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Biography
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Possessing an exciting versatility that is
equally at home on opera, concert and recital stages, Serena Benedetti’s
voice has been heralded as “a pure-toned soprano that soared radiantly
in the high climaxes.” She was recently praised in the New
York Times as a soprano who “sang beautifully,” and the New
York Sun declared her,
“A Rare Bird.”
She will sing Brahms’ Ein
Deutsches Requeim with the Southwest Florida Symphony (Michael Hall, Conductor,)
Orff’s
Carmina Burana with the Sarasota Symphony, and Dvorak’s Stabat
Mater with the Montgomery County Chorus and Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, this
spring. Recent appearances include and Handel’s Messiah with the Indianapolis
Chamber Orchestra (Kirk Trevor,) and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer
of 1915 and Mahler Symphony No.4 with Eroica Ensemble, Memphis, Tennessee (Michael
Gilbert.) She also performed the Knoxville and Mahler 4 program with
New York’s Chelsea Symphony at Bargemusic, for which the New
York Times praised her, “warmly lyrical performance of Barber's "Knoxville:
Summer of 1915"… a lissome, sweetly sung account.” Other recent
New York appearances have included recitals at Weill Hall at Carnegie
Hall and Merkin Concert Hall, in repertoire ranging from Mozart and Debussy
to Schönberg. |
Winner
of a Marian Anderson Career Grant for Emerging Classical Artists, highlights
of her operatic appearances have included Susanna in Mozart’s Le
Nozze di Figaro with the Sarasota Opera, Musetta in La
Bohème with the
Palm Beach Opera, Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutte with the Utah Symphony
and Opera, Violetta in La Traviata with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta,
Marzelline in Fidelio with Virginia Opera, and others. At Lyric Opera
Cleveland, her Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore was pronounced by Opera
News,
“the evening’s highlight, fulfilling the letter and the spirit of bel
canto.” She joined the roster of the New York City Opera for the 2006
season.
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Concert
highlights have included her debut at Carnegie Hall in Handel’s Messiah under the baton of John Rutter. Other Carnegie Hall performances include
those with the New York Oratorio Society and MidAmerica Productions,
in repertoire ranging from Vivaldi to Mendelssohn. She has been a repeat
favorite of the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space Series at St. Ignatius
Loyola in New York with Kent Tritle. She has performed there the CPE
Bach Magnificat, St. John Passion of J.S. Bach, Massenet’s La
Terre Promise and Gounod’s Tobie, including other works. She has also appeared with
the National Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Eugene
Symphony, the National Cathedral Choir, Greater Palm Beach Symphony Society,
Lancaster Symphony, Garden State Symphony, the Princeton Symphony, and
others. She has collaborated with legendary artist Dave Brubeck in his
oratorio, La Fiesta de la Posada. Other oratorios in her performance
repertoire include Bach Magnificat and Mass
in b-Minor, Handel Israel
in Egypt, Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Beethoven Mass
in C-Major, Mozart
Mass in c-Minor, Solemn Vespers, and Requeim, Charpentier Te
Deum, Mendelssohn Psalm 42 (As
the Hart Pants, Op. 42,) Haydn Creation, Poulenc Gloria,
and Fauré Requiem.
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Recital/chamber
work has included the Lyric Chamber Music Festival at the Guggenheim
Museum in New York, Maverick Music Festival, the Songfest Series (Princeton,
NJ), in venues including The National Cathedral in Washington, DC,
Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, the Kosciuszko Foundation in
New York, and Detroit Symphony Hall. She has collaborated with members
of the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New Jersey
Symphony, and with pianists JJ Penna and Brian Zeger. Recital/chamber
works have included Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras
No. 5, the Simple Songs of
Aaron Jay Kernis, the Brentano Lieder (Op.
68) of Richard Strauss, Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock,
and works by 20th Century composers, including David Del Tredici, William
Bolcom, Ricky Ian Gordon, Lee Hoiby and Stephen Sondheim.
Serena
started singing when she joined the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus,
where she appeared in Hansel and Gretel, La Bohème,
Macbeth, Le Rossignol and Werther. |
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