute's Scene (VV)
Charles Ives: Songs My Mother Taught Me (MC)
Debussy: Beau soir (MC)
Offenbach: Barcarolle

Reception - 7:00 pm
Program - 7:30 pm

Ganz Hall
Roosevelt University
430 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL

Saturday, April 13, 2019
A joint program with the Evanston, Glencoe, and Northfield Chapters of Lyric Opera of Chicago
JIM GINSBURG
Founder and President of Cedille Records

JIM GINSBURG, founder and president of Cedille Records, a not-for-profit organization that produces recordings of Chicago based performers. Jim will give a presentation on this organization, which has been successful in carving out a niche for itself in the competitive world of music as well as being very successful. Jim was interviewed several times in the widely acclaimed documentary film RBG, the 2019 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature covering the life and career of Jim's mother, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Jim is married to lyric soprano, composer, and Mozart specialist Patrice Michaels , who is currently Director of Vocal Studies at The University of Chicago. Recently, Cedille Records released Notorious RBG in Song, an 80th Birthday Tribute in song, story and images, celebrating Justice Ginsburg’s personal and professional life in Patrice Michaels' nine-song cycle THE LONG VIEW as well as American composer Stacy Garrop, winner of many prestigious awards and commissions; JUNO Award-winning Canadian composer Vivian Fung; prolific art-song composer Lori Laitman; and an aria from Derrick Wang’s new comic opera, Scalia/Ginsburg—all in collaboration with pianist extraordinaire Kuang-Hao Huang.

YouTube Interview with Patrice Michaels about the album

Reception - 3:00 PM
Program - 3:30 PM

Michigan Shores Club
911 Michigan Avenue
Wilmette, IL

Cost: Members: $ 15.00 Guests $20.00
Guests are always welcome

Questions: 847-256-1292

Tuesday, February 12, 2019
NINA STEMME

Nina Stemme as Isolde
Tristan and Isolde, 2016
Metropolitan Opera

Presentation of the Birgit Nilsson Prize to Nina Stemme

For years, Swedish born Nina Stemme has been considered a leading singer of the most challenging parts in major dramas:Isolde, Brünnhilde and Kundry, Salome and Elektra, Fanciulla and Turandot. That she initially shied away from these staggering heights of the soprano repertoire is a noteworthy – if not the defining – characteristic of her career. Mozart’s Cherubino is a far cry from Isolde and Turandot, a leap only few have mastered. Nina Stemme made the leap successfully by taking the time a development of this kind requires. When she was offered the part of Isolde, to be performed at the 2003 Glyndebourne Festival, she already had fourteen years of on-stage experience, having first taken lyrical parts such as Cherubino, Pamina, the “Figaro” Countess, Agathe and Eva, before moving on to increasingly lyrical-dramatic roles such as Mimi, Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Tosca, “Tannhäuser” Elisabeth, Marschallin and Senta.

Isolde would have been the next step, but it was not until she had conferred with Birgit Nilsson that she took the offer. To her surprise, the legendary Wagner singer offered to help her learn her part. Nonetheless, Nina Stemme felt she was not yet ready to sing Isolde. When she did take the stage as Isolde for the first time at Glyndeborne, her performance was met with enthusiasm and she subsequently made a record with Plácido Domingo singing as Tristan and Antonio Pappano as conductor. Even then, she remained cautious: “You are never ready with these gigantic roles”, she said in retrospect in her interview with the “New York Times”.

Respect for the roles and the operas, flexibility, diversity and a level-headed estimation of her voice’s potential – these were the factors that, alongside her voice itself, talent and musicality, made this highly talented singer an artist of global stature. In 1993, she was rewarded when she won Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition. Whether at the Metropolitan Opera New York, La Scala Milan, the Bayreuth Festival, the Vienna State Opera or the Royal Opera House in London – Nina Stemme has furthered the great tradition of Flagstad and Nilsson at leading opera houses.

Hotel Allegro
171 W. Randolph
Chicago, IL

Reception - 7:00 pm
Program - 7:30 pm

Cost: Members - $ 5.00 Guests - $ 10.00

Questions: 847-256-1292

Sunday, February 3, 2019
Joint program with Evanston Chapter of Lyric Opera of Chicago
ANETTE ISAACS
“The Tainted Legacy of Richard Wagner”


Program - 3:00 PM

Michigan Shores Club
911 Michigan Avenue
Wilmette, IL

Cost: Members - $ 15.00 Guests - $ 20.00

Questions: 847-256-1292