The Catawba Community Music Program, an outreach of the Catawba College Music Department, announces the addition of two new performing-artist teachers. Dr. Joan Metelli, who teaches voice, and Jesse Davis, who teaches piano, have joined that program.
For more information about musical studies with these new faculty members contact Catawba Community Music at 704-637-4106 or 704-637-4345.
Dr. Joan Metelli
Metelli will offer private voice lessons as well as a voice class designed for students to learn basic vocal techniques. She has been praised for her exquisite vocal artistry in recitals, oratorio appearances, operatic roles and Master Classes that span Western and Eastern Europe, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Central America, Israel, the Czech Republic, and the United States. Her career as a singer and her vast knowledge of languages, dramatic abilities, repertory and the classical Italian bel canto technique have greatly influenced her teaching.
From Fulbright scholar to Metropolitan Opera Auditions winner to professor of music, Metelli shines brightly as one of American’s leading authorities on healthy vocal technique for all singers. She is the winner of such awards as the Metropolitan Opera National Council, Fulbright Scholarship to Germany, Arts America of the United States Information Agency (to Mexico), the Russian-Eastern European Institution, and International Center at Indiana University Bloomington.
She holds degrees from the Hochschule fuer Musik in Stuttgart, Germany, Florida State University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Wingate College. Fluent in the German language, Metelli also holds certificates in Italian from the Lorenzo di Medici School in Florence and Siena, Italy, and from the ASSET Language School in Czech from Budejovice, Czech Republic. She has served on the Board of the International Alliance of Women for Music, as Artist-Faculty of the Hudebni Festival Vysoeina and the International Master Classes (Czech Republic), the Pacific Rim Summer Music Festival (British Columbia), the Altenburg International Music Festival and East-West International Music Academy (Altengurg, Germany) and has taught at the 92nd Street Y in New York.
Metelli recently moved to Union County, where she was raised, and now makes that her home base. Communicate with her at www.jmetelli.org.
Jesse Davis
A native of North Carolina, Davis will offer private piano lessons to advanced piano students in the community and surrounding areas. He has just returned from making his Russian debut at the Moscow International Performance Arts Center Sept. 12 in concert performing works of Mozart and Beethoven. In August, he appeared with the Berlin RIAS Youth Symphony and renowned Polish conductor Tomasz Bugaj at the Catania International Music Festival in Sicily.
Awarded a semifinalist prize at the 2004 New Orleans International Piano Competition, Davis was also a semifinalist at the 2005 Concert Artist Guild International Competition as well. He received the International Certificate for Piano Artists 2003-2004 through the Cole Normal de Mosque “Alfred Corte” in Paris, the Foundation Bellaire in Brussels and the University of Florida, College of Fine Arts. He is the winner of the 2001 Vienna International Pianists Academy “Rosario Marcia no Sonderpreis,” the 1998 GMTA Competition, and holds a prize from the 1998 French Piano Institute.
He received his master of music degree from Baylor University in 2001 as a student of Krassimira Jordan where he was awarded a full graduate assistantship in accompanying. As a full scholarship recipient, he earned his bachelor of music degree from the N.C. School of the Arts in 199 as a student of Clifton Matthews. He was the recipient of the Semans Art Grant for Foreign Study, which allowed him to perform and study at the Tibor Varga Festival in Sion Switzerland. He has also performed in Paris at the French Piano Institute.
Davis’ future plans include solo, competition and piano duet performances in the United States, Europe and Russia. He and wife Leslie were recently appointed to the piano faculty of the Snyder Music Academy in Fayetteville.
