BMC · Centennial · Concerts · Night Beat

Opera Arias and Songs with Soprano Katherine Copland

poster june 2016Be sure to save Wednesday morning June 1 and Thursday evening June 2, when New York-based soprano Katherine Copland brings BMC’s Centennial Season to a close with a pair of springtime recitals presented by Schlichting Wixson CPAs.

Recital details:
Free Wednesday Morning Concert, June 1, 10:30 am, Trinity Lutheran Church, 119 Texas St., Bellingham. Free and open to the public.
Night Beat, Thursday, June 2, 7:30 pm, First Congregational Church, 2401 Cornwall Ave., Bellingham. Tickets for Night Beat are $15 online and at the door before the concert. Take a teen for free!

Ms. Copland is a hometown gal, now resident in New York City. She graduated from UW, won the coveted role of Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus at Manhattan School of Music, spent some time honing the big roles in Italy at Chiari and Urbania, and has recently been seen back in New York as soloist in the Washington Square Festival, and in the Brahms Requiem with Collegiate Chorale, among others.

Abdiel Vasquez color croppedHer collaborator for these recitals will be the distinguished Abdiel Vázquez. He was widely hailed as Mexico’s greatest pianist after his debut at 21 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico in the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto. Ten years later, he is on the coaching faculty of The Manhattan School of Music, works with singers from Juilliard and the Metropolitan Opera, and is in worldwide demand as pianist and conductor.

The theme is set by two American opera arias, “Ain’t It a Pretty Night!” by Carlisle Floyd, and “I Want Magic!” from André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, plus “Song to the Moon” from Dvořák’s Rusalka. Ms. Copland is also releasing a whole flock of songs about nightingales by Brahms, Berg, Grieg, Schubert and Granados. Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs transport us from spring into fall, and a glorious sunset at the end of the day.

Katherine will be joined by her father, Dr. Michael Aaron Copland, on June 2 Night Beat. By day he is Deputy Superintendent of Bellingham Public Schools, but he is an accomplished cellist, launched like so many others by Joanne Donnellan and Mark Schlichting. Katherine and Michael Copland will collaborate on Massenet’s haunting Elegy, and Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 by Villa-Lobos.

For more information, please call 306-8580.