Masterclass with Adrienne Danrich, soprano
Featuring student performers from the Voice Division and Opera Theatre St. Louis Artist-in-Training program. Free and open to the public.
Performers:
Oluwatoni John, student of Tammy Campbell
Maseo Mercer, student of Benjamin Worley
Brittany Rogus, student of Kelly Daniel Decker
Jace Heigman, Opera Theatre St. Louis Artist-in-Training, Kirkwood High School
Sandra Geary, piano
Adrienne Danrich:
The voice of Midwest Emmy-winning Soprano Adrienne Danrich has been described as “fresh liquid-silver” and “meltingly tender in its high, floating vulnerability” by Opera News. La Cronaca del Wanderer describes her as “…soprano lirico spinto autentico,” or “an authentic lyric spinto soprano.”
Ms. Danrich made her San Francisco Opera stage debut as Micaela in Bizet’s Carmen after having covered in two of the companies’ prior seasons as Elizabeth in the French version of Verdi’s Don Carlos and Liu in Puccini’s Turandot.
In 2006, Ms. Danrich received a commission from Cincinnati Opera to write and perform a one-woman show: This Little Light of Mine: The Stories of Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price. This production, which is a self-described live documentary, premiered in 2007 at the Cincinnati Opera and has since been presented over fifty times in various venues nationwide including The Mann Performing Arts Center as the opening act for the Philadelphia Orchestra, Next Act Theater, Antioch College, Central State University, Jackson State University, MEJ Artists Series, University of Southern Mississippi, and Wright State University, and a newly orchestrated version with the Chamber Orchestra of Laredo. PBS Milwaukee (MPTV) filmed and televised This Little Light of Mine in February 2011 and Ms. Danrich recently won a Midwest Emmy® for Outstanding Achievement for On-Camera Talent as a Performer and Narrator. PBS Cincinnati (WCET) filmed a newly envisioned original televised version of the show, which will air in the Cincinnati area in March 2012.
Ms. Danrich received her second commission from Indiana University of Pennsylvania-Lively Arts Concert Series in 2010. The new show, An Evening in the Harlem Renaissance, had its debut in February 2011 and was extraordinarily well received. She has since performed An Evening in the Harlem Renaissance at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in a collaborative production between Cincinnati Opera and the Taft Museum, which included students and faculty from her Alma Mater CCM. Most recently she performed the show at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and had a four-show run of the show at the Next Act Theater.
Ms. Danrich made her professional debut as Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zaubeflöte with Kentucky Opera while still a part of the Artist Diploma program at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Her vocal finesse and musicality have garnered her much success in the Mozart repertoire. She made debuts with Sarasota Opera, Opera Pacific, and Dayton Opera as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro and her Lyric Opera of San Antonio debut as Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte. Ms. Danrich returned to the Dayton Opera stage as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.
Most recently, Ms. Danrich sang the role of Serena in Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess with Dayton Opera, Sister Rose in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking with Fort Worth Opera. Patience in excerpts from Paula Kimper’s Patience and Sarah with American Opera Projects, and Tamara in a reading of excerpts from Stefania de Kenessey’s developing opera Bonfire of the Vanities. Ms. Danrich has also sung the role of Rosalinda in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus with Lyric Opera of San Antonio, Azelia in Still’s Troubled Island for the William Grant Still Festival, and Mrs. Gloop in the workshop of Peter Ashe’s opera Golden Ticket. With Cincinnati Opera, she performed the High Priestess in Verdi’s Aida, Anna in Verdi’s Nabucco, Cilla in excerpts from Richard Danielpour’s Margaret Garner, and understudied the role of Mimi in Puccini’s La Boheme. Ms. Danrich also performed with Kenya Opera in various venues throughout Africa in Nairobi and Mombasa.
On the concert stage, Ms. Danrich has performed selections from Porgy and Bess with Sir Willard White and the San Francisco Symphony, the Rigoletto quartet and Porgy and Bess Suite with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Brahms Requiem with the Cape Cod Symphony, Bryan Symphony and the St. George’s Choral Society, The Ordering of Moses and selections from Die Fledermaus with the Dayton Philharmonic, Three Divas with Northern Kentucky Symphony, the Bachianas Brasilieras with Fort Wayne Philharmonic and The Orchestra of St. Luke’s Outreach, Dido in Dido and Aeneas with Orchestra of St. Luke’s Outreach, John Carter’s Spiritual Cantata with Louisville Orchestra, Home for the Holidays with Cincinnati Symphony, and opera Galas with the Laredo Philharmonic, Hartt Symphony and Hamilton Fairfield Symphony.
Ms. Danrich made her soloist debut at Carnegie Hall with the New England Symphonic Ensemble in Beethoven’s Mass in C and Mozart’s Mass in G. She made her Alice Tully Hall debut with The Little Orchestra of New York performing arias and duets by Vivaldi. Ms. Danrich sang her first Beethoven Ninth Symphony with the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra and the Cape Cod Times raved that “Young soprano Adrienne Danrich… added a glistening top to the ensemble work and sang solo passages with an unforced bell-like tone that penetrated to the far corners of the hall.”
Ms. Danrich is a native of St. Louis, MO and is an alumna of Eastman School of Music and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Ms. Danrich has recorded Only Heaven by Ricky Ian Gordon with PS Classics, Age to Age with OCP Publications, Original Songs of Sacred Slumber and Solitude with Soli Deo Gloria Productions and A Tribute to William Warfield with the Eastman School of Music.