Riverside Opera Company to Present GIVING THANKS FOR GREAT SINGING, 11/21

The Riverside Opera Company (ROC) continues its 16th season on Saturday, November 21, 8 p.m. at the Music Hall at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden with its PoPera Giving Thanks for Great Singingmusical feast featuring Bizet and Verdi alongside Broadway and Pop favorites. Tickets are available at Popera15.brownpapertickets.com.

The performance readies you to give thanks with music that your heart and soul will appreciate with popular opera arias and duets from Bizet's "Carmen", Verdi's "Rigoletto" as well as Broadway and Pop songs. Members of the Curtis High School Chorus will also be featured as a part of RCO side- by-side program. They will be performing some popular American favorites such as Wanted by Hunter Hayes and Respect from Otis Redding . This concert features world class award winning singers plus a full symphonic orchestra conducted by Alan Aurelia.

The performance features : Rachel Policar, Juliana Curcio, Joseph Flaxman and Kevin Courtemanche (see bios below).

The concert is FREE for students and children. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Group rates are also available. For more information call the RCO at 718-876-7945. Advance ticket sales are available online at Popera15.brownpapertickets.com.

Kevin Courtemanche- Tenor

New England native and New York City based tenor Kevin Courtemanche has performed as a principal or solo artist with, among others, the San Francisco Opera, Berkeley Opera, Mission City Opera, Symphony Parnassus, San Francisco Parlor Opera, Bakersfield Symphony, Cinnabar Theatre, Masterworks Chorale (San Mateo), Independent Opera (Los Angeles), New Valley Symphony (Los Angeles), Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra (all in California), Lowell House Opera (Massachusetts), New York Grand Opera, the National Chorale, Vertical Player Repertory, New Rochelle Opera, Hudson Opera Theatre, Manhattan Opera Studio, dell"Arte Opera Ensemble, New York Opera Forum, Vocal Productions NYC, Utopia Opera, Opera Company of Brooklyn (cover), Capitol Heights Lyric Opera, Amore Opera and sung before the Metropolitan Opera Guild (all in New York), MidAtlantic Opera, Opera at Florham (both in New Jersey), Arizona State University, Hradec Králové (Czech Republic) Philharmonic, St. Petersburg (Florida) Opera, Bel Cantanti Opera, Baltimore Concert Opera (both in Maryland), Riverbend Opera, New Dominion Chorale, Gold Rush Opera (all in Virginia), Atlantic Coast Opera Festival (Phiadelphia), Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra (North Dakota), Symphony of Northwest Arkansas and Caffè Venezia in Berkeley, CA.

Kevin has branched out as an opera stage director, having recently helmed Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer, Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (two productions), Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Joseph Beer's Die Polnische Hochzeit. His upcoming directing engagements include Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann in May, in New York City with Vocal Productions NYC.

Joseph Flaxman-Baritone

Possessing a "devilish manner and burly baritone" that is "robust and vocally powerful," Joseph Flaxman is a baritone who has been drawing praise from musicians and critics alike internationally and throughout America for his compelling dramatic portrayals.

Originally from Succasunna, New Jersey, Joseph has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, La Palacio del Opera (Spain), Lyrique-en-mer (France), Lorin Maazel's Castleton Festival, Kentucky Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Memphis, Des Moines Metro Opera, Sarasota Opera, Bard Summerscape, Opera Saratoga, Opera Naples, and St. Petersburg Opera amoungst others.

In January of 2016 Joseph will be performing the Father and Sandman In Hansel and Gretel at Opera on the James.

Juliana Curcio- Mezzo-Soprano

Mezzo-soprano Juliana Curcio is currently an Artist in Residence with the Pensacola Opera. Her recent performances include Rosina in Il Barbiere de Siviglia, Liesl in The Sound of Music and 2nd Lady in the Magic Flute all with the Central Florida Lyric Opera. She has roles she is to perform with the Pensacola Opera that include Kate in The Pirates of Penzance, the title role in the Children's opera, Pinocchio and a featured soloist in Opera preview concerts. A seasoned concert performer, Juliana was part of the Central Florida Lyric Opera's Verdi Concert Tour in Milan, Italy. She earned her Master's Degree in Vocal Performance at the Manhattan School of Music and her Bachelor in Music Education and Vocal Performance from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam.

Rachel Policar-

Rachel Policar, winner of the 2013 New York Lyric Opera Theater National Vocal Competition and the 2013 Ladies Musical Club of Seattle Competition has most recently performed for the Utah Festivcal Opera and Musical Theater and Festival Artist, covering the role of Cosette in Les Miserables and Kathie in Romberg's The Student Prince. She complete an Artist in Residence with the Dayton Opera. She was part of the Janiec Opera Company at the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina. She was seen as Doralice in the New York premiere of Scarlatti's II Trionfo dell'Onore with Underworld Productions Opera (with whom she was a Resident Artist) and performed with the Brooklyn Philharmoica Orchestra commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Rachel is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music with her Master of Music degree in Classical Voice. Rachel attended Arizona State University, where she earned concurrent degrees in both Vocal Performance and Musical Theatre under the tutelage of David Britton. Rachel was a four-year recipient of the Miriam L Wolfe Grant for Outstanding Musicians, as well as the Bell Grant for Excellence in Music from Arizona State University. She was also a four-year Dean's Scholarship recipient for her academic excellence.