Marin Alsop Leads Mozart's The Magic Flute, February 24-27

Semi-staged production features singers from Washington National Opera's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program

Baltimore, Md. (February 3, 2011) - Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Music Director Marin Alsop leads the BSO, along with featured artists soprano Mari Moriya, tenor Jonathan Boyd, baritone Nathaniel Webster, bass Morris Robinson, tenor Peter Burroughs and singers from the Washington National Opera's (WNO) Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist program as well as the Baltimore Choral Arts Society in a semi-staged concert version of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute on Thursday, February 24 at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore and Saturday, February 26 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, February 27 at 3 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Directed by Michael Erhman, the full-length opera will be sung in its original German with English surtitles and English narration provided by Tony Tsendeas. Please see below for complete program details.

The Magic Flute, one of Mozart's most enduring and popular operatic works, follows the hero Tamino and his bird friend Papageno on their quest to save the beautiful Pamina from an evil sorcerer. In addition to the featured artists listed above, this comic opera's memorable melodies and arias will be presented by participants or alumni from WNO's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, including soprano Emily Albrink, mezzo-soprano Sarah Mesko, mezzo-soprano Cynthia Hanna, soprano Jegyung Yang, baritone Aleksey Bogdanov and tenor José Ortega. Founded in March 2002 and led by WNO General Director Plácido Domingo, the program is comprised of professional opera artists on the verge of international careers who train in residence with WNO.

Marin Alsop, conductor
Hailed as one of the world's leading conductors for her artistic vision and commitment to accessibility in classical music, Marin Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. With her inaugural concerts in September 2007, she became the first woman to head a major American orchestra. She also holds the title of conductor emeritus at the Bournemouth Symphony in the United Kingdom, where she served as the principal conductor from 2002-2008, and is music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California.

In 2005, Ms. Alsop was named a MacArthur Fellow, the first conductor ever to receive this prestigious award. In 2007, she was honored with a European Women of Achievement Award, in 2008 she was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2009 Musical America named her "Conductor of the Year."

A regular guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ms. Alsop appears frequently as a guest conductor with the most distinguished orchestras around the world. In addition to her performance activities, she is also an active recording artist with award-winning cycles of Brahms, Barber and Dvorak.

Marin Alsop attended Yale University and received her master's degree from The Juilliard School. In 1989, her conducting career was launched when she won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at Tanglewood where she studied with Leonard Bernstein.

Michael Ehrman, stage director
Michael Ehrman has won acclaim for his productions at such companies as Houston Grand Opera, Greater Miami Opera, Minnesota Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Atlanta Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, and Chicago Opera Theater. He recently was lauded for his 2008 production of Susannah and the 2006 staging of the 50th Anniversary The Ballad of Baby Doe at Central City Opera, a company where he has directed twenty productions, including a new Vanessa in 2005 and the worldpremiere of Henry Mollicone's Gabriel's Daughter in 2003. Other recent works include La Boheme for Indianapolis Opera and Madison Opera, Falstaff for Indianapolis Opera, Otello for DuPage Opera, Street Scene for the Minnesota Opera, Noye's Fluddle for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Die Zauberflote and The Mikado for the Colorado Symphony, and The Barber of Seville and The Sound of Music for Tulsa Opera. Ehrman's staging of the musical Carnival was named on several of Chicago's "Ten Best" lists for 2005.

