Metropolitan Opera award winner to perform at DeBaun Auditorium
HOBOKEN, N.J. — Fresh from her winning performance in the prestigious Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, rising opera star Elizabeth Batton will make her next concert appearance at Stevens Institute of Technology.
Batton will sing with the Lyric Theatre Orchestra during its "Opera Gala" concert on Saturday, March 18, at 8 p.m. in the DeBaun Auditorium, located in Edwin A. Stevens Hall, at 5th and Hudson streets in Hoboken. Tickets are $20 ($10 for students and senior citizens) in advance or at the door. Tickets may be reserved by calling the Lyric Theatre Orchestra at (201) 217-2628.
Batton, a 25-year-old mezzo soprano from Louisville, Ky., was awarded one of five equal prizes in the annual Met Council auditions, a rigorous national competition. Finals for the competition were held March 5 at the Metropolitan Opera. Each award winner received $15,000. Many of the most renowned opera singers in the world have participated in the program. Batton’s career has included a performance at Lincoln Center with the American Symphony Orchestra, among others. She holds a master of music degree from the Manhattan School of Music.
For Saturday’s concert at Stevens, Batton will sing "Mon Coeur" from Camille Saint-Saëns’ Sampson and Delilah, which she also performed in the Met Council auditions. Also performing will be nationally renowned tenor Scott Flaherty, Batton’s husband and vocal coach, as well as well-known baritone David Templeton, tenor Jason Papowitz, soprano Wendy Waller and soprano Loretta Merlo. The concert will include variety of arias and duets by Bizet, Tchaikovsky and Verdi as well as the Saint-Saëns aria. The orchestra will also perform Mozart’s Overture to the Magic Flute on the program.
The Lyric Theatre Orchestra, which performs regularly at Stevens’ DeBaun Auditorium, is made up of 45 accomplished musicians from more than 15 countries. One of the area’s newest and most vibrant orchestras, it was founded to showcase the music world’s finest emerging artists. The orchestra’s artistic director and conductor is Maestro Franco Bertacci, a native New Yorker who has himself performed as an operatic bass-baritone in the United States and Europe. The orchestra’s web site is at www.thelyrictheatre.org.
About Stevens Institute of Technology
Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.
Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.
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