Invitation: Music Around the World

I’m very enthusiastic to forward this information about our Jan. 23rd meeting at the home of Faye Briggs.  Natalie Arduino and Erin Alcorn will be perform for us a program called Music Around the World. You will remember Natalie Arduino from her wonderful program along with Donnie Ray Albert and Jennifer Chung last June.  Lyric soprano Erin Alcon, who replaces an ailing Jennifer Chung on this program, has a degree in vocal performance from The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and is currently working towards a Master of Music at the University of North Texas in Denton. I think this program promises to be equally thrilling.  And their selection of arias and duets is sure to please everyone!

Please put this date on your calendar, and look for the invitation which will arrive soon.

Marilyn Halla

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Artist Biographies

Natalie Arduino

Natalie Arduino, Mezzo Soprano

Natalie Arduino, mezzo-soprano, has received critical acclaim in opera, concert and early music performances for her versatility, vitality and her “beautiful, clear voice and musical sensitivity.” Ms. Arduino, an alumna of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, has appeared throughout the country with many opera companies, festivals and orchestras, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. 

Other appearances include as alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Masterworks Chorus at Carnegie Hall; singing with the Little Orchestra Society in its “Vivaldi’s Venice” series at Alice Tully Hall; and as the Mother in the Little Orchestra Society’s annual production of Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors in Avery Fisher Hall, with the composer present. 

Recent performances by Natalie Arduino include the role of Mary Magdalene in the world premiere of David Evan Thomas’ oratorio The First Apostle in conjunction with Grace Song, Inc., Durufle’s Requiem with St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas, Corigliano’s Fern Hill under the baton of Constantina Tsailanou with the Arts District Chorale, a solo recital for Voces Intimae and appearing as a member of the operatic quartet aboard the APHC@Sea 2013 (A Prairie Home Companion). She reprised the role of the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors in January 2015 with the TowerArts Series at Highland Park Methodist Church. She can be heard as Miss Todd in Menotti’s Old Maid and the Thief, available on Albany Records. 

Natalie Arduino received her Bachelor of Music (cum laude) degree from Southern Methodist University and her Master of Music from the Mannes College of Music in New York.

Erin Alcorn

Erin Alcorn, Soprano

Praised for her “beautiful, limpid quality (Theater Jones 2014),” Erin Alcorn is a lyric soprano from Dallas, Texas. Erin was most recently seen as Zerlina in Don Giovanni with the University of North Texas Opera Theater, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with the Oberlin in Italy Opera Theater, and Adina in The Elixir of Love with Dallas Opera Outreach. She was a 201 4- 201 5 Dallas Opera young artist. Upcoming engagements include Goldilocks in a newly commissioned comic operetta, Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Mark Landson with Open Classical Dallas in 201 5- 201 6.

Erin has performed as a soloist in concert and for various engagements with Voces Intimae: The art of Song, Musica Nova, the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas, and The Dallas Opera. She performed the roles of La Bergere and La Chouette in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges with the Oberlin Opera Theater. Her other stage credits with Oberlin include Giulietta (I Capuleti e i’ Monfecchi), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Za’ire (Les lndes Galantes), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), and Drusilla (L’incoronazione di Poppea). Erin was also seen as Casilda (The Gondoliers) with the Oberlin Gilbert and Sullivan Society. On the contemporary~side of things, she performed in the staged production of Exercices de Style by French- Canadian composer Jose Evangelista with the Oberlin Opera Theater, and was invited to sing in Steve Reich’s Music for 78 Musicians and David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble.

Erin was a 2015 Oberlin in Italy Opera Artist, a 2013 Operaworks Advanced Artist, and a 2011 Lieder Studio Artist with the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS). She was a recipient of the 2015 Women’s Voice Award from The Texas Women’s Chorus. She placed First in State for the Arden J. Yockey Scholarship for Voice sponsored by the Tuesday Musical Association and second place in the Hal Leonard Vocal Competition.

Erin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and is currently working towards a Master of Music in Opera at the University of North Texas. Erin grew up in Coppell, Texas and sang with the Children’s and Youth Chorus of Greater Dallas from 2000 to 2008. Learn more about her work at www.erinalcorn.com.

Mary Dibbern

Mary Dibbern, Pianist

Mary Dibbern recently joined The Dallas Opera as Music Director for Education and Family Programs beginning with the 2012-13 season. She is on the adjunct faculty of the University of North Texas, where she teaches French for singers. Dibbern is also a PhD candidate in Humanities-Aesthetic Studies at the University of Texas Dallas. Dibbern continues for the eighth consecutive summer on the faculty of the University of Miami in Salzburg. She is an internationally known specialist in the field of operatic vocal coaching, recital accompaniment, and young artist programs, with appearances in Europe, the United States and Asia.

Mary Dibbern was graduated summa cum laude from SMU with a Master of Music in accompaniment under the direction of Maestro Paul Vellucci. She resided in France from 1978 to 2009, where she studied with Nadia Boulanger, Pierre Bernac, Dalton Baldwin and Gérard Souzay. After study with Hans Hotter, Erik Werba, Brigitte Fassbaender and Irmgaard Seifreid, among others, she was awarded the Franz Schubert Prize in Accompaniment from the Franz Schubert Institute in Baden-bei-Wein, Austria. During her time in France, she was guest coach for the Opéra National de Paris, as well as for all of the major French opera companies. She also worked in Switzerland, Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, Lithuania, Latvia, China and Japan. In the US, she was guest coach at Fort Worth Opera, Seattle Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Memphis and the Hawai’i Opera Theatre. She was Head of Music at Minnesota Opera for three seasons, where she collaborated closely with composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell on their world premiere Silent Night, which won the Pulitzer Price for Music 2012.

Mary Dibbern is the author of five books on French opera, the Performance Guide series, as well as the definitive book on the life and works of French composer Jacques Leguerney, all published by Pendragon Press. Her seventh title will be a translation of the new biography of Jules Massenet, Massenet en toutes lettres by Anne Bessand-Massenet, the composer’s great-niece. Dibbern represents the Estate of Jacques Leguerney as Editorial Consultant for the Parisian company Musik Fabrik’s publications of Leguerney’s vocal and instrumental music. She is a recording artist for Harmonia Mundi France (for mélodies of Leguerney with baritone Kurt Ollmann) and Maguelone (Offenbach au menu). Her recording 28 Mélodies of Jacques Leguerney, produced by Claves and Radio Suisse Romande, with singers Danielle Borst, Brigitte Balleys and Philippe Huttenlocher, won the Grand Prix du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros.

Mary Dibbern  is currently a candidate for the PhD in Humanities-Aesthetic Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Photos on this page by Ed Flaspoehler