In recent years, Ehrman has also directed The Crucible, Romeo et Juliette and Macbeth for Indianapolis Opera; The Tales of Hoffmann for Connecticut Opera; The Ballad of Baby Doe for Utah Opera and Indianapolis Opera; Carmen for Virginia Opera, and Die Zauberflöte for Wolf Trap. He staged the American Opera Series in Central City from 1996-1999, including the fortieth anniversary Ballad of Baby Doe (recorded by Newport Classics), Susannah, The Crucible, and Street Scene. Other works in his repertoire include Cavalleria Rusticana, Cosi Fan Tutte, Dialogues des Carmelites, Eugene Onegin, Hansel and Gretel, L'incoronazione di Poppea, Madama Butterfly, Manon, Pagliacci, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Rigoletto, Tosca, La Traviata, and The Turn of the Screw. Mr. Ehrman has extensive experience as a teacher and as author/director of many educational opera programs. He was Director of Opera at Northwestern University, for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and at Roosevelt University/Chicago College of Performing Arts. He has also directed at Yale University, Hartt School of Music, University of Kentucky, and Shenandoah University. He has been a frequent guest director at Indiana University, where he has staged Faust, The Ballad of Baby Doe, Romeo et Juliette, Manon, Susannah, and Le Nozze di Figaro. He served on the artistic staffs and was Stage Director/Acting Coach for the Young Artist Programs at Central City Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Wolf Trap, Greater Miami Opera, Virginia Opera, Lake George Opera, Utah Opera, The Israeli Vocal Arts Institute, Intermezzo Young Artist Program, the Brevard Music Center, the Berkshire Opera Festival, The Martina Arroyo Foundation, and the New National Theater, Tokyo.

In 2009 Ehrman staged The Medium and Trouble in Tahiti for The New England Conservatory, Albert Herring at University of Colorado, Susannah for Mobile Opera, and La Boheme for Indianapolis Opera and The Martina Arroyo Foundation. Ehrman's other recent projects included the Chicago premiere of Ronald Perera's The Yellow Wallpaper, Le Nozze di Figaro at the Hartt School, and The Sound of Music, Carmen, La Boheme, and Camelot at the Brevard Music Center.

Emily Albrink, Pamina
Hailed by The New York Times as "delightful and vocally strong and versatile," Emily Albrink is an alumna of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program at the Washington National Opera where she sang Frasquita in Carmen, Second Niece in Peter Grimes, Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos and Barbarina and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. Past seasons include her Carnegie Hall debut singing Nuria in Ainadamar with Dawn Upshaw and the Orchestra of St. Luke's and Despina in Cosi fan Tutte conducted by James Levine at the Tanglewood Music Center. Upcoming performances include Knoxville: Summer of 1915 at Alice Tully Hall.

Mari Moriya, Queen of the Night
Mari Moriya made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Queen of the Night in the acclaimed Julie Taymor production of Die Zauberflöte conducted by James Levine. She also performed this Glyndeborne on tour, Opera Leipzig, Palm Beach, Pittsburgh and Portland operas. She won the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition in Dublin and the Hans Gabor Prize at the Belvedere Singing Competition. Her current engagements include the title role in Lakmé at the Landestheater Linz and Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte for Seattle Opera.

Jonathan Boyd, Tamino
Recent engagements included Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at the Dallas Opera, Opera Cleveland and Arizona Opera; Narraboth in Salome at the Dallas Opera; Roméo in Roméo et Juliette at the Michigan Opera Theater; Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at the Portland Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City; debuts at Opéra de Nice and Opéra de Toulon as Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream; Teatro Colón in a live television broadcast as Werther; and Opera Royal de Wallonie in Belgium as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. Upcoming operatic engagements include debuts with Seattle Opera and San Diego Opera.

Daniel Cilli, Papageno
Daniel Cilli is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, Stetson University and has studied lieder at the Franz Schubert Institute of Baden bei Wien, Austria. He has worked with the Des Moines Metro Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Central City Opera, Utah Opera, San Francisco Lyric Opera, West Bay Opera and Amarillo Opera. He has performed with the Utah Symphony, San Juan Symphony, South Valley Symphony, Aspen Music Festival and anglewood Music Festival. Mr. Cilli's repertoire includes title roles in Eugene Onegin and Il Barbiere de Siviglia, Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette, Dandini in La Cenerentola, Belcore in L'Elisir d'amore and Albert in Werther.

