Opera Orchestra of New York's Vidda Award Recital to Feature Chiara Taigi

The Opera Orchestra of New York will present its annual Vidda Award Recital featuring soprano Chiara Taigi at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on Monday, December 12, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. Joined by Eve Queler at the piano, Ms. Taigi will present a program including works by Bellini, Cherubini, Mascagni, Puccini, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky.

Tickets priced at $45 for the recital and $65 for a VIP Package which includes access to a post-concert reception are available at www.operaorchestrany.org or by calling (212) 906-9137.
Hailed as a "Powerhouse Italian Diva" by TimeOut New York, Chiara Taigi has performed on opera, recital and concert stages all over the world. Last season, following her American debut as Selika in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine with Opera Orchestra of New York, the New York Times called her "riveting," "moving," and praised her "big, dusky voice." This season, Ms. Taigi will open New Orleans Opera's season as Amelia in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschéra, staged by Matthew Latta and also starring Paul Groves, Gordon Hawkins and Jill Groves, with Robert Lyall conducting. Ms. Taigi will make her debut in London this season at the Royal Albert Hall singing Verdi's Aida in February and March 2012. She recently performed the world premiere of Fabio Vacchi's opera Lo Stesso Mare, the title role in Tosca with Palm Beach Opera, Un Ballo in Maschéra with Opéra Royal de Wallonie, and Turandot at the Teatro Antico in Taormina, Italy.

Eve Queler, is internationally renowned not only for her ground breaking work as founder and music director of America's leading opera-in-concert organization, Opera Orchestra of New York (OONY), where she has conducted over 100 operas on the stage of Carnegie Hall to regular sold out houses, but also for her extensive work as a guest conductor of symphonic and opera repertoire in venues that span the international musical world. Equally at home with symphonic repertoire, Maestro Queler has conducted numerous symphony orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony, and the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo, Sicily. Maestro Queler recently received the nation's highest honor for lifetime achievement in the field of opera, as the 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Lifetime Achievement in Opera award recipient.

The Vidda Award Recital series was established in 1992 to provide young gifted singers the opportunity to perform a solo recital under the aegis of The Vidda Foundation and the Opera Orchestra of New York. Eve Queler, in consultation with the Vidda Foundation, oversees the selection process of the recipient, and award winners receive an honorarium in addition to an all-expenses paid recital at a major venue in New York City. Past winners of the Vidda Award include sopranos Olga Borodina, Eglise Gutiérrez, Olga Makarina, Meagan Miller, Latonia Moore and Krassimira Stoyanova; mezzo-sopranos Kate Aldrich, Barbara Conrad, Petra Lang and Vivica Genaux; and tenors Francisco Casanova, Stewart Neil and Gaston Rivero.

The Vidda Award Recital is made possible by a generous grant from The Vidda Foundation, a private, non-operating foundation interested in supporting programs that will have lasting impact in the areas of conservation, education, healthcare, human services, and the arts.
The Opera Orchestra of New York continues its 2011-2012 season with a performance of Wagner's Rienzi at Avery Fisher Hall on January 29, 2012. The production features tenor Ian Storey in the title role, soprano Elisabete Matos as Irene and mezzo-soprano Geraldine Chauvet in her US debut as Adriano. It will be conducted by Music Director Eve Queler.

The Opera Orchestra of New York was established by Eve Queler in 1971 to present rarely-heard operas and provide the public with an opportunity to hear them performed in major concert venues. Among Opera Orchestra's numerous U.S. premieres are Puccini's Edgar with Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Scotto; Boito's Nerone with James Morris and Pablo Elvira; and Smetana's Libuse with Gabriela Benacková and Paul Plishka. The company also performed the New York premiere of Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans, with Dolora Zajick and Jorma Hynninen, which was also the American premiere of the Russian language version. The ensemble has also presented works long neglected in New York, such as Wagner's Rienzi, Verdi's I Lombardi, Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles, and Catalani's La Wally. These pioneering efforts have led national opera companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric and Houston Grand Opera to add to their permanent repertoires works that received their first major modern hearing by The Opera Orchestra of New York including I lombardi, Donizetti's La Favorita, Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini, Dvo?ák's Rusalka and Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina.

Since 1978 Opera Orchestra's Young Artists Program has identified and fostered young operatic talent, and provides young singers with an opportunity to rehearse and perform with full orchestra and chorus. The program has nurtured the talents of Renée Fleming, Aprile Millo, Vivica Genaux, Deborah Voigt, Latonia Moore, Stephen Costello, Michael Fabiano, Bryan Hymel and Eglise Gutiérrez. Other singers who have worked with Opera Orchestra very early in their careers include José Carreras, Barbara Hendricks, DWayne Croft, Samuel Ramey and James Morris. Singers who made their U.S. or New York debuts with Opera Orchestra include Gabriela Benacková, Stephanie Blythe, Olga Borodina, Ghena Dimitrova, Jane Eaglen, Carlo Guelfi, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Vesselina Kasarova, Paul Plishka, Rosalind Plowright and Krassimira Stoyanova and Dolora Zajick.