Two renowned vocal talents, soprano Danielle Talamantes and bass-baritone Kerry Wilkerson, will be in residence at Catawba College on February 14th and 15th to offer a vocal master class and then a vocal recital, both of which are free and open to the public.
The two singers will offer a vocal master class between 3 and 5 p.m. on Wednesday, February 14th in the college’s Omwake-Dearborn Chapel. Then at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 15th, the two will perform in a recital entitled Amadeus Meets the Duke: Songs by Mozart, Ellington, Bernstein, Turina, Faure and more, presented jointly by the Catawba College Department of Music and John Calvin Presbyterian Church, USA. Pianist Renee McCachren, professor of music at Catawba, a member of John Calvin Presbyterian, will accompany the recital.
Recital attendees can look forward to selections from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Joaquin Turina’s Tres arias, Gabriel Faure’s Poème d’un jour, three Felix Mendelssohn’s duets and Irving Fine’s Childhood Fables for Grownups. The program will also feature songs by Leonard Bernstein, including selections from On the Town, Mass, Peter Pan, and West Side Story. The program will conclude with arrangements of several of Duke Ellington’s songs, including “In a Sentimental Mood,”“Solitude,” and “Do Nothing Til You Hear From Me.”
Danielle Talamantes is an international recitalist who made her Carnegie Hall debut in a sold-out solo recital in 2007. Since then, she has sung as soprano soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Choralis, Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, National Philharmonic Chorale & Orchestra, Oratorio Society of Virginia, Seoul Philharmonic, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Trujillo Symphony Orchestra of Peru, and The United States Army Chorus. In addition, she was the Soprano in Residence for the summer 2012 and featured guest soloist at the summer 2014 Marlboro Music Festival in Marlboro, Vermont. She has performed numerous opera roles, including performances at such prestigious venues as The Metropolitan Opera in New York. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors recognizing her talent.
Kerry Wilkerson has sung with the professional choruses of the United States Air Force, United States Army, Carnegie Hall Choral Workshops and the critically acclaimed Robert Shaw Festival Singers. As a military musician he has sung extensively throughout the United States and Canada in some of our nation's finest performance halls. Washington DC audiences also know him as a local recitalist and frequent guest soloist with community based orchestras and choruses. Mr. Wilkerson is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (BMEd) and George Mason University (MA).
As a teacher of singing, Mr. Wilkerson specializes in working with teenagers desiring to pursue careers in vocal performance. Many of his students have gone on to major in music at such reputable schools as James Madison University, Catholic University, Indiana University, St Olaf College, Rice University and Ithaca College. A passionate proponent of singing as a form of oral communication, Mr. Wilkerson also works with adult students to help them strengthen their individual skills as a richer and more confident means to personal expression.
For questions, contact the Music Department at (704) 637-4345 or rpannell@catawba.edu.
