The months-old Bella Carita Chamber Ensemble will perform its second concert tonight when it opens the St. Philip's in the Hills Friends of Music 2008-09 season.
The concert also marks the farewell performance of admired Tucson vocalist Korby Myrick, who relocated to Connecticut early last month.
"If it hadn't been for this concert, she would not have had a farewell concert," noted Bella Carita founder and clarinetist Kevin Justus. "It's bittersweet, but for the time being this is the last opportunity for people to hear her."
Myrick's move on Sept. 2 came after a whirlwind romance with Connecticut pianist Richard Hereld that led to a marriage proposal. No wedding date has been set, but Myrick expects the ceremony to be held in Arizona.
"It was a total whirlwind," the mezzo-soprano said, laying out the timeline: Hereld, whom she has known for more than 20 years, came to Tucson to visit her on June 13. He popped the question July 11 and she packed up her belongings in a U-Haul and left Tucson Sept. 2.
"He is so spectacular and I am so in love," she gushed during a phone interview from Connecticut. "He's the love of my life and it's a dream come true to be with someone I feel this way about."
This is Myrick's second round with living in Connecticut. She spent a decade there from the late 1980s when she was married to a Yale instructor. When the marriage ended in the late 1990s, she returned to her native Tucson and built a formidable recital and opera career (Arizona Opera, Tulsa Opera, Washington Opera and the U.S. and Italy Spoleto festivals).
It was during her time in Connecticut that she met Hereld. Her then-husband was teaching his then-wife voice.
Hereld and Myrick remained friends and colleagues over the years, including performing together; in addition to a master's in voice, Myrick earned her bachelor's at the University of Arizona in piano performance, and the pair have performed piano works for four hands. But since she returned to Tucson, Myrick said she had seen Hereld only three times until his June visit.
Justus said Myrick's move will boost her career. "Already she's getting attention back East," he said, which Myrick acknowledged.
She has several Connecticut concerts set, will perform a recital in London after her Tucson concert and is busy making plans to open voice studios in Connecticut and neighboring New York. She also will be closer to New York, where she can audition with opera companies from around the country. Each fall and winter, opera companies converge on New York to audition singers, she explained.
"This is going to be great for my career. I will actually be able to do a regular audition for the Arizona Opera there," she said.
"Of course I will come back whenever I am engaged, and I would love to continue singing with the (Tucson) Symphony and opera company," she added. "I have loyal, loyal fans (in Tucson) who turn out to see me. . . . I feel blessed."
Myrick and Hereld will appear together in tonight's concert, which pulls from Johannes Brahms' retirement works - pieces he composed between retiring in 1890 and his death in 1897. Myrick will sing Brahms' "Four Serious Songs."
The ensemble, which played its inaugural concert last May, will include violinists Ben Nisbet and Rose Tadaro; violist Christina Swanson; cellists Garrick Woods and Theodore Buchholz; pianists Michael Dauphinais and Hereld; and Justus on clarinet.
IF YOU GO
Bella Carita Chamber Ensemble: "Johannes Brahms in Retirement - A Golden Twilight"
* Presented by: St. Philip's in the Hills Friends of Music.
* When: 7:30 p.m. today.
* Where: Bloom Music Center at St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church, 4440 N. Campbell Ave.
* Admission: By donation.
* Details: 299-6421.
* Program (all Brahms):
Piano Trio No. 1 in B major.
Klarinetten-Trio in A minor.
"Four Serious Songs."
Klarinetten Quintet in B minor.
No comments:
Post a Comment