Classical Action to Continue 12th Annual Michael Palm Series with Quartet, 2/27

Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS continues the 2015-16 Michael Palm Series of house concerts in New York City on Saturday, February 27, 2016, with a performance featuring a stellar quartet of vocalists: bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, soprano Anita Hartig, baritone Mariusz Kwiecien, and tenor Matthew Polenzani. Held at the magnificent Tribeca loft of Simon Yates and Kevin Roon, the event begins at 6:30pm with wine and hors d'oeuvres, followed by the concert at 7:30pm. Tickets may be purchased online at classicalaction.org or by calling 212-997-7717.

Bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, who appears at the Metropolitan Opera as Count Almaviva in the Richard Eyre production of Le nozze di Figaro opening this month, is not only a "first-rate singer of Mozart" (New York Times) but "one of the Metropolitan Opera's most dependably exciting performers" (Time Out New York). Anita Hartig - a soprano who sings with "immaculate clarity and poise" (Telegraph, UK) - joins him, singing Susanna in that same production. She first appeared on the Met stage in 2014 as Mimi in La boheme, and returned there earlier this season as Liu in Turandot. Baritone Mariusz Kwiecien and tenor Matthew Polenzani also appear together at the Met this season, in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, as Zurga and Nadir, who together sing one of the best-loved duets in the operatic canon. Kwiecien - "a baritone who commands the stage ... completely" (Seattle Times) - has headlined recent season-opening productions at both the Met and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Polenzani - renowned for his "wonderfully fresh and robust voice" (San Francisco Chronicle) - is the winner of the 2004 Richard Tucker Award and the 2008 Metropolitan Opera Beverly Sills Artist Award. The four singers will be joined by Metropolitan Opera Assistant Conductor Howard Watkins on the piano.

The Michael Palm series concludes its season on May 16 with a special performance by soprano Susanna Phillips, who, among other honors, has also won the Metropolitan Opera's Beverly Sills Artist Award. After a solo recital, the San Francisco Chronicle raved: "When you sing as beautifully as the young soprano Susanna Phillips does, it almost seems like gilding the lily to spread those gifts around through a range of unusual and provocative repertoire, not to mention working with a pianist of remarkable artistry. Yet Phillips does all those things and more." The Michael Palm Series, now in its twelfth season, is a series of intimate house concerts featuring some of the world's most celebrated opera, classical, and jazz artists, who generously agree to donate their time and talent in support of Classical Action. The series is underwritten by the Michael Palm Foundation, and Palm was a generous, enthusiastic supporter of Classical Action. It was he, more than any other, who spearheaded the concept of private benefit house concerts, hosting several of them himself at his penthouse apartment 37 floors above Lincoln Center. The supporter of a wide range of performing arts and HIV/AIDS organizations, he died in 1998, but his memory lives on in the Michael Palm Series to benefit Classical Action. About Classical Action

Founded in 1993, Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS draws upon the talents, resources and generosity of the classical, opera, and jazz communities to raise money for those battling HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses. Classical Action helps provide access to life-saving medications, health care, counseling, nutritious meals, and emergency financial assistance for men, women, and children across the country. As a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Classical Action helps fund more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide as well as essential Actors Fund social service programs, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative. More information about Classical Action's history and mission are available at the organization's web site: www.classicalaction.org.

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