We Are Young ft. Janelle Monáe

One Foot

Janelle DeStefano, Mezzo-Soprano  •  Stacey Fraser, Soprano • Pianist/accompanist Kosta Popovic

Recorded live at CSUSB Music Recital Hall 1-28-12
http://music.csusb.edu

American mezzo-soprano Janelle DeStefano has been praised for her “magnificently executed vocal cascades” and her “passionate delivery.” She has sung on regional operatic, orchestral and musical theater stages across the United States, performing with Ash Lawn Opera Festival in Virginia, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Westminster Opera Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, the Lyric Theatre of Santa Cruz, the Jarvis Zarzuela Festival in Napa California, and San Diego Opera. Recent roles have included Romeo in I Capuletti e i Montecchi, Mrs. Winemiller in Summer and Smoke, and the title role of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. Ms. DeStefano recently appeared as Dido in Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas with the Bach Collegium San Diego. Her portrayal of the gypsy, Maria, in La Alegria de la Huerta at the Jarvis Zarzuela Festival in Napa, California, (available on DVD) was hailed as the “pick of the Chueca” by Zarzuela.net. This past year Ms. DeStefano appeared with the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus in Bach’s The Passion According to St. Matthew, and was the alto soloist in the Messiah with the Los Angeles Master Chorale at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.   Ms. DeStefano is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), and is currently an Associate Professor of Voice at Santa Monica College

Canadian soprano Stacey Fraser’s eclectic musical interests have led her to sing on international operatic, concert and theatre stages across the United States, Canada, Asia and Europe. She has appeared as a soloist for the San Diego Opera, the Tony Award winning La Jolla Playhouse, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Taipei National Concert Hall in Taiwan, the Musicasa Concert Hall in Tokyo, Japan, the Thailand Composition Festival, the merické Jaro Festival in Prednasek, Czech Republic, Red Square Gallery in Hong Kong. Vancouver Symphony, South Dakota Symphony, La Jolla Symphony, San Bernardino Symphony, Banff Centre, Tanglewood Music Center, Asia Society NYC, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and the world renowned La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York City. As an avid performer of contemporary music, her debut performance of Sequenza III was described as an “amusing, virtuousic rendering of Mr. Berio’s stream of unconventional vocalizations” by Allan Kozinn of the The New York Times.  She is currently an Associate Professor of Music at California State University, San Bernardino where she is the Director of Opera Theatre. She is a member of the National Association Teachers of Singing (NATS), the American Guild of Musical Artists and Actors Equity Association.

Pianist/accompanist Kosta Popovic has performed on concerts and recitals in Europe, the United States and Canada, in venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Alice Tully Hall in New York, Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels, La Sainte Chapelle in Paris, Teatro Caio Melisso in Spoleto, and the Ford Centre in Toronto.  As a Chorus Master, Mr. Popovic has worked with Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon, Portugal, Sächsische Staatsoper in Dresden, Germany, San Diego Opera and Santa Barbara Opera. At the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, he has been an Assistant Chorus Master with for six seasons, and the member of Music Staff for eleven seasons. In 
April of 2002, Kosta conducted Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Opera Illinois, where he received critical acclaim.  Other conducting credits include Der Rosenkavalier (Spoleto Festival, Italy), Cavalleria Rusticana (Mercury Opera, NY), La Traviata (Riverside Concert Opera) and a gala concert of opera and musical theater with Opera Santa Barbara at the historic Santa Barbara Mission.  Additionally, Kosta Popovic has also collaborated with Opera Pacific, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Washington Opera, Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile, and Teatro La Fenice in Venezia, Italy.   Mr. Popovic joined the faculty of California State University, San Bernardino in 2011. His duties include conducting the CSUSB Chamber Singers and Concert Choir, coaching and conducting for Opera Theatre productions and applied voice, and teaching courses in conducting and Liberal Studies.

Belle nuit, O nuit d’amour, Jacques Offenbach (1862-1918)

Randall Hodges

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