Award-winning pianist to perform "Rhapsody in Blue" with Lyric Theatre Orchestra at DeBaun Auditorium
HOBOKEN, N.J. — Acclaimed pianist Beatrice Long, the recent winner of several prestigious international piano competitions, will perform George Gershwin’s resplendent masterpiece "Rhapsody in Blue" with the Lyric Theatre Orchestra during the orchestra’s season finale concert at Stevens Institute of Technology.
Long’s performance is a featured highlight of the Lyric Theatre Orchestra’s "And Pops Too" concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 22, 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.
Among her many recent appearances in the United States and abroad, Long was invited to perform at the President’s Palace in Taiwan in 1999. She also played the Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 in New York with the Amsterdam Philharmonic at Symphony Space, receiving a standing ovation from a very full house.
In recent years she has earned top awards at four international competitions: The Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition, the Young Keyboard Artists Association International Competition, the AMSA 1990 World Piano Competition, and the Taipei International Piano Competition. Her recital tours have taken her to Central America, Southeast Asia, Belgium, France and Switzerland. She has appeared as a soloist with the Orquesta Sinfonia de Mexico, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, among many others. She also has released several compact discs on the Naxos label.
The "And Pops Too" concert program also will include favorite selections from South Pacific, Carousel, Porgy and Bess, and Oklahoma.
Other guest artists performing will include two major singing talents from New Jersey: Brent Weber and Lisa Layman of Weehawken. Weber, a veteran of both Broadway and opera productions, sang the principal role of Ubaldo Piangi in two Canadian productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. He also performed in the initial season of City Center (Encores), which presents great American musicals at New York City Center.
Layman, also an operatic singer, has been a frequent guest with the Lyric Theatre Orchestra. She made her professional debut with the Connecticut Grand Opera as Micaela in Carmen. Among her other performances, she also has sung with the Houston Grand Opera. Weber and Layman, who are married, are both graduates of Yale University.
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 is planning its fourth season, set to begin in October 2000 at Stevens’ DeBaun Auditorium. Featured works for next season’s programs will include the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto, an "opera in concert" performance of Rigoletto and a special performance of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons to celebrate the release of the Lyric Theatre Orchestra’s first CD. The upcoming recording is expected to be the first classical disc released in the 5.1 surround sound process.
The orchestra’s web site is at www.thelyrictheatre.org.
About Stevens Institute of Technology
Founded in 1870 and celebrating 140 Years of Innovation, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University, 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 2,234 undergraduate and 3,700 graduate students with more than 400 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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