Two concerts featuring a visiting string ensemble from Italy are planned Friday and Saturday in Fredonia. The concerts precede a performance tour through Italy to be taken by 12 voice students from the Fredonia School of Music and the Postacchini String Quartet, which is in residence this week on campus.
“A Celebration of Italian Opera” will be performed by the Italian guests and the students on Friday, May 5 at 8 p.m. at The 1891 Fredonia Opera House in downtown Fredonia. A program of works by Monteverdi, Handel, Mozart, Verdi and Puccini will be conducted by visiting artist Christian Capocaccia and performed in a semi-staged format. Vocalists are Bradley Carson, Raymond Chenez, Ann DeAngelo, Christina Dudek, Steven Hoagland, David L'Hommedieu, Lori Johnson, Kristen Mikowski, Johanna Moffitt, Kristen Norwark, Alissa Stahler and Victoria Vargas, all students who are scheduled to tour with the Postacchini String Quartet this summer. Piano accompaniment will be performed by Fredonia School of Music Professor Nathan Hess.
On Saturday, at 8 p.m. in Juliet J. Rosch Recital Hall, the second concert will feature works by Beethoven, Webern and Mendelssohn.
Tickets will be sold at the door for both events, which will help raise funds to send the students on the Lyric Arts International annual summer performance tour. Lyric Arts International, which was founded in 2004 by professors Paul Mockovak (theatre) and Julie Newell (music), is supported by the Carnahan-Jackson Humanities Fund of the Fredonia College Foundation and the Faculty Student Association.
Founded in 1995 in the Le Marche region of Italy, the Postacchini String Quartet is comprised of well-known soloists who graduated from the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro. It includes violinist Luca Marziali, whose talents were highlighted in a well-received concert last September in the Juliet J. Rosch Recital Hall on the SUNY Fredonia campus.
