20th Anniversary Concert: An Evening of World Premieres

20th Anniversary Concert: An Evening of World Premieres will benefit the The Riverside Opera Ensemble, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to serving artists and audiences through a diverse program of music theatre production, creation, experimentation and education. Highlights of the event will include:

“A Woman’s Plight”: The world premiere performance of a new performance piece by Nathan R. Matthews with texts by Edgar Allan Poe, starring Harolyn Blackwell. Ms. Blackwell appeared as Cunegonde in the Hal Prince revival of Candide and began her career on Broadway in the revival of West Side Story.

“On Wing of Song”: David Del Tredici, the Pulitzer prize winning composer whose work has been performed by the world’s leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, has been commissioned by the company to write a new song cycle for this evening American music for singers. Hila Plitmann, an internationally acclaimed singer who is known for her collaborations with Del Tredici will premiere the new cycle.

“Music for Friends”: The program will also include world premieres of music by Stephen Dembski and Patrick Byers. The Byers’s cycle, “Music for Friends,” include cello and clarinet in their instrumentation.