World-class music for the international community of Queens

Contact:

Denise Jaklitsch                                                                                 718-326-4455, ext. 16

QSO Publicity & Marketing                                                      djak@queenssymphony.org

 

FEBURARY 2006

F O R     I M M E D I A T E    R E L E A S E

 

Queens Symphony Orchestra’s

Love! Dance! Music!

 As part of the Masterworks Concert Series

Stuart Malina, TONY-winning Music Director Finalist/Conductor
Theresa Santiago, Soprano
Brian Ernstes, Tenor
Lane Alexander, EMMY Nominated Tap Dancer

 

Saturday, February 11, 2006 at 7 pm

Queensborough Community College Performing Arts Center

(56th Avenue & Springfield Blvd., Bayside)

 

Queens Symphony Orchestra (QSO) lets you get an early start on Valentine’s celebrations with Love! Dance! Music! to be performed in our artistic home, Queensborough Community College Performing Arts Center, Bayside.  In addition to a grand program featuring world-class music and world-class guest artists, there is a special holiday contest for ticket purchasers to the event.  *Contest details provided at end of this press release.

 

In its search for a new music director, QSO is honored to work with the celebrated, multi-talented conductor, Stuart Malina, in Love! Dance! Music!  Among this Maestro’s many outstanding achievements is his coveted TONY win for the orchestration of Billy Joel’s songs for the Broadway musical Movin’ Out.  Later in the year, Malina also makes his debut with the distinguished New York Pops performing as pianist AND conductor at Carnegie Hall. Music Director and Conductor of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra since June 2000, Stuart Malina has also held appointments at the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra (Music Director 1996-2003), and with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra (Associate Conductor, 1993-1997). An acclaimed international concert pianist and conductor, he has performed on stages and opera podiums across the world and on Broadway - where he has conducted over twenty musical theater productions including West Side Story, Prom Queens Unchained and Porgy & Bess.

- more -

pg. 2 QSO’s Love! Dance! Music!

 

Conductor Stuart Malina will lead the QSO and its guest artists in a wonderful evening of music that includes The Barber of Seville Overture (Rossini), Hungarian Dances #5 & #6 (Brahms), The Flower Song from Carmen (Bizet), and two works from Madame Butterfly (Puccini).  The concert’s second half includes Morton Gould’s Tap Dance Concerto, featuring world-acclaimed tap dancer Lane Alexander, and Romeo and Juliet (Tchaikovsky).

 

Guest Artist Bios

Theresa Santiago, Soprano, has attracted international attention for her highly individual style and beautiful, seamlessly integrated lyric soprano voice. Her first solo CD on the Musical Heritage label features works by Spanish composers. As an accomplished opera and concert singer, Ms. Santiago has sung at London’s Wigmore Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center. She’s performed Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Hollywood Bowl amongst other opera venues. Theresa Santiago is a 1st Place winner of the distinguished Naumberg Competition.

 

Brian Ernstes, Tenor, won the 2nd Annual Mario Lanza Competition in New York City in 2005; he then performed with the New York City Opera in the role as Calaf in Turandot. Additional performance credits include Aida, New Moon, Die Fledermaus, Merry Widow, Marriage of Figaro, Daughter of the Regiment, Faust, Anna Bolena, Don Carlos, Orfeo, Don Pasquale, Coyote Tales, Carmen, L’Italiana in Algeria, Magic Flute, Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem, Lord Nelson Mass, and Hello Dolly in addition to singing roles in Il Trovatore and Cavalleria Rusticana.

 

Lane Alexander, an EMMY Nominated Tap Dancer, has choreographed some of the great American musicals including the second national tour of The Tap Dance Kid, Oklahoma, Mame, The Music Man and 42nd Street. He was featured in the motion picture Outtakes, choreographed and performed for the TV series The Untouchables. This great artist has appeared in performance in musical theatre, motion pictures and on television programs throughout the world. Mr. Alexander is co-founder of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project – the oldest and largest institution dedicated to the presentation of American tap dance - and danced as principal and soloist with the National Tap Dance Company of Canada and, Austin on Tap.  He was commissioned by the Chicago Sinfonietta to choreograph and perform the 40th Anniversary of Morton Gould’s Tap Dance Concerto, performed at Carnegie Hall, as part of a tribute to the late Maestro Gould.

 

QSO’s VALENTINE’S CONTEST AT LOVE! DANCE! MUSIC!

Ticket purchasers will be eligible to win a Weekend Getaway Package that includes: hotel night stay in deluxe suite, limousine round-trip service from home, dinner & breakfast in suite or hotel restaurant, champagne, chocolate dipped strawberries and one dozen long stem red roses – courtesy of the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel.  The winning ticket will be announced during the concert. You must be present to win.

- more -

pg. 3 QSO’s Love! Dance! Music!

 

 

Editors please note: Individual digital images of the artists are available upon request to the QSO.

 

 

Ticket prices to the Love! Dance! Music! concert are as follows:

Adults $25/Orchestra, $20/Balcony; Seniors/Students $18.50; Children (12 and under) $10; groups of 10 or more get 20% off.

 

You can order tickets in advance through the QSO by calling

718-326-4455, ext. 20. 

 

 

 

 

# # #

 

 

Queens Symphony Orchestra

80-00 Cooper Avenue, Bldg. 22

Glendale, NY 11385

P: 718-326-4455   F: 718-326-4499

www.queenssymphony.org