Columbus Symphony Kicks Off the Pops Series with Opera to Broadway

Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni opens the CSO's 2011-12 Pops Series with his own selection of works from "Opera to Broadway." Guest vocalists Aline Kutan, Frédéric Antoun, and Keith Phares join the Columbus Symphony and Chorus for an evening of audience favorites from the worlds of opera and Broadway including pieces from Romeo & Juliet, Madama Butterfly, Trovatore, Oklahoma, Fiddler on the Roof, Sweeny Todd, and more.

The Columbus Symphony presents "Opera to Broadway" at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.) on Saturday, October 15, at 8pm. Tickets are $23-$68 and can be purchased at the Ohio Theatre Ticket Office (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call (614) 228-8600 or (800) 745-3000. The Ohio Theatre Ticket Office will also be open two hours prior to each performance. Students between the ages of 13-19 may purchase $5 High Five tickets while available.

The 2011-12 Pops Series is made possible through the generous support of series sponsor AEP.

About CSO Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni
A graduate of the Montreal Conservatory, Jean-Marie Zeitouni has emerged as one of Canada's brightest young conductors with an eloquent yet fiery style in repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music. He was installed as Music Director of the Columbus Symphony in October 2010, and also serves as principal conductor and artistic director designate of I Musici de Montréal, a prestigious Canadian chamber orchestra. Jean-Marie also enjoys a long association with Les Violons du Roy, a celebrated chamber orchestra based in Quebec City, first as conductor-in-residence, then as associate conductor, and since 2008, as principal guest conductor. Over the years, he has led the ensemble in more than 200 performances in the province of Québec, across Canada, and in Mexico. In 2006, he recorded his first CD with Les Violons du Roy entitled Piazzolla which received a 2007 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year in the category of Solo or Chamber Ensemble. They also recorded two subsequent CDs-Bartok (2008) and Britten (2010).

About guest soprano Aline Kutan
This young Canadian soprano of Armenian origins made her debut at the age of 18 in the role of Flora (The Turn of the Screw from Benjamin Britten) with the Vancouver Opera. She studied at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and the Laval University of Quebec. Before starting her operatic career, Kutan toured for two years with in a Canadian production of Andrew Lloyd Weber's The Phantom of the Opera. In 1995, Kutan won the Metropolitan Opera Competition in New York.

About guest tenor Frédéric Antoun
Montreal-based tenor Frederic Antoun has sung leading roles with the Montreal Opera, Mexico's Bellas Artes, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, and at the Spoleto Festival USA. His repertory includes Romeo in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet, Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata, Rodolfo in Puccini's La Boheme, and Nemorino in Donizetti's The Elixir of Love, among many other roles.
He has also specialized in concert works and oratorios, including Handel's Messiah, Bach's St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion, Mozart's Requiem and Haydn's The Creation. Antoun is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and has won awards from the Oratorio Society of New York, the George London Foundation, the Debut Young Concert Artist Series, and the Licia-Albanese Puccini Competition.

About guest baritone Keith Phares
Acclaimed both on the opera and concert stage, baritone Keith Phares is emerging as one of today's most versatile artists. A graduate of the Juilliard Opera Center, he was a national winner of the 1998 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a finalist in the 1999 Eleanor McCollum Competition of the Houston Grand Opera. He also has been recognized with a Richard Gaddes Grant from the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and the 2000 Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Juilliard School of Music.

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