March 29, 2024
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UMaine Oratorio, singers to join BSO

ORONO – Music director and conductor Xiao-Lu Li will lead the Bangor Symphony Orchestra in an afternoon of Mozart at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 29, at the Maine Center for the Arts.

Joined by the 150 voices of the University of Maine Singers and University of Maine Oratorio Society under the direction of Drs. Dennis Cox and Ludlow Hallman, the BSO will perform Mozart’s Ave verum corpus and “Requiem.”

A subject of debate and speculation, “Requiem,” a work commissioned by Count Walsegg-Stuppach in memory of his wife’s untimely death, became the composer’s own requiem after his death.

The BSO, Singers and Oratorio will be joined by guest soloists Malinda Haslett, soprano; Jami Tyzik, mezzo-soprano; Thomas Trotter, tenor; and Zheng Zhou, baritone.

Haslett has performed in many operas, including the title role in Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliette,” “La Traviata,” “Le Nozze di Figaro,” “Carmen,” “Don Giovanni” and “La Boheme.” She is a recipient of the Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship.

Jami Tyzik made her solo debut with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra at age 17 after winning the Jan DeGaetani Competition and scholarship. Her concert repertoire has expanded as she has been heard as a soloist in the Mozart Requiem, Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony,” “Messiah,” Bach “Magnificat,” “Le Roi David” and in chamber music concerts.

Tyzik has performed in Germany, Austria, Italy, Australia, The Netherlands and many parts of the United States. She is a native of Rochester, N.Y., where she received a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music. She received a master’s degree from Boston University. She has performed with the Rochester, Buffalo, Clayton and Erie Philharmonics; Amalfi Coast Opera; and the Opera Institute at Boston University.

On operatic stages and in concert halls throughout the country, tenor Thomas Trotter has been praised for roles including Tobias Ragg in “Sweeney Todd” with Toledo Opera and Peter Quint in “The Turn of the Screw,” also with Toledo Opera.

Back by popular demand, baritone Zheng Zhou appears with the BSO for a fourth season. Zhou possesses a rich, creamy baritone voice, and has excelled with major opera companies and orchestras in a wide range of styles from Mozart, Donizetti and Schubert to Verdi, Mendelssohn and Orff.

Zhou made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1993 as Yamadori in “Madama Butterfly,” and later returned to sing Ping in “Turandot” and Fiorello in “Il Barbiere di Siviglia.”

Concert tickets range from $13 to $40, with senior and youth discounts available. Tickets may be reserved online at www.bangorsymphony.com or by calling 942-5555.


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