Milton Community Concerts
at First Parish
A Bit of Broadway Magic
Saturday, September 23rd at 7pm
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On Saturday September 23 at 7pm Milton Community Concerts presents baritone Ron Raines, who will be joining three other elite singers in “A Bit of Broadway Magic: A Concert of Great Music from the Musicals”. The concert will take place at First Parish of Milton, 535 Canton Avenue. Also singing will be soprano Mara Bonde, mezzo-soprano Sandra Piques Eddy, tenor Jermaine Smith, and pianist Timothy Steele. Tickets (available at the door only) will be $20 general/$10 seniors/free for 18 and under.
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Ron Raines was nominated for a Tony Award and a Grammy Award for the 2012 production of Stephen Sondheim’s FOLLIES, where he starred opposite Bernadette Peters. Other Broadway leading roles include Daddy Warbucks in ANNIE, Joseph Pulitzer in NEWSIES, Billy Flynn in CHICAGO, and GAYLORD RAVENEL in SHOWBOAT. He has been a soloist with over 60 major American and international orchestras, and has appeared on four PBS “Great Performances”. On television he received three Emmy nominations for his role as the nefarious Alan Spaulding on CBS’s long-running drama GUIDING LIGHT. He has also appeared on CBS primetime in ELEMENTARY, PERSON OF INTEREST, and THE GOOD WIFE. Recently he was on THE BLACK LIST on NBC as well as HBO’s THE GILDED AGE.
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Mara Bonde has sung extensively in both musicals and operas. She recently performed two leading roles with Reagle Theater, Mother Abbess in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, and Sarah Brown in GUYS AND DOLLS. She has sung operatic roles with Odyssey Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Omaha, and many others. She has sung Pops concerts with the Boston Pops, the Rochester Philarmonic, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, and has also sung with Boston Baroque and the Handel and Haydn Society.
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Sandra Piques Eddy will be singing her signature role of Carmen this coming year with Vancouver Opera. She has also sung the role with more than ten opera companies around the country, as well as twice in Japan with Maestro Seiji Ozawa. She has also sung numerous operatic roles at the Metropolitan Opera, Opera Omaha, Boston Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and Chicago Opera Theater, among others. Recently she travelled to the UK to sing with Opera North in productions of TROUBLE IN TAHITI and A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC.
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Jermaine Smith is closely associated with the role of Sporting Life in the opera PORGY AND BESS, for which he was contracted by the Metropolitan Opera. He has performed Sporting Life with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Cape Town Opera, Teatro San Carlo, and at the Hollywood Bowl. He has performed the role in Japan, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Spain, Sicily, and elsewhere. His other operatic roles include the title role in JOSHUA’S BOOTS by Adolphus Hailstork, and Zodzetrick in Scott Joplin’s TREEMONISHA at the Opera Theater of Saint Louis. He has also made numerous appearances with the Saint Louis Symphony.
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Timothy Steele is a pianist/vocal coach at the New England Conservatory, as well as the music director at First Parish of Milton. He is producer of Milton Community Concerts.
Admission $20 general; $10 seniors; free for 18 and under.
Artist Headshots and Bios
Soprano Mara Bonde has thrilled audiences in diverse venues with her electric stage presence and musical artistry. Her voice has been described as having "sweet purity of tone" (Boston Herald) and "ravishing" (The Boston Globe). Equally at home in both classical and popular styles, Mara is no stranger to the world of symphony pops. She has been the guest artist for "Holiday Pops" concerts with the Boston Pops, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Naples Philharmonic, and with the Baton Rouge, Lansing, New Haven, Syracuse, and Charlotte Symphony Orchestras. Other orchestral engagements have taken her to the Firebird Pops, South Florida, Utah, San Diego, Stamford, Ridgefield, Waterbury, Cape, Cape Ann, Melrose, Quincy and Nashua Symphony Orchestras, the Handel & Haydn Society, and Boston Baroque.
Her stage repertoire includes both opera and classic music theater roles; a few favorites are Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music (Reagle Music Theatre), Mrs. Page in Sir John in Love (Odyssey Opera), Sarah Brown in Guys & Dolls (Reagle Music Theatre), Marian in The Music Man (Greater Lowell Music Theater), Lilli Vanessi/Kate in Kiss me Kate (Commonwealth Opera and Adina in L'elisir d'amore (Sarasota Opera), Mara has also graced the stages of Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Omaha, Glimmerglass Opera, Utah Opera, Light Opera Oklahoma, Opera Company of North Carolina and the Artist Series of Sarasota in works ranging from Mozart to Mollicone, and Sullivan to Sondheim. Mara was a National Semi-Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (first place winner Rocky Mountain Region) and the first prize winner in the Bel Canto Vocal Scholarship Award.
Mara also performs regularly alongside mezzo-soprano Sandra Piques Eddy & pianist Brian Moll as a trio “3 For Good” in concerts benefitting different organizations including Bay Cove Human Services, The St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry and with the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network. This ensemble was born out of the incredible need to perform and spread kindness and good will during the pandemic. Please visit: www.marabonde.com
Praised for her “dark, sensuous mezzo and charming stage presence” (Opera Magazine), Sandra Piques Eddy returns to Vancouver Opera as Carmen and Nashville Opera as Paula in Florencia en el Amazonas in the 2023/2024 Season.
