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 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.
