Utah Vocal Arts Academy to perform at museum

r The Springville Arts Commission and the Springville Museum of Art are pleased to announce that the Utah Vocal Arts Academy is returning to the museum for a performance at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 19. This performance is free to the public.

The Academy’s Principal Artist Program provides advanced college and emerging professional singers with the opportunity to perform featured roles in a fully staged opera with orchestra, while exploring and refining Italian language and style skills. Each singer will participate in master classes with incredible guest artists including international superstars Deborah Voigt, Frank Lopardo and Wendy Bryn Harmer.

Metropolitan Opera tenor Anthony Laciura, one of the opera world’s most celebrated operatic singer/actors, will stage-direct “Don Giovanni” (sung in Italian with English super-titles) and teach a daily acting course.

Italian maestro Nicolas Giusti will conduct the Utah Lyric Opera orchestra in “Don Giovanni” and provide personal coaching to each program participant. All singers admitted into this program will perform a role in “Don Giovanni,” with each role double cast.

They also have the Utah Lyric Opera Studio Artist Program, now entering its seventh year, which is designed to provide advanced high-school age and early college age singers with acting training, role study, musical development and performance opportunities. The ultimate goal of the program is to develop young artists for future main-stage opportunities with Utah Lyric Opera and careers on the stage.

This year’s concert will feature select singers from around the country. They will perform selections from operas such as “Romeo et Juliette,” “Cosi fan tutte,” “Nozze di Figaro,” “Werther” and “I Pagliacci.” A chamber ensemble conducted by Giusti will provide the orchestration.

The singers include two from Utah and others from all over the USA: Esteban Senzig, Linday Cabaniss, Grace Wallace, Ebony Martin, Julia Powers, Melissa James and Elizabeth Joy Kelley.

Be sure to come early as this will be a night of superb performances of magnificent vocal music!