Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church - New Paltz

This past Sunday, August 14th, the New Paltz community was once again treated to a spectacular concert of Italian Opera performed by this year's Bel Canto Institute Award Recipients:

Angela Musliner is an undergraduate Performance Major at McGill University. The New Jersey native has been an active soloist in Early Music Ensemble, McGill Chamber Singers, McGill’s Capella Antica and Three Soprano Early Music Ensemble. She is a recipient of the 2011 Bel Canto Institute Performance Award.

Danish soprano Eline Soelmark is currently in her second year at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. She has performed in the chorus of the Opera Academy and is a member of the choir in Grundtvigskirken. She is a recipient of the 2011 Bel Canto Institute Performance Award.

Suzanne Grogan is a junior at Oakland University, where she won the Oakland University Concerto Competition. She sings with the touring ensemble Oakland Chorale, and has performed in Die Zauberfloete, Ballad of Baby Doe and The Mikado. Ms. Grogan is a recipient of the 2011 Bel Canto Institute Performance Award and the Bel Canto Institute Orchestral Performance Award.

Megan Gryga is an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was the first recipient of the Skillrud Scholarship. She has performed in Gianni Schicchi, Maria Stuarda and Pirates of Penzance, and as soprano soloist in Bach’s B Minor Mass and Schubert’s Mass in G Minor, as well as various pieces with the Kettle Moraine Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Gryga has received first place at the NATS competition, Classical Singer’s Regional Auditions, Wisconsin Music Teachers Association, Milwaukee Civic Music Association, and Moraine Area Private Music Teachers Organization. She is a recipient of the Bel Canto Institute Performance Award.

A native of Gainesville, Florida, Danielle Good received her Bachelor’s Degree from Catholic University where she received the Academic Achievement Award for the highest academic performance in the class of 2010. She is currently a graduate student at the Manhattan School of Music where she has performed in Die Zauberfloete and Sweeney Todd. In October of 2010 Ms Good won the Jeanie/Stephen’s Auditions Competition. She is a recipient of the 2011 Bel Canto Institute Performance Award.

Karina Azatyan has accompanied concerts throughout Europe, Israel, the United States and Russia.  She has served as accompanist and language coach for Opera Lyra in Ottawa, Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble, Virginia Opera, New Jersey association of Verismo Opera, Israel Vocal Arts Institute, Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy, and Brooklyn College Opera Theater.

Ms. Azatyan is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy.

Phil Rogers, for whom the concert is presented today, was a long time resident of Highland and founding partner in American Heating and Cooling.  His widow, Karen Rogers, started the Phil Rogers Memorial Scholarship Fund for participants of Bel Canto Institute's Summer Programs. Megan Gryga was the 2011 recipient of this scholarship.