Alok Kumar and Michael Fennelly Join Cast of POTIONS, POISONS AND PASSION'S PRESCRIPTIONS, 1/29

Conductor Jason C. Tramm has announced the addition of noted tenor Alok Kumar and distinguished pianist Michael Fennelly to the concert cast of the January 29th performance of "Potions, Poisons and Passion's Prescriptions" at Opera America's National Opera Center in New York. The concert launches the 2014 season of New York's Arts and Sciences Salon.

Tenor Alok Kumar's singing engagements include appearances with Santa Fe Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Opera Delaware, Asheville Lyric Opera, Opera North, Portland Opera Repertory Theater, the Amarillo Opera and Italy's Spoleto Festival. Recent roles include the Duke in Verdi's Rigoletto with Opera Theatre of Connecticut and Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly with the Cincinnati Opera and Cincinnati Pops , Lensky in Eugene Onegin in Tel Aviv, Israel , Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Alfredo in Verdi's La traviata both with Opera Delaware.

Pianist Michael Fennelly has performed in many of the world's great concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Munich's Prinzregenten Theatre, and Berlin's Komische Opera. His recitals have been broadcast on WQXR (New York City) and NDR Radio (Germany). Mr. Fennelly operatic engagements include head coach/pianist for Lyric Opera Virginia's production of La traviata, Opera Grand Rapid's La bohème, and the Buck Hill-Skytop Festival's production of La traviata.

The concert program led by Tramm, who presides as Artistic Director of the MidAtlantic Opera and Music Director of the venerable Ocean Grove CMA, presents arias and duets celebrating grand opera's comedic, compelling and often poignant scenes pivoting about the phenomena of "stage chemistry and pharmacological intervention." The concert also features dramatic soprano Christina Major, whose voice has been praised as a "sumptuous and agile" and who has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as possessing a "magnetic presence and vocal brilliance." The evening will introduce Norwegian lyricist, composer and educator Oded Ben-Horin whose work explores the link between science and music and leads the European Union's six nation program, Write a Science Opera (WASO) and coordinates the EU's "Implementing Creative Strategies into Science Teaching (CREAT-IT.)"

To attend the January 29th Salon and to secure reservations for the concert, contact the Arts and Sciences Salon at artsandsciencessalon@gmail.com.