Three Performances
Friday, December 1 @ 7:30 PM
Saturday, December 2 @ 2:30 PM
Saturday, December 2 @ 7:30 PM
Kick off your holiday season with the sheer grandeur and transcendent power of Handel's 'Messiah,' a masterpiece that has stood the test of time. From the triumphant 'Hallelujah' chorus to the tender arias and majestic orchestral passages, every note of Handel's magnum opus resonates with deep emotion and spiritual delight. The exceptional Lancaster Symphony Orchestra and Chorus will bring this timeless oratorio to life, stirring your soul and filling it with awe and reverence. Come, be part of a tradition that spans centuries, and let the music of Handel's 'Messiah' inspire and uplift your spirit.
Featuring
Dr. William Wright—Conductor
Amy Nicole Broadbent—Soprano
Maren Montalbano—Alto
Fran Daniel Laucerica—Tenor
Damian Savarino—Bass
Meet Our Guest Artists
Amy Nicole Broadbent
“With consummate poise, limpid clarity, and faultless intonation” (Washington Classical Review), soprano Amy Nicole Broadbent has garnered recognition as a dynamic and versatile musical force. Amy is a sought-after interpreter of a wide range of vocal music, from the music of Bach & Handel to newly composed works. Amy has performed as a soloist for the Oregon Bach Festival, Staunton Music Festival, Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Washington National Cathedral,
Washington Bach Consort, The Thirteen, Folger Consort. She created the role of Sebastian in Scott Ordway’s opera, The Outer Edge of Youth, her recording of which was acclaimed by Opera News (Critic’s Choice), Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine. Other stage roles include Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Bastienne (Bastien und Bastienne), Papagena (Die Zauberflöte), Johanna (Sweeney Todd), La Statue Animée (Pygmalion), Josephine (H.M.S. Pinafore) and Elsie (The Yeoman of the Guard). She is a founding member of the vocal quartet The Polyphonists. A multi-faceted musician, Amy’s