Sasha Cooke and Kelly Markgraf reprise transgender opera As One

Sasha Cooke and Kelly Markgraf rehearsing As One

The real life husband and wife team of Kelly Markgraf and Sasha Cooke will reprise their roles of "Hannah before" and "Hannah after" in Laura Kaminsky's As One at the Hawaii Opera. There will be four performances from January 11-16 at the Aloha Tower Pier 10 Cruise Ship Terminal in Honolulu. Tickets are available online.

The couple premiered the piece in 2014 at The Brooklyn Academy of Music and will perform it together again at the Chautauqua Opera on August 7th.

Two singers, a baritone and a mezzo-soprano, together portray the character Hannah.  The two singers embody a young boy who knows he is different but can't understand how or why. The 70-minute opera traces the life of young Hannah through her eventual gender reassignment. 
 
Kaminsky was inspired to write the opera after reading an article in the New York Times in 2008 about a New Jersey marriage in which one of the parties transitioned from male to female, transforming the couple from straight to gay. The opera is based on the life experience of noted filmmaker Kimberly Reed. 

After wrapping up As One, the couple travels to the drier climate of Arizona, where they will perform a concert version of Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, his one-act opera from the early ‘50s about life in suburban America. Performances are with the Tucson Symphony and run from February 2-4. 

Happy Birthday, Andrew Garland!!!

 

Andrew Garland in Hawaii

We recently posted about Andrew Garland's performances in Pagliacci and Carmina Burana with Hawaii Opera. We were fortunate enough to get a picture of the Massachusetts native in his Barihunks tee shirt as he set off to hit the waves. 

We also wanted to celebrate his birthday today, as he is one of our favorite singers on the scene today. His CD of American songs on GPR Records with pianist Donna Loewy remains one of our favorite baritone recitals.

He'll be returning to his homestate on Friday, May 16 for a Celebrity Benefit Concert at Plymouth's Spire Center for Performing Arts with accompanist Warren Jones. 


Andrew Garland launched his career as a student in Kingston, Massachusetts. He has been heard in opera performances and concert halls across the country, including appearances at Boston Lyric Opera, Chorus Pro Musica, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Seattle Opera, Knoxville Opera, Colorado Bach Ensemble, Boston Baroque, New York City Opera and more.

Tickets for the Celebrity Benefit Concert are $40 and are available online or by calling (508) 746-4488.

Andrew Garland in Pagliacci/Carmina Burana and World Premiere

Andrew Garland

We've been huge fans of American barihunk Andrew Garland since the beginning of his career. We realized the true extent of his amazing artistry with the release of his CD American Portraits on GPR Records. Garland keeps his incredible body in shape by running and biking (and apparently some weight lifting, as well).

He opened last night at the Hawaii Opera in a double-bill of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and Orff's Carmina Burana. Garland is performing both Silvio in Pagliacci and the baritone solo in Carmina Burana. He's joined by the talented young soprano Elizabeth Caballero, who is singing Nedda. There are two performances remaining, a matinee on March 30 and an evening performance on April 1st. Tickets are available online. If the video of Garland singing Estuans Interius from Carmina Burana is any indication, it should be an incredible performance.

If you can't get away to the island paradise to catch Garland, you can hear him on April 13th in Easton, Pennsylvania where he will be the soloist in the world premiere of composer Gabriela Lena Frank's Songs of Cifar and the Sweet Sea composed for the Lafayette Choirs and featuring the Chiara String Quartet.

She wrote the music to texts by the Nicaraguan poet Pablo Antonio Cuadra (1912-2002). As a young man, Cuadra spent more than two decades sailing the waters of Lake Nicaragua, meeting peasants, fishermen, sailors, woodcutters, and timber merchants in his travels. From such encounters, he was inspired to construct a cycle of poems that recount the odyssey of a harp-playing mariner, Cifar, who likewise travels the waters of Lake Nicaragua.

The concert is free to the public and it's only a 90 minute drive from New York City or Philadelphia. 

Local Paper Heralds Return of Gregory Gerbrandt

Colorado native Gregory Gerbrandt is returning to his hometown of Greeley to star in two performances. The Greeley Tribune ran this feature on the emerging star in anticipation of his performance with the Greeley Chorale on April 3 and a performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah and Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Got Me Flowers" at the Greeley Congregational Church on April 10.

Gerbrandt recently wowed audiences at the Hawaii Opera with his intense portrayal of Enrico in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." In July, his recording of Kamran Ince's "The Judgment of Midas" will be released on Naxos.

The singer comes from great musical stock, as his father led the University of Northern Colorado opera program for 21 years. 

Here is an amateur video of him singing "Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific.



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