Milton Community Concerts
at First Parish
INTERNATIONAL SENSATION , UTE GFRERER, FEATURED IN VALENTINE’S DAY CABARET EVENT
February 14, 4PM
Make your Valentine’s Day plans now as Milton Community Concerts presents one of the world’s most admired and accomplished cabaret singers in “A Valentine’s Day Cabaret” on Sunday, February 14th at 4pm at First Parish Church of Milton (535 Canton Avenue). Austrian soprano Ute Gfrerer and pianist William Merrill will be presenting a delightfully entertaining program featuring music of Bernstein, Sondheim, Weill, Porter, Piaf, and others.
Ms. Gfrerer has been performing internationally in concerts, full stage productions, and on DVD for the past two decades. Today she is considered one of the best interpreters of Kurt Weill’s music, having sung and recorded many of his works, including ONE TOUCH OF VENUS, LADY IN THE DARK, and THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS. In 2012 she made her Salzburg Festival debut in the opera THE LABYRINTH and this year she returns to sing Polly in THE THREEPENNY OPERA. Her career has taken her to major musical centers around the world, including the Zurich Opera, the Vienna Volksoper, Barbican Hall in London, the NHK Hall in Tokyo, the Teatro National in Guatemala City, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Cologne Philharmonic, and the Herkulessaal in Munich. She is equally at home singing opera, operetta, musicals, chansons and lieder, and popular songs.
Reviewers have been enthusiastic: “The audience followed her singing almost breathlessly and was getting goosebumps” (Magderburger Volsstimme, Marz); “Her voice and demeanor endowed each phrase with a depth difficult to describe, but remarkable to watch and hear” (The Arts Fuse); “She used all the facets of her voice, which can sound smoky and shady, bell-like, longingly soft, agitated and edgy. She sang herself into the heart of the Kurt Weill Festival!” (Mittledeutsche Zeitung, Marz).
Ms. Gfrerer will be joined by one of Boston’s most highly regarded pianists, William Merrill. Mr. Merrill has accompanied for numerous eminent singers in concerts at Carnegie Hall and virtually every major concert venue in Boston.
Tickets for this special Valentine’s Day event are $20 for the general public, $10 for senior citizens 65 and over, and free for 18 and under. All tickets will be sold at the door on the day of the concert. In case of heavy snow, an alternate date of Saturday, February 20th at 7pm may be offered. For more information on this and other upcoming concerts go to miltoncommunityconcerts.com.
Austrian soprano Ute Gfrerer studied voice and acting in Los Angeles and has been a successful international soloist for the past two decades. Her career brought her to major musical centers around the world , including the Zurich Opera, the Vienna Volksoper, the Barbican Hall in London, the NHK Hall in Tokio, the Teatro National in Guatemala City, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Cologne Philharmonie and the Herkulessaal in Munich, working under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Franz Welser-Moest, HK Gruber and Thomas Hengelbrock, to name just a few. The artist's extensive repertory ranges from opera (Susanna in Le Nozze de Figaro, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni) to operetta (Adele in Die Fledermaus and Valencienne in The Merry Widow) , musicals (Jesus Christ Superstar, My Fair Lady) as well as chansons and lieder.
Today she is considered to be one of the best interpreters of Kurt Weill's music, having sung and recorded many of his works, including The Threepenny Opera, One Touch of Venus, Lady in the Dark, Marie Galante and The Seven Deadly Sins. She is featured in several commercial DVDs and CDs. In 2012 Ute Gfrerer was Artist in Residence at the Kurt Weill Fest in Dessau and made her Salzburg Festival debut as the "Old Papagena" in the opera "The Labyrinth". This year she returned to the Salzburg Festival as Polly in the Threepenny Opera with the Ensemble Modern. She has been living in Boston since 2005. Lately she has been giving masterclasses for young singers at the NEC in Boston and at Stanford University, CA, among others. For more information please visit her website under : www.ute-gfrerer.com
As an added bonus two local restaurants are offering free menu items if you bring your concert ticket with you on that day: 88 Wharf (88 Wharf St., Milton) is offering a free appetizer with an entrée purchase, reservations requested; Ester (2261 Dorchester Ave.) is offering a free dessert with an entrée purchase for dinner. We thank these restaurants for their support.
William Merrill is one of Boston’s most highly respected collaborative pianist/coaches. He has worked with luminaries such as Helen Donath, Roberta Peters, Erie Mills, Eleanor Steber, and Deborah Voigt, as well as many other eminent singers.. Opera News has described his playing as “wonderfully subtle,” and The Boston Globe has praised his collaborative accompaniments as “supportive, elegant, and apparently effortless,” adding that, “in color, imagination, and above all, pertinence to the text, he was outstanding”; Germany’s Sudweste Presse praised the “great technical command and heartfelt sensitivity” of his playing, and The Boston Herald has stated simply that “Bill Merrill was, typically, perfection.” He has accompanied many eminent singers in recitals at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, and has appeared in virtually every major concert venue in the Boston area and throughout New England, including Jordan Hall, the Museum of Fine Arts/Boston, the Goethe Institute, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Newport Music Festival. Farther afield, he has appeared at San Francisco’s War Memorial Auditorium, the San Diego Art Museum with Community Concerts across the United States, and on CBS’ “Sunday Morning” with Charles Kuralt. Abroad, he has given concerts in Italy, Austria, Holland, Germany, and in Beijing and Shanghai as a guest of the Chinese government. His extensive professional affiliations include the Boston Lyric Opera, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boris Goldovsky Opera Institute, and the Opera Company of Boston. Mr. Merrill has served on the staff of New England Conservatory of Music, and faculties of the Brookline Music School, the Longy School of Music. He has recorded for both Newport Classics and Pearl Records.