Jason Collins and Olivia Vote are featured in the final 2008 River Concert Series in St. Mary's City.
ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. (July 14, 2008) - Mahler's revolutionary song-symphony, "Das Lied von der Erde," featuring prize-winning opera star Jason Collins, tenor, and international opera performer Olivia Vote, mezzo soprano, will captivate audiences for the final River Concert, July 25, at St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM). The Chesapeake Orchestra, under the musical direction of Jeffrey Silberschlag, will also perform Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's "Overture to Hiawatha" and the Maryland premiere of Jeffrey Mumford's "Verdant and Shimmering Air."
The free outdoor concerts overlook the St. Mary's River and begin at 7 p.m., with grounds opening at 5 p.m.
Mumford, of Washington, D.C., has received numerous fellowships, grants, awards and commissions for his work. Awards include the "Academy Award in Music" from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a Fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, a Fellowship to the Composers' Conference (Johnson, Vermont) and an ASCAP Aaron Copland Scholarship. He was also the winner of the inaugural National Black Arts Festival/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition. Other grants have been awarded by the Ohio Arts Council, Oberlin College, the American Music Center, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music Inc., and the ASCAP Foundation. Mumford is presently Composer in Residence at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Vote, of St. Mary's City, Maryland, holds a bachelor of music degree from the North Carolina School of the Arts and master of music degree from Yale University. This summer Vote was a member of the Opera Theater of St. Louis Gerdine Young Artist Program. This year, Vote sang Prince Orlofsky in Strauss' "Die Fledermaus" and Judith in Bartok's "Bluebeard's Castle" with the Yale Opera. Among many others, her recent performances include Cherubino in "Le Nozze di Figaro" and Baba the Turk in "The Rake's Progress." Vote has also performed throughout Northern Italy with the Orchestra Verdi di Milano and as a featured soloist at the Alba Music Festival for the past two years.
A native of South Carolina, Collins, is the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including the 2007 Richard Tucker Career Grant, the 2005 Richard F. Gold Career Grant, the 2000 Mario Lanza competition, the Lucrezia Bori prize for foreign study, the Alice Tully scholarship, and the Tatiana Troyanos scholarship. He received his bachelor of music in voice from the Juilliard School and master of music in opera from the Curtis Institute of Music. He is a recent graduate of the Pittsburgh Opera Center.