Austin Mezzo-Soprano Laura Mercado-Wright Sings at Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar

Related Media

Laura Mercado-Wright, a mezzo soprano from Austin, Texas, will be featured in the 2013 Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music.

POTSDAM, NY (04/30/2013)(readMedia)-- Laura Mercado-Wright, a mezzo-soprano from Austin, Texas, is among only nine rising musicians chosen from a national search to take part in the 2013 Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar.

Now in its second season, the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar will feature the local artist in masterclasses and concerts from May 20 to May 26, at The Crane School of Music at The State University of New York at Potsdam. Audiences will be able to take in world-class recital performances throughout the week.

Metropolitan Opera star Stephanie Blythe '92 co-founded the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar, along with Executive Director Dr. Carleen Graham, a professor of opera at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music. The unique program, which is in residence at the College, is a venue for emerging singers and pianists to cultivate their artistry through contemporary American art song.

Six singers and three pianists (ages 23 to 35) were selected from a competitive national audition to work with Blythe and Music Director Dr. Alan Smith, a noted pianist, vocal coach and composer.

The 2013 Fall Island participants include:

• Kelly Ballou, a soprano from Shepherdsville, Ky.
• Bretton Brown, a pianist from Murray, Ky.
• Andrew Fuchs, a tenor from Kansas City, Mo.
• Bradley King, a baritone from Denton, Texas
• Laura Mercado-Wright, a mezzo-soprano from Austin, Texas
• Diana Newman, a soprano from Malibu, Calif.
• Yi Kai Sim, a pianist from Singapore
• Peter Walsh, a pianist from San Diego, Calif.
• Jennifer Youngs, a soprano from Overland Parks, Kan.

The nine emerging artists will take part in an immersive series of coaching sessions, masterclasses, lectures and recitals. The Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar is aimed at reinvigorating individual artistry through American art song, by energizing emerging artists of unique and promising ability.

Blythe and her frequent collaborator Craig Terry will present "We'll Meet Again: The Songs of Kate Smith" at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music on Tuesday, May 21 at 7:30 p.m, in a special performance to benefit the seminar. The recital was featured on a recent PBS broadcast of "Live from Lincoln Center."

Tickets for "We'll Meet Again" are $25 for the general public and $20 for SUNY Potsdam faculty, staff and students. All proceeds will benefit the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar. Contact the Community Performance Series Box Office at (315) 267-2277 or visit www.cpspotsdam.org to purchase tickets.

There will be two public masterclasses featuring Blythe and Smith working with the Fall Island participants, on Thursday, May 23 and Friday, May 24. The public masterclasses will both be held from 10 a.m. to noon in Snell Theater.

"The Music of Alan Louis Smith," a lecture-recital featuring the composer and the seminar participants, will be offered on Thursday, May 23 at 7 p.m. in the Ralph Wakefield Recital Hall.

A culminating recital featuring the seminar participants will be held on Saturday, May 25 at 7:30 p.m. in Snell Theater. These events are free, educational and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

About the musician:

Hailed by the New York Times as "superb," "dramatically astute" and "stunningly agile," mezzo-soprano Laura Mercado-Wright is a versatile performer of opera, oratorio, recital, chamber and experimental music. She has received recent critical acclaim for her world premiere performance in Charles Wuorinen's cantata "It Happens Like This," as well as her performance of Luciano Berio's "Circles" on its 50th anniversary at the Tanglewood Music Festival. Mercado-Wright made her debut with the Boston Pops Orchestra in 2010 in "An Evening of Cole Porter," sharing the stage with Broadway greats Jason Danieley and Kelli O'Hara, under the baton of Keith Lockhart. She has appeared in performance with the Tanglewood Music Festival, Ensemble Signal, Conspirare, Convergence Ensemble, Austin New Music Co-op, Voices of Change, Fort Worth Opera, Santa Fe Concert Association, Fort Worth Symphony, Plano Symphony, Voces Intimae, the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, Cliburn at the Modern and the Utah Festival Opera, as well as serving as a guest artist of the Janiec Opera Company at the Brevard Music Center. Her operatic roles include Rosina in "Il Barbiere di Siviglia," Sesto in "Giulio Cesare," Amastre in "Xerxes," Niklaus in "Les Contes D'Hoffman," Cherubino in "Le Nozze di Figaro," Dorabella in "Così fan Tutte," Second and Third Lady in "Die Zauberflöte," Hansel in "Hansel and Gretel," Meg Page in F"alstaff," and both Meg and Jo in Mark Adamo's "Little Women."

Recent engagements include the New York City premiere of "It Happens Like This" with Works and Process at the Guggenheim Museum, and "Fours Saints in Three Acts" with the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, as well as guest performances with the University of Texas New Music Ensemble, the SoundSpace Concert Series at the Blanton Museum of Art, three performances with the Southwest Chamber Music Ensemble at the Los Angeles International New Music Festival, and collaborations with composers Charles Wuorinen, Lembit Beecher, Shawn Allison and Gabriela Ortiz.

In coming seasons, Mercado-Wright will appear in performance with the Grammy Award-nominated ensemble Conspirare, as a guest artist at the new music festival, Fast Forward Austin, and as a guest performer at the June in Buffalo Music Festival. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Texas and a Master of Music degree from the University of Maryland, magna cum laude, and has studied voice with Linda Di Fiore, Delores Ziegler, Rebecca Folsom and Lynn Eustis.

About the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar:

Now in its second season, the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar provides a venue for emerging professional singers and collaborative pianists to hone their love of art song and the collaborative experience. Led by Metropolitan Opera star Stephanie Blythe as Artistic Director, and Music Director Alan Smith, along with Executive Director Carleen Graham and Associate Director Audrey Saccone, the seminar has invited six singers and three pianists to Potsdam, N.Y., for a week of intimate and intensive study. All music performed will feature an American composer.

To learn more about the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, visit www.fallisland.org.

About The Crane School of Music:

Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution.

For more information about The Crane School of Music, visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

###