Archive For The “Press” Category
SPANISH INQUISITION IN MIDDLETOWN Special to Town Times by Larry Kellum Not heard with any opera company in Connecticut since 1976, the CT Lyric Opera and its CT Virtuosi Orchestra presented Verdi’s colossal “Don Carlo” at the newly named Santo Fragilio Performing Arts Center in Middletown on May 11. As composers go, Verdi’s operas are…
By Ethan Sadoian – The Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra will close out its 2017-2018 concert season on the first weekend of June with “An American Dream,” a concert of music by American composers. – A featured highlight of the program will be Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s “Symposium,” for violin soloist and orchestra. “Unfortunately, this…
CT Virtuosi Orchestra Presents Bach Concert with CCSU University Singers By Ethan Sadoian – The theme for the Connecticut Chamber Orchestra’s 2017-2018 season is “Reincarnations,” the transformation and reincarnation of musical ideas across the different periods of music history. This idea might not be readily apparent in a concert featuring three works by the same…
By Ethan Sadoian October 20th and 21st sees the commencement of another season of music-making in Connecticut by the CT Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra. – Jim Forgey, the Virtuosi’s principal clarinetist, will be the featured soloist for the performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A Major at these concerts. Forgey’s association with the Orchestra goes back…
By Ethan Sadoian On June 2nd and June 4th, the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra will celebrate 20 years of making music in Connecticut with a commemorative Gala Concert, the finale of the Orchestra’s concert season this year. Dr. Cathryn Addy has been involved with the Virtuosi for nearly all of those 20 years, serving as…
By LARRY KELLUM Puccini’s 3rd most popular opera, the violent but gorgeous “TOSCA” returns to Connecticut in May when the CT Lyric Opera and the CT Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra present a new production of the masterpiece in its usual four venues throughout the state. Composed in 1900 and based on the famous French Sardou play…
~ By Ethan Sadoian ~ The Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra celebrates the music of Johann Sebastian Bach with concerts in New Britain and Hartford next week featuring three of his works. Italian harpsichordist Giacomo Benedetti will be the featured soloist in a performance of Bach’s ‘Harpsichord Concerto No.1 in D Minor, BWV 1052.’ Benedetti has…
By Ethan Sadoian Italian violinist Luca Rinaldi will join the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra for two concerts on December 9th and 10th, featuring Italian masterworks by Arcangelo Corelli and Ottorino Respighi. Luca Rinaldi’s acclaimed career has seen him perform as a soloist and violinist throughout Europe, and win international competitions and receive awards as a…
Connecticut Lyric Opera Presents “Eugene Onegin” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky By Ethan Sadoian
Special to Town Times by Larry Kellum Verdi’s dark, but ever so beloved “Rigoletto” closed the CT Lyric Opera/CT Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra’s 2015-16 season on April 22 when it premiered at New Britain’s Trinity-on-Main. The production will also appear on May 1 at Hartford’s Infinity Hall and culminate at MHS Arts Center in Middletown on…
By Larry Kellum An internationally acclaimed Cuban-American tenor is coming to Connecticut on March 11 and 13 to appear in concert with the CT Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and CT Lyric Opera during this season of Lent. His full name is Jorge Pita Carreras. No, he is NOT related to the legendary superstar Jose Carreras, though…
By Ethan Sadoian Bookended by last fall’s production of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” and an upcoming production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” in April and May, the Connecticut Lyric Opera and Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra continue their 2015-2016 season by teaming up once again to stage a production of Charles Gounod’s grand opera masterpiece “Faust.” Gounod’s opera,…
We were at the Smilley Academy and Jefferson School today, and at DiLoretto School yesterday, performed Brandenburg concerti for the 2-5th grades of the New Britain Schools!! The purpose of our Concerts at the New Britain Schools Program is to introduce classical music to children. These concerts are an important part of our community outreach….
Click to hear the excerpt from the rehearsal… Article by Ethan Sadoian: “It is a very special thing. Each one has different keys, different moods, different combinations of instruments—to me that makes it fascinating, because nobody had written concerti with such different groups of instruments until Bach. They are wonderful, wonderful pieces of music,” says…
by Larry Kellum On Oct. 23 at Central CT State Univ. in New Britain, and on the 25th at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Hartford, an interesting and unique program called “Slavic Masterpieces” will be presented by the CT Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra offering music by Antonin Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Polish composer Mieczyslaw Karlowicz. Highlight of the event will…
Over 200 ticketholders were enthralled and bedazzled by tonight’s performance of Mozart’s Cosi’ fan tutte, at Old Town Hall, in Woodbury, Connecticut. This was another sold-out performance by the Connecticut Summer Music Institute and Virtuosi Orchestra and the Connecticut Summer Opera Foundation (CSOF). Sopranos Allison Lindsay (Dorabella) and Kerry Lynn Slominski (Fiordiligi) were outstanding in…
Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and the Connecticut Lyric Opera perform in the Italian city of Greve-In-Chianti. Faculty and students of the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, whose headquarters are at Trinity-on-Main, and the New London-based Connecticut Lyric Opera returned this week from the inaugural Greve Opera Festival in Italy. The three-week festival was a joint endeavor…
by Larry Kellum Like a good Scotch and a fine wine, classical music and beautiful women should, and often do, get better with age and the passage of time. Such will be the case proven when the CT Lyric Opera and the CT Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra present the Connecticut premiere (believe it or not!) of…
