42nd Annual Abbey Bach Festival

Thursday, July 25

Program and Artists subject to change.

8 PM Damian Center

Amelia Watson, soprano

Eric Malson, piano

(personal website)

(See program below)

Described by Opera News as having "a rich, glowing lyric sound destined for the heights", soprano Amelia Watkins has performed with leading orchestras and opera companies in the United States, Canada, Asia and Europe. She has recently appeared with the New York City Opera, the Estates Theatre/National Theatre Prague, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall, Weill Hall, Lincoln Centre, the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Verbier Festival (Switzerland), the Gewandhaus (Germany), The National Arts Centre (Ottawa) and in concert in Hong Kong. Her operatic roles include Norina (Don Pasquale), Despina (Così fan Tutte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Musetta (La Bohème), Mme. Herz (The Impresario), Gretel (Hansel & Gretel), Frasquita (Carmen); oratorio roles include Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and Exultate Jubilate, and the Fauré Requiem. Embracing musical styles from Bach to Berio and beyond, Watkins specializes in the works of living composers, performing premieres by Augusta Read Thomas, Missy Mazzoli, Manfred Trojahn, Michael Gordon, Corey Dargel, Greg Spears and Mohammed Fairouz. In January 2013, Amelia debuted the role of Mabrouka in the staged premiere of Mohammed Fairouz’s opera Sumeida’s Song, as part of the inaugural season of the Prototype Festival. Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times praised “the soprano Amelia Watkins, who brings bright sound and touching vulnerability to her performance…” Amelia can be heard in recording on New Growth (Albany Records), on the Grammy-nominated Bobby McFerrin recording Vocabularies, in Missy Mazzoli's Song From The Uproar (New Amsterdam Records), and on various film and television scores.

Eric Malson is an active soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician whose activities have taken him throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. As soloist, he has appeared with the North Carolina Symphony, Columbus (Ohio) Symphony, Manhattan Mozart Orchestra, Orquestra da Fundação Gulbenkian, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Oak Ridge Symphony and Prince William Symphony orchestras. As a collaborating pianist with the Steans Institute for Young Artists, he has appeared frequently at the Ravinia Festival, as well as the Tanglewood, Norfolk (Conn.), Wexford (Ireland), Caramoor (NY), Scotia (Halifax), Chautauqua, Évora (Portugal and Verso il Millennio (Riva del Garda, Italy) festivals, and has appeared in concert with members of the Hagen, Vogler, Alexander, Lark, Cavani, and Ciompi quartets. He has served on the opera faculties of the Juilliard School of Music and the Mannes College of Music, as well as accompanying the chamber music faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music. Malson has served as official accompanist for various competitions, including the Eurovision Young Musicians Competition, Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition and the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions. He has appeared in concert with sopranos Eva Urbanová, Deborah Voigt, tenors Thomas Studebaker, Lawrence Brownlee and Charles Reid, baritone Christophorèn Nomura and bass-baritone Alfred Walker among many others.

PROGRAM