Morris Robinson, Sarastro
Morris Robinson is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. He debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 2002 in their production of Fidelio. He has since appeared there as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, the King in Aida and in roles in Nabucco, Tannhäuser and Les Troyens and Salome. He has also appeared at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Florida Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Cincinnati Opera and the Opera Theater of St. Louis. His many roles include Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Ramfis in Aida, Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Commendatore in Don Giovanni.

Peter Burroughs, Monostatos
A highly engaging performer, Peter Joshua Burroughs has been praised for his versatility. This season, he returned to sing with the Washington National Opera, where he has performed in numerous productions. Other appearances include Washington Concert Opera, Signature Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, First Stage Milwaukee, Florentine Opera, Studio Lirico, Cortona Italy and Spanish Dance Theatre in London. Other recent appearances were with Alexandria Symphony and Maryland Studio Opera as Flute (Midsummer Night's Dream), Triquet (Eugene Onegin) and Max Schmeling (The Shadowboxer). He received critical acclaim for his performance in Pasion por la Zarzuela at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall.

Jegyung Yang, First Lady
Jegyung Yang is in her first season with the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program. She has appeared with Washington National Opera as the Slave in Salome, and will sing First Priestess in Iphigénie en Tauride later this season. Other roles include Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute (Seoul Art Center) and Musetta in La Bohème (Incheon World Opera Festival). This season includes a recital with the Dolce Suono Trio. She was awarded first prize overall and three special prizes at the 2007 International Osaka Music Competition (Japan) and a 2008 finalist in the 12th International Competition of Singing (Bilbao, Spain).

Sarah Mesko, Second Lady
Sarah Mesko is in her first season with the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program. This season, she will sing Suzuki in the Young Artist performance of Madama Butterfly. Her credits include the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and Charlotte in A Little Night Music (Rice University Opera Theater), the title role in Rinaldo (Central City Opera), La Sagesse and Sidonie in Armide (Mercury Baroque/Theatre de Gennvilliers), Dorothée in Cendrillon and Mercedes in Carmen (Aspen Opera Theater Center). In 2009, she was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions finalist and was a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant. She studied at University of Arkansas and Rice University as a graduate student.

Cynthia Hanna, Third Lady
In the 2010-2011 season, Cynthia Hanna sings the Page in Salome (Washington National Opera), Maddalena in Rigoletto (Beijing's Reignwood Theater), Spohr's Die letzten Dinge and Fanny Mendelssohn's Musik Für die Toten der Cholera Epidemie (American Symphony Orchestra) and Brahms' Zwei Gesänge (National Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players). Recent engagements include Suzuki in Madama Butterfly (Savonlinna Festival); performances while a Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist as Mercedes in Carmen and Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos (Washington National Opera); Suzuki in Madama Butterfly and Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte (Opera North); Mozart's Requiem, Debussy's La damoiselle elue and Bernstein's Mass (Utah Symphony); and Handel's Messiah (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra).

Danielle Talamantes, Papagena
Having returned to her native Washington, DC area, Danielle Talamantes has quickly become one of the regions most sought after soloists. Ms. Talamantes recently debuted as Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata with Fremont Opera. In 2011, American audiences can look for her as featured soloist in Mozart's Coronation Mass with the National Philharmonic Chorale & Orchestra, Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with Sacramento Opera, as soloist with the Oratorio Society of VA in Handel's Dixit Dominus and Schubert's Mass in G, as soloist with the Blacksburg Master Chorale in Haydn's Harmoniemesse and covering the role of Najade in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos with the Metropolitan Opera.

Ms. Talamantes' recent competition honors include 1st place in the Irene Dalis Opera San Jose, Irma M. Cooper Opera Columbus, XII Concurso de Trujillo, International Lotte Lehman Cybersing, NATSAA and Vocal Arts Society Discovery Series Competitions; 2nd place in the National Opera Association and Liederkranz Competitions, 4th place in the Seoul International Music Competition, as well as advancing as a finalist in the Licia Albanese Puccini Competition, Giulio Gari Foundation, Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition and Semifinalist in the Domingo Operalia and Quasthoff Das Lied Competitions. Ms. Talamantes holds degrees from Virginia Tech and Westminster Choir College.

Aleksey Bogdanov, Speaker and Second Armed Man
Aleksey Bogdanov is in his second year with the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program. This season he appeared with the Washington National Opera (WNO) as Silvano in Un Ballo in Maschera, the Cappadocian in Salome and Sharpless in the Young Artist performance of Madama Butterfly. Past WNO performances include the Wig Maker in Ariadne auf Naxos, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro and a grave digger in Hamlet. Other credits include Marcello in La Bohéme and Don Giovanni in Mozart's Don Giovanni (Opera North) and David in L'Amico Fritz (Merola Opera Program). He has also appeared with the Washington Concert Opera, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

José Ortega, First Armed Man
A native of Chihuahua, Mexico, tenor José Ortega joined the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program in 2008. His credits with Washington National Opera include Don José in Carmen (Opera Look?In), Don Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro, Vitellozzo in Lucrezia Borgia, and Marcellus in Hamlet. In spring 2010 he appeared in concert with the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist program at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Other recent roles include Alfredo in La Traviata (Tuscia Opera Festival), Luigi in Il Tabarro (Tom Muraco-Donna Vaughn Singer Seminar), Nemorino in L'elisir
d'amore (Tuscia Opera Festival), and Don Basilio The Marriage of Figaro (New Opera Festival di Roma). This season with WNO, Mr. Ortega will perform the role of Pinkerton in the Young Artist performance of Madama Butterfly.

Tony Tsendeas, narrator
Tony was the Artistic Director of Baltimore's internationally recognized Action Theater. The company was in residence at the Baltimore Theater Project and toured Northern Europe and Great Britain with its production, BeckettLand, a collection of short dramatic pieces by Samuel Beckett, set in a Ghost Carnival or Bemusement Park. Action's many lauded productions include a trip hop adaptation of The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, I Married A Fly, The Madman and the Nun, The American Dream, and Double O Xmas or I Was A Reindeer for the CIA.

An Artistic Associate of The Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, Mr Tsendeas has directed the company's acclaimed productions of Shakespeare's Macbeth, Othello, Julius Caesar and the parody The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), as well as Kimberley Lynn's Love For Words and most recently David Davelos' Wittenberg. Roles for the company include Sir Toby Belch in Twelth Night, Caliban in The Tempest, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, The Player in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Paroles in All's Well That Ends Well and recently Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. Tony has also performed at a variety of theaters regionally including Roundhouse Theater, Theater J, Woolly Mammoth Theater, Everyman Theater, Center Stage, Axis Theater and with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Additionally Tony has presented his one man show - The POE Show at a wide variety of venues regionally and has worked extensively for the Edgar Allan Poe House. Film and video work includes HBO's The Wire, NBC's Homicide: Life In The Streets, and appearances and voice over work for The Family Channel, The Learning Channel, and The Discovery Channel.

In addition, Mr. Tsendeas won a Maryland State Arts Council Award for his play The Adventures Of Felix, and has written a number of commissioned plays for The American Red Cross. His work as a teacher includes numerous residencies and workshops at Universities and Arts Centers including Johns Hopkins, The Maryland Institute College of Art, and The University of Maryland. He is Arts-In-Education playwriting instructor for The Maryland State Arts Council and conducts workshops for Young Audiences of Maryland. Tony is a member of the Theater Faculty of The Baltimore School for the Arts.

Baltimore Choral Arts Society
The Baltimore Choral Arts Society, now in its 43rd season, is one of Maryland's premier cultural institutions. The Symphonic Chorus, Full Chorus, Orchestra and Chamber Chorus perform throughout the mid-Atlantic region, as well as in Washington, D.C., New York and in Europe. In the summer of 2007, Music Director Tom Hall led the Chorus in a successful, three-city tour of France including sold-out performances in Paris and Aix-en-Provence. The Chorus has also appeared at Spain's prestigious Festival of the Costa del Sol.

For more than 10 years, WMAR Television, the ABC network affiliate in Maryland, has featured Choral Arts in an hour-long special, Christmas with Choral Arts, which won an Emmy Award in 2006. Mr. Hall and the chorus were also featured in a PBS documentary called Jews and Christians: A Journey of Faith, broadcast nationwide, and on National Public Radio's Special Coverage in 2001. On local radio, Mr. Hall is the host of Choral Arts Classics, a monthly program on WYPR that features the Choral Arts Chorus and Orchestra, and he is the culture editor on WYPR's Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast.

A recording with Dave Brubeck, featuring Brubeck's oratorio, The Gates of Justice, was released internationally on the NAXOS label in 2004; Choral Arts has two other recordings in current release: Christmas with Choral Arts, and a live recording of the Rachmaninoff All-Night Vigil. Appointed Music Director in 1982, Mr. Hall has added more than 100 new works to the BCAS repertoire, and he has premiered works by contemporary composers including Dave Brubeck Peter Schickele, Libby Larsen and Robert Sirota.

Tom Hall, director
Appointed Music Director in 1982, Tom Hall has added more than 100 new works to the Baltimore Choral Arts Society (BCAS) repertoire. In addition to his position with BCAS, he is an active guest conductor in the U.S. and Europe, including appearances with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, the Berkshire Choral Festival, Musica Sacra in New York, and Britten Sinfonia in Canterbury, England. He has prepared choruses for Leonard Bernstein, Robert Shaw and Helmuth Rilling, and he served for ten years as the chorus master of the Baltimore Opera Company.

Mr. Hall has served as the president of Chorus America, a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and has been an Artist in Residence at Indiana University, the Eastman School of Music, the University of Cincinnati, Temple University and Syracuse University. He has been the director of choral activities at Goucher College for 28 years, and has taught at the Peabody Conservatory, the University of Baltimore, Towson University, Morgan State University and Johns Hopkins University. He is also the culture editor on WYPR's Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast.

About Washington National Opera's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program
Founded in 2002 by Washington National Opera's General Director Placido Domingo, the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program is a leading resident training program for artists on the verge of international careers. The program offers exceptionally promising young singers, coach/accompanists, conductors, and stage directors a course of intensive training, study, career guidance and most importantly, performance opportunities in Washington, DC and beyond. As a cornerstone of WNO's commitment to the future of opera, the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program is dedicated to cultivating successful careers for its Young Artists and sharing their talents with audiences around the world.

COMPLETE PROGRAM DETAILS
The Magic Flute
Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 8 p.m. - Music Center at Strathmore
Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 8 p.m. - Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (JMSH)
Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 3 p.m. - JMSH

Marin Alsop, conductor
Michael Ehrman, stage director

Emily Albrink, Pamina*
Mari Moriya, Queen of the Night
Jonathan Boyd, Tamino
Daniel Cilli, Papageno
Morris Robinson, Sarastro
Peter Burroughs , Monostatos
Jegyung Yang, First Lady*
Sarah Mesko, Second Lady*
Cynthia Hanna , Third Lady*
Danielle Talamantes, Papagena
Danielle Buonaiuto, First Spirit
Elizabeth Merrill, Second Spirit
Julianne McCarthy, Third Spirit
Aleksey Bogdanov, Speaker and Second Armed Man*
José Ortega, First Armed Man*
Tony Tsendeas, narrator
Baltimore Choral Arts Society
Tom Hall, director

Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)
*Indicates Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program participants or alumni

Tickets range from $14 to $88. Tickets are available through the BSO Ticket Office, 877.BSO.1444, 410.783.8000 or BSOmusic.org.