CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
The Song Continues...Marilyn Horne Master Class

Weill Recital Hall
Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 7:30 PM

Betsy Diaz, Soprano
Allison Sanders, Mezzo-Soprano
Rodney Westbrook, Tenor
Joseph Barron, Bass-Baritone
Adam Bloniarz, Piano
Adam Nielsen, Piano
Elizabeth Dow, Soprano
Jean Bernard Cerin, Baritone

A program of The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall in partnership with The Marilyn Horne Foundation

Professional Training Workshops are made possible, in part, by Mr. and Mrs. Nicola Bulgari and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

More Information:

A festival celebrating the art of the vocal recital, The Song Continues ... began in 1997 under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation and is now in residence at Carnegie Hall. Watch acclaimed mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne as she instructs and critiques young singers - the rising vocal stars of tomorrow.

Betsy Diaz, Soprano
Marilyn Horne

She has been called the “Star-Spangled Singer” and “the Heifetz of singers.” In 2002, after a career in which for over four decades Marilyn Horne had dominated her field, Opera News said, “Marilyn Horne, whose face and song have been in the light—in so many places, in so many styles, through so many media, for so many years—may be the most influential singer in American history.”

Marilyn Horne continues to be one of America’s most beloved artists and one of the busiest. She has received numerous accolades and honors in the arts as well as academia. Among her many worldwide prizes are the Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France’s Ministry of Culture, the Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, the Fidelio Gold Medal from the International Association of Opera Directors, and the Covent Garden Silver Medal for Outstanding Service. Miss Horne’s international success in the most difficult of coloratura mezzo-soprano roles led to the revival of many of Rossini’s and Handel’s greatest operas. In an unprecedented move, she received Italy’s first Rossini Medaglia d’Oro, created especially for her.

Miss Horne celebrated 26 years as a leading lady at the Metropolitan Opera, and was honored for 39 seasons at the San Francisco Opera. Her many academic awards include numerous honorary doctorates from schools that include The Juilliard School, Johns Hopkins University, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Miss Horne was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and received a President’s Merit Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Opera News Award, and a Kennedy Center Honor. Miss Horne was also inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was honored in Washington, DC, as a 2009 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honors.

In January 1994, in celebration of her birthday, Miss Horne launched the Marilyn Horne Foundation, dedicated to the art of the vocal recital and presentation of young singers in recital throughout the United States. Since its inception, the foundation has introduced 114 young singers in vocal recitals and educational programs in New York City and many cities across the country, reaching 120,000 students and adults.

Miss Horne is on the faculty at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. As Vocal Program Director, she is teaching public master classes and private lessons to some of the world’s most promising young artists. She has been responsible for reviving full-length staged opera performances at the Academy.

Born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, Marilyn Horne began her musical studies with her father and first sang in public at the age of two. When she was 11, her family moved to Long Beach, California. After completing high school at Long Beach Polytechnic, she studied voice with William Vennard and Gwendolyn Koldofsky at the University of Southern California. During that time, she also participated in master classes with Lotte Lehmann at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and Cal Tech in Pasadena. At the age of 20, she made her operatic debut with the Los Angeles Guild Opera and dubbed the voice of Carmen in the highly successful film of Carmen Jones, starring Dorothy Dandridge. Her early operatic career included three years at the Gelsenkirchen Municipal Opera in Germany, where she sang a wide variety of starring roles. In 1960, she returned to the US, where she presented her sensational debut in Berg’s Wozzeck with the San Francisco Opera Company, followed by her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in 1961. In September of 1999, Miss Horne fulfilled a personal goal of singing in all of the 50 states with an engagement in Laramie, Wyoming.


Participating Artists

Betsy Diaz, Soprano, 21
Hometown: Miami, FL
Education: Felix Varela Senior High School
Awards: Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition Prize Winner, 2008 and 2009; Sun Coast Opera Guild Competition Prize Winner, 2009; Florida Grand Opera Scholar, 2006
Upcoming: Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors), Palm Beach Opera

Allison Sanders, Mezzo-Soprano
Allison Sanders, Mezzo-Soprano, 22
Hometown: Memphis, TN
Education: M.M., Curtis Institute of Music (current), B.M., Curtis Institute of Music
Recent: Bianca (The Rape of Lucretia), Opera Company of Philadelphia; Carmen (Carmen), The Chautauqua Institute; Melibea (Il viaggio a Reims), Curtis Opera Theatre; Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Curtis Opera Theatre
Upcoming: Cleopatra (Antony and Cleopatra), Curtis Opera Theatre; Flora (La traviata), Opera Company of Philadelphia

Rodney Westbrook, Tenor
Rodney Westbrook, Tenor, 30
Hometown: Andrews, TX
Education: B.M., University of Oklahoma (current)
Awards: Gerald Norman Scholarship, University of Oklahoma; OU Opera Guild Scholarship, University of Oklahoma; University School of Music Scholarship; Music Academy of the West, 2009
Upcoming: Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw), University of Oklahoma Opera

Joseph Barron, Bass-Baritone
Joseph Barron, Bass-Baritone, 24
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Education: M.M., Curtis Institute of Music (current); B.M., Oberlin Conservatory
Awards: Award Winner, Opera Index Encouragement, 2009; Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges Winner, 2009; First Place, Irma M. Cooper Opera Columbus International Vocal Competition, 2009; MONC Audition Washington, DC, Regional Encouragement Award Winner, 2009; MONC Audition Philadelphia District Winner, 2008
Upcoming: Bartolo (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Enobarbus (Antony and Cleopatra), Count Rodolfo (La sonnambula), Curtis Opera Theatre

Adam Bloniarz, Piano
Adam Bloniarz, Piano, 26
Hometown: Albany, NY
Education: M.M., Yale School of Music; B.S. Yale College
Awards: Wrexham Prize, Yale College; Phi Beta Kappa

Adam Nielsen, Piano
Adam Nielsen, Piano, 28
Hometown: Layton, UT
Education: D.M.A., SUNY Stony Brook; B.M., Utah State University; The Juilliard School
Awards: First Prize, National Steinway MTNA Competition; award winner in the Kingsville and New Orleans international piano competitions
Upcoming: Performances at the Heifetz Institute, Wolfeboro, NH

Elizabeth Dow, Soprano
Elizabeth Dow, Soprano, 23
Hometown: Lindenhurst, NY
Education: M.M., Peabody Institute (current); B.M., Peabody Institute
Awards: Paul Straney Award, 2008, Long Island Masterworks; Bernstein Memorial Prize in Opera, 2008, Peabody Institute
Upcoming: Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Peabody Opera Theater

Jean Bernard Cerin, Baritone
Jean Bernard Cerin, Baritone, 24
Hometown: Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Education: M.M., New England Conservatory (current); B.A., St. Joseph’s University
Awards: Helen Haxton Stare Presidential Scholarship in Voice
Upcoming: Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), New England Conservatory