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 and celebrating 140 Years of Innovation, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University TM , lives at the intersection of industry, academics and research. The University's students, faculty and partners leverage their collective real-world experience and culture of innovation, research and entrepreneurship to confront global challenges in engineering, science, systems and technology management.
Based in Hoboken, N.J. and with a location in Washington, D.C., Stevens offers baccalaureate, master’s, certificates and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences and management, in addition to baccalaureate degrees in business and liberal arts. Stevens has been recognized by both the US Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Excellence in the areas of systems engineering and port security research. The University has a total enrollment of more than 2,200 undergraduate and 3,700 graduate students with almost 450 faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America as well as strategic partnerships with industry leaders, governments and other universities around the world. Additional information may be obtained at www.stevens.edu and www.stevens.edu/press.