Career highlights include: Title role of Carmen at Michigan Opera Theater, Austin Opera, Rochester Philharmonic, Spokane Symphony, Opera Colorado, Portland Opera, Opera North UK tour, Greensboro Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and twice on tour of Japan under the baton of Maestro Seiji Ozawa; Fiona in Nico Muhly’s Two Boys, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana, La Badessa in Suor Angelica, Mercedes in Carmen at Metropolitan Opera, Orfeo in Orfeo ed Eurydice at Portland Opera, Charlotte in Werther, Idamante in Idomeneo, Varvara in Katya Kabanova at her home company Boston Lyric Opera, Dido in Dido and Aeneas and Mistress Revels in Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players with Florentine Opera, Rosina in Il barbieri di Siviglia at Opera Omaha, Nashville Opera, Vancouver Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Wichita Grand Opera and Kansas City Opera; Crested Butte Music Festival and on tour with New Zealand Opera, Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri with Vancouver Opera, Atlanta Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Arizona Opera and Boston Midsummer Opera; Angelina in La Cenerentola with Spoleto Festival (USA), Austin Lyric, Opera Saratoga, Greensboro; Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte with Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Hyogo Performing Arts Center, Japan, Boston Lyric Opera; Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with Metropolitan Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Los Angeles Opera, Atlanta Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre and Hyogo Performing Arts Center, Japan; Idamante in Idomeneo with both Boston Lyric Opera and Florentine Opera and Meg Page in Falstaff and Maddalena in Rigoletto with Opera Colorado. Sandra received critical acclaim as the title role in The Coronation of Poppea in the Opera North UK tour and returned to Opera North for Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti and Desireé in A Little Night Music.
Sandra is a recent recipient of the Boston Conservatory’s Distinguished Alumni Award and is visiting Faculty at the Longy School of Music at Bard College. Ms. Eddy has recently been appointed to the Boston Singers Resource Board of Directors and starts as Collegiate Chorale director at Stonehill College this fall.
Ron Raines, a Tony and Grammy Award nominee for the acclaimed 2012 production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies which he starred in opposite Bernadette Peters. Ron has also starred on Broadway as Daddy Warbucks in Annie, Joseph Pulitzer in Newsies, Billy Flynn in Chicago, Gaylord Ravenal in Show Boat, and Nick Longworth in Teddy & Alice. He has delighted audiences around the country in A Little Night Music opposite Leslie Uggams, The Unsinkable Molly Brown opposite Debbie Reynolds, Can Can opposite Chita Rivera, South Pacific, Rose Marie, Oklahoma!, Carousel, Side by Side by Sondheim, Guys and Dolls, and Man of LaMancha which he did at the Covent Garden Festival in London and recorded at the famed Abbey Road Studios. He has been a soloist with over 60 major American and international orchestras, including the Boston Pops, the Philly Pops, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony, and the Israel Philharmonic. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, and London’s Palladium, and Royal Festival Hall. He has appeared on four PBS “Great Performances,” and has recorded numerous cast albums as well as two solo CDs on the Jay Records label. Born in Texas City, Texas and raised throughout East Texas, Ron graduated from Oklahoma City University and then attended The Juilliard School on full scholarship. He was a three-time Emmy nominee for his role as the nefarious Alan Spaulding on CBS’s longest running daytime drama Guiding Light. Ron has appeared on CBS primetime in Elementary, Person of Interest and The Good Wife. In 2020/21 he appeared in The Black List on NBC, and in 2022 HBO’s The Gilded Age.
Jermaine Smith, tenor, is closely associated with the role of Sporting Life, which he recently made his debut at Atlanta Opera, Metropolitan Opera Artist Contract, Teatro San Carlo in Napli, Italy, Seatle Opera and Tanglewood Music Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Hollywood Bowl's premiere performance of Porgy & Bess in concert, Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Porgy and Bess as well as in Cape Town Opera's guest engagement at the newly opened opera house in Oslo, Norway a couple of seasons ago. He has also performed the role in Japan, Germany, Sweden, Austria, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Sicily, The Grand Canary Islands and in this country at Union Ave Opera, Opera Pacific, and in Francesca Zambello's production at both Washington National Opera and Los Angeles Opera. Most recently he has brought his portrayal to Paris's Opera-Comique, the Theatre de Caen, the Granada Festival, the Opera de Luxembourg, and the Santa Fe Symphony. His other operatic repertoire includes the title role/ Joshua's Boots (world premiere at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, revival at Kansas City Lyric Opera), Henry Davis/Street Scene and Zodzetrick/ Treemonisha (both with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis). He has made numerous appearances with the St. Louis Symphony. Smith is an alumnus of the New England Conservatory of Music and University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Timothy Steele is an active vocal coach, collaborative pianist, and conductor, and has taught for twenty-nine years on the opera faculty at New England Conservatory. He has conducted for outreach tours with the Boston Lyric Opera and is a former music director for Opera Providence. He has served as assistant conductor/pianist for over 190 productions with twenty-five opera companies, including Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, Wolf Trap Opera, Central City Opera, and Opera Maine. He assisted with the Pulitzer Prize winning opera MADAME WHITE SNAKE for productions in Boston and Taiwan and the OUROBOROS TRILOGY in 2016, and for three years collaborated with WaterFire-Providence on a unique and popular series of opera evenings. For the last eight years he has been music director at First Parish of Milton-UU and producer of Milton Community Concerts. In Boston he has performed with Emmanuel Music, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, among others.