PREformances with Allison Charney to Feature Mezzo Soprano Hyona Kim

Mezzo soprano Hyona Kim will join "PREformances with Allison Charney" classical concert series on November 27th for the second concert of its 2017-18 debut Season at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center. Ms. Kim joins host and founder soprano Allison Charney in a program which will feature "preformances" by Royal Stockholm Philharmonic cellist Kajsa William-Olsson who will play Martinu's Cello Concerto, No. 1 as she prepares to perform it with full orchestra later this season; Orchestra of St. Luke's principal flutist Elizabeth Mann who will play Prokofiev's Flute Sonata with pianist Donna Weng in advance of their upcoming concert at Princeton and the ARK trio, who will perform Michael Ching's reimagining's of five of Schubert's classic songs in his cycle "Arrangements and Derangements: Interpretations of Schubert."

For her "PREformances" debut Hyona Kim will sing the Judgment Scene from Verdi's Aida in preparation for her first Amneris at Germany's Opera Dortmund and will sing Puccini's tragically beautiful "Flower Duet" from Madama Butterfly with series founder and curator, soprano Allison Charney.

Lauded by the New York Times as "vibrant mezzo soprano", "a dark toned, agile Mezzo soprano" Hyona Kim most recently appeared in New York City Opera's production of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West to critical acclaim. Her operatic roles have included Hermia in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at Israel's International Vocal Arts Institute, Berta in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Yewool Opera in South Korea, Olga in Opera Scenes performance of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at the Music Academy of the West and Larina in the same opera at the Aspen Music Festival. Hyona Kim has perfomed the role of Suzuki in Puccini's Madama Butterfly with Opera Lancaster, Opera Company of Middlebury, the Natchez Music Festival and with the Martina Arroyo Foundation where she also sang Dame Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff. Ms. Kim made her Houston Grand Opera debut originating the role of Hal-Mo-Ni (grandmother) in Jeeyoung Kim's From My Mother's Mother at HGOco.

Passionate about chamber music and art song, Ms. Kim has appeared in many chamber music concerts with Mannes Baroque Chamber Players, the Guinnes Quartet, as part of Viva Virginia, International Festival of Music, and also in several concerts of Ensemble 212, in works such as: Mahler's Der Abschied from Das Lied von der Erde, and the Symphony No.2, world premieres for Chamber Orchestra both by Yoon Jae Lee featured with Michael Mao Dance. Ms. Kim has performed at Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall and participated in The Song Continues 2013: Master Class with Jessye Norman at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. She has appeared in master classes with Dalton Baldwin, Evelyn Lear, Mignon Dunn, and Marilyn Horne, and has sung in the Metropolitan Opera Guild Russian Master Class with Jane Marsh as well as a Mozart Master Class with Jane Glover, also as part of the Metropolitan Opera Guild's Masterly Singing Series. She also has participated in Stephanie Blythe and Alan Smith's Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar and also has sung with Brooklyn Art Song Society in their concert series of Les six: Francis Poulenc.

In 2010 Hyona Kim was a finalist in Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and in 2013 the Grand Winner of the Joy in Singing Competition which subsequently led to a recital performance at New York's Merkin Concert Hall. She was also a First Prize winner of the Gerda Lissner Competition and a multiple grant winner at the Licia Albanese-Puccini and Giulio Gari Competitions. She has won the Suri Competition and the Schubert Lied Competition in her native country, South Korea, where she received her Bachelor's degree at Ewha Womans University. She earned her Master's degree and Professional Studies Diploma from Mannes College of Music in New York City.

ABOUT PREFORMANCES WITH Allison Charney

Now in its 9th year, the innovative classical concert series PREFORMANCES WITH Allison Charney invites audiences to experience celebrated classical musicians in "PREformances" anticipating their upcoming engagements on the world's most prestigious stages. Acclaimed opera singer Allison Charney hosts a behind-the-scenes glimpse into top-level artists' practices and performance, deliberately blurring the traditional barriers which exist between classical musicians and the audience in concerts. Ms. Charney promises a complete concert experience that provides entertainment and insight providing audiences with classical music knowledge that she promises "is simply not Googleable."

Throughout its previous eight seasons, PREFORMANCES WITH Allison Charney has presented over 95 of the preeminent musicians of our time. Notable appearances include those by New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert, Metropolitan Opera stars William Burden and Maria Zifchak, flutist Carol Wincenc, violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, pianists Joel Fan and Navah Perlman, just to name a few. In addition, the series has presented new classical works by composers Michael Ching, Moshe Knoll, Kim D. Sherman and Dina Pruzhansky. Together with Craig Ketter, PREFORMANCES' noted collaborative pianist, soprano Allison Charney, performs on every concert. Concerts typically run an hour and a half, with no intermission.

To commemorate PREFORMANCES' move to Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center renown visual artist, designer and director Doug Fitch has created original artwork for Season Nine. Mr. Fitch's recent work include several projects conducted by Alan Gilbert for the New York Philharmonic, including Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre (cited as the top opera of 2010 by The New York Times, New York Magazine, and Time Out New York), Janác?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen (2011, New York Magazine's "Best Classical Event of the Year"), A Dancer's Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky (2013, later screened in movie theaters worldwide); and HK Gruber's Gloria - A Pig Tale (2014, with forces from The Juilliard School as part of the New York Philharmonic's Biennial). Mr. Fitch was the inaugural WBFO visiting artist at SUNY, where he created an opera of images, How Did We...? Most recently Mr. Fitch provided the art direction and edible design for "The Opera Party"- a new WQXR series in The Greene Space.

PREFORMANCES WITH Allison Charney owes a debt of gratitude to Rabbi Joy Levitt, Executive Director of the JCC Manhattan and Megan Whitman, Director of The Lambert Center for Arts + Ideas where the series was originally incubated and evolved from proof of concept into a featured programming component of the JCC Manhattan's cultural offerings on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

PREFORMANCES WITH Allison Charney looks forward to welcoming both audiences and featured guest artists to its new concert space and home at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center on October 16 at 1PM. Widely regarded as having near-perfect acoustics, the 450-seat Merkin Concert Hall is both intimate and stately, with its 2007 renovation designed by noted American architect and native New Yorker, Robert A. M. Stern. The state of the art facilities fully anticipate the ease of audience utilizing wheel chairs or who have hearing impairments. The Kaufman Music Center's location at Lincoln Square is easily accessible by public transportation and positions PREFORMANCES WITH Allison Charney within the world-renowned epicenter of classical music - the concert halls and academic centers that are home to of many of PREFORMANCES' featured guests.

PREFORMANCES WITH Allison Charney maintains a charitable relationship with the Basser Center for BRCA at the University of Pennsylvania - contributing to its research efforts and by promoting awareness of the Basser Center's mission of advancing the care of individuals living with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. PREFORMANCES WITH Allison Charney is supported in part through the generosity of its patron group - Friends of PREFORMANCES - donors who believe in the series mission and vision and whose partnership enables the development of new works in addition to educational community outreach efforts, offering free tickets to aspiring young professional musicians as well as students without regular access to high quality classical music programming. To learn more visit www.preformances.org.