Sedalia to Harlem - A Celebration of Black History
Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Join MRP founder Maestro David Close as he returns to host and guide you through musical gems of the jazz, opera and African American Spiritual genres, tracing the rich tradition of black music, art and culture in America.
Artists:
Jay Aubrey Jones, Baritone
Geraldine McMillian, Soprano
Byron Singleton, Tenor
Barbara Podgurski, Pianist
Maestro David Close, Host and Pianist
Program to include the following works:
Maple Leaf Rag - Ride on King Jesus - Let My People - Deep River - A Witness - Fiyer - Ride Up the Chariot - A City Called Heaven - No Way's Tired - Lonely House - Tell Her - White Witch of Jamaice - Simple Song - Nessun Dorma - Carolina Shout - Widmung - Von ewige liebe - Botschaft - Summertime - It Ain't Necessarily So - Bess You is My Woman
David Close is the founder and Artistic Director Emeritus of Musica Reginae Productions and the Artistic Director and Conductor of The Oratorio Society of Queens.
He is also the founder, Artistic Director, and Conductor of The Orchestral Arts Ensemble of Queens. David was the Conductor and Artistic Director of the Great Neck Choral Society and the United Choral Society. David is currently the Music Director and Organist at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Forest Hills, and Organist at Temple Am Echad in Lynbrook.
As a pianist, David has appeared as recitalist and as a collaborative artist in vocal and chamber music recitals. He regularly toured with the “Paul Whiteman Historic 1924 Aeolian Hall Concert” throughout the U.S. and Canada. And, for many years, David was the vocal coach and Conductor of the Opera Program at Queens College. David is very proud of being awarded a Queens Impact Award from the TimesLedger Newspapers in 2016.
Jay Aubrey Jones, Baritone, is a performer with a multi-faceted career. He has appeared with David Close and Barbara Podgurski as a soloist in concerts with Oratorio Society of Queens, most notably in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the Crab Man in the company’s first production of Porgy and Bess. His other classical music credits include Brahms’ Liebeslieder Walzer and Faure’s Requiem. Broadway audiences have seen him as Old Deuteronomy in Cats and Twimble and Womper in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying with Matthew Broderick.
His regional theatre work includes productions at New Jersey Theatre Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, Mountain Playhouse and Yale Repertory Theatre.
He was featured in shows at 54 Below including Even if It Only Runs a Minute, The Boys from Syracuse and Bernstein on Broadway: A Celebration.
Mr. Jones has been seen on television on such varied shows as “Bull,” “Power Book III: Raising Kanan,” “To Tell the Truth,” “Gotham,” “The Michael J. Fox Show,” “As the World Turns,” “All My Children,” “One Life to Live,” “Guiding Light,” “Another World” and “The Edge of Night.”
Byron Singleton has sung leading and supporting roles in opera and concert in major venues around the United States including the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space ,The Rose Theater at Lincoln Center, and David Geffen Hall.
Career highlights include Cavaradossi in "Tosca" conducted by Maestro Anton Coppola, Hoffmann in "The Tales of Hoffmann", Der Steuermann in "Der Fliegende Hollander" with the United Nations Orchestra, and as a soloist at Carnegie Hall in Beyond Boundaries a concert featuring the music of Bernstein and Sondheim.
Other roles include Rodolfo in La Boheme, The Tenor Soloist in Verdi's Requiem, Foresto in Attila with Empire Opera, and Riccardo in "Un Ballo in Maschera" at Symphony Space.
Recently Byron made his Off-Broadway acting debut as The First Guard/Private Jonas in the Off-Broadway production of Jean Anouilh's Antigone on Theater Row, , and was guest performer with the NY City Slickers' Bluegrass to Broadway concert at Feinstein's/54 Below.
Soprano Geraldine McMillian has received acclaim for her highly dramatic and vocally accomplished performances in some of opera’s most challenging roles. She made her debut with the New York City Opera, as Mimi, in La Bohème in 1990, and returned there in 1994 as Cio-Cio San inMadama Butterfly. Ms. McMillian’s close affiliation with this company began with its National Touring Company, singing Tosca, The Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Mimi and Cio-Cio San, a role she subsequently performed with Minnesota Opera and El Paso Opera. Her diverse repertoire includes the role of Monisha in Treemonisha, with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Madame Lidione in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, in which she made an impressive debut with Central City Opera in July 2000, and Aïda, which has become something of a signature role. She has sung the Ethiopian princess to great acclaim with Nashville Opera, Memphis Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Minnesota Opera and Opera Omaha.
A native of New York, pianist and teaching artist Barbara Podgurski holds a DMA in piano performance from The Graduate Center (CUNY) as well as a BM in piano performance and an MM in both piano performance and music theory from the Mannes College of Music. Dr. Podgurski has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean and Europe and has performed at many of the world’s finest venues including a number of performances at Carnegie Hall. She has been featured in numerous television and radio broadcasts, including appearances on WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase, WNYC’s “Soundcheck”, NPR, WPLN Nashville’s “Live from Studio C”, WQED and numerous others. Ms. Podgurski was recently featured on a television documentary for NHK in Japan with her touring partner violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn and the famed “Red” Mendelssohn Stradivarius. Ms. Podgurski was a special guest in March 2015 performing for the National Association of Broadcasters at the 2015 Golden Mike Awards with Grammy-nominated violinist Jenny Oaks Baker. Past collaborations with renowned artists including violinists Philippe Graffin and the late Lorand Fenyves, flutist Harold Jones, clarinetist Charles Neidich, pianists Diane Walsh and Seymour Lipkin, and cellists Manfred Stilz, Marcy Rosen and the late Paul Tobias.
Dr. Podgurski has premiered numerous new works including a commission of a concerto by Pulitzer-Prize winning composer George Walker which she premiered with the Queens Symphony Orchestra. She is a dedicated proponent of new music, focusing on premiering works of NYC based composers and programming such works each season. Barbara has been working for a number of years with the Department of Cultural Affairs as a contact for organizing and contracting musicians for the 9-11 Commemoration Memorial (live televised broadcast from Ground Zero in NYC) and in 2015 was invited with her colleagues to perform at a private ceremony for Pope Francis and members of the United Nations in an interfaith prayer service during the Papal visit to NYC.
Dr. Podgurski is currently the Executive and Artistic Director of Musica Reginae Productions in Queens, NY. She is also a member of the Pitcairn-Podgurski-Drachman Piano Trio which just completed its first US tour. A former faculty member at The Mannes College of Music (The New School), Hunter College (CUNY) and Mercy College (NY), she is currently on the faculty of the RiverArts Music Program in Hudson Valley and is a consultant for the Board of Education for both New York City and New York State. By invitation in 2014, Dr. Podgurski became a Steinway Teaching Artist.
Recent performances include concerts at Carnegie Hall (NY), at the Luzerne Summer Music Festival (NY) and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, Trinity Church (NYC), concerts in Palm Beach (FL) and St. Croix (USVI), as well as performing Mozart Piano Concerto in c minor K.491 as soloist with the Astoria Symphony Orchestra in NYC. Barbara is currently a contributing writer to Cambridge’s Nineteenth Century Music Review, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at BMCC (CUNY) and is a staff pianist in the Strings Department at NYU, Barbara performed with rock band Evanescence on their 2017-18 Synthesis Tour and recently performed with legendary vocal group Il Divo their 2019 and 2022 US tours. Barbara is an Arts Commissioner Advisor for the Queens Council on the Arts. In November 2020 Barbara accepted the position of organist/music director at Trinity St. Andrews Evangelical Lutheran Church in Maspeth, Queens. Her most recent performance was at Carnegie Hall in May 2022 celebrating the release of the album Song of the Redwood Tree..