36 2014 Program Notes, Book 9
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
carlos kalmar’s
biography can be found on page 16.
Storm Large
shot to national prominence in 2006 as a
finalist on the CBS show
Rock Star: Supernova
. She had spent
the 1990s singing in clubs around San Francisco but grew
tired of the club scene and moved to Portland. A last-minute
cancellation in 2002 at the Portland club Dante’s turned into
a standing Wednesday-night engagement that renewed her
singing career. Ms. Large made her debut as guest vocalist with
the band Pink Martini in 2011, singing four sold-out concerts
at Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; she continues to tour
and record with the band. She has also collaborated with Grammy winner k.d. lang,
pianist Kirill Gerstein, singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, and Rock and Roll Hall of
Famer George Clinton. Storm Large debuted with the Oregon Symphony in 2010,
and has returned for sold-out performances each year since. She made her Carnegie
Hall debut in May 2013, singing Weill’s
Seven Deadly Sins
with the Detroit Symphony.
Tenor
Hoss Brock
joined the Grant Park Chorus in 2003 and
is a full-time member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago Chorus.
He has made several solo appearances with the Festival,
including Stravinsky’s
Les Noces
, Rachmaninoff’s
Vespers
and
Gilbert & Sullivan’s
The Pirates of Penzance
. A versatile singer,
Mr. Brock has performed Verdi’s
Requiem
with the Peninsula
Music Festival, Bach’s
B Minor Mass
with Music of the Baroque
and Richard Einhorn’s modern oratorio
Voices of Light
with
the Grand Rapids Symphony. His operatic credits include
performances with San Francisco Opera, L’Opera Piccola, and Tulsa Opera. Hoss
Brock made his Lyric Opera debut as Ike Skidmore in
Oklahoma!
Tenor
John Concepcion
, recent recipient of the 2011
American Prize in Vocal Performance in Opera and a finalist in
the Bel Canto Regional Voice Competition, has appeared with
Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera,
Minnesota Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Hawaii Symphony,
Tulsa Opera, Cleveland Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Portland
Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera and Pine Mountain Music
Festival. Recent appearances include the world premiere of
Gustavo Leone’s opera,
The Leader
, with the Latino Music
Festival in Chicago, Haydn’s
Lord Nelson Mass
with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra,
and Verdi’s
Requiem
with the West Suburban Symphony.
Baritone
Ron Watkins
has been a regular member of
the Grant Park Chorus and Lyric Opera of Chicago Chorus
since 1992. He has also performed with area ensembles and
opera companies including Chicago Opera Theater, Light
Opera Works, Chicago Symphony Chorus and Metropolitan
Orchestra. Featured roles at Lyric include the Imperial
Commissioner in
Madama Butterfly
, Antonio in
Fedora
and
Morales in
Carmen
. Regional credits include Marcello in
La
Bohème
, Eisenstein in
Die Fledermaus
and Figaro in
The
Barber of Seville
. Mr. Watkins has appeared as soloist in Brahms’
A German Requiem
,
Mendelssohn’s
Elijah
, Fauré’s
Requiem
and Haydn’s
The Seasons
.
