St Louis - Bologna Sister Cities: 2nd Annual Italian Christmas Concert featuring Benedetta Orsi

MICHAEL CROSS
President, St Louis - Bologna Sister Cities

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The St Louis - Bologna Sister Cities and Grace UMC Church invite you to the SECOND ANNUAL ITALIAN CHRISTMAS CONCERT featuring internationally acclaimed mezzosoprano BENEDETTA ORSI who hails directly from our sister city, Bologna.

The concert will also feature international guests:
Soprano, STELLA MARKOU
Pianist, ALLA VOSKOBOYNIKOVA

Tickets available on Eventbrite @Concerto di Natale
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/concerto-di-natale-tickets-72549051165?aff=eac2#

Don't miss this heartwarming holiday concert in the inspiring UMC Grace Church located in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood at 6199 Waterman Blvd. St Louis, 63112 (at Skinker Blvd near Washington University).

Tickets range from $5 to $20. The concert begins at 7PM with a reception and opportunity to meet the performers directly following the performance. The Italian Community of St Louis will provide a selection of traditional Italian holiday desserts for all to enjoy.

ABOUT BENEDETTA 

Italian mezzo-soprano Benedetta Orsi has been praised by Teresa Berganza as “perfect voice for belcanto.” She is one of the 2018 nominee for Outstanding Achievement in Opera by St. Louis Theater Circle for her Carmen, reviewed by Broadway Opera World: “Benedetta Orsi has a quite breathtakingly beautiful voice, full and rich, with such easily accessed resources of power. She gives us a simply perfect “Habanera".

Orsi is one of only a few contemporary mezzo-sopranos to have performed all three of Donizetti's Tudor Operas: Jane Seymour in Anna Bolena, Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda and Sara in Roberto Devereux with Royal Opera Theater in Manchester, UK. Recent performances also include Adalgisa in Norma with Winter Opera St. Louis, the title role of Carmen with Winter Opera St. Louis, Boulder Symphony Orchestra in Colorado, and Amore Opera in New York, Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana with the New Jersey Festival Orchestra, Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera with the Miami Lyric Opera, and Maddalena in Rigoletto with Amore Opera in New York.

Her first album Christmas Around the World won the Silver Medal at the Global Music Awards in Los Angeles as Best Album and Best Female Vocalist. Her new album La Voix de l’amour, a collection of French operatic arias and art songs, will be released this Winter for the International label Limen Music. Along with concert appearances at Carnegie Hall in NYC and throughout Italy, England, United States and Spain, Orsi’s performance credits include roles in Verdi's Rigoletto, Trovatore, Bellini's Norma, La Sonnambula, and Romeo and Juliet, Rossini's L’Italiana in Algeri and Il Turco in Italia and Massenet's Werther.

Benedetta is a first prize winner of the Barry Alexander International Voice Competition (IVC), First Prize and Star Performer Award in the American Protégé IVC; Third Prize Winner of the Roschel IVC, and Audience & Orchestra Award in the Boulder Music Institute IVC. In her homeland, she received the Audience Award and Special Prize of the Italian Music Federation during the 28th International Piero Boni International Singing Competition.

Orsi received her bachelor degree in Music and Voice from Modena’s Istituto Musicale Pareggiato Orazio Vecchi, pairing her studies with numerous master classes and stage workshops taught by opera luminaries such as Marilyn Horne, Luciana Serra, Teresa Berganza, and stage director Chuck Hudson. Later, she received her Master in Voice at the Regia Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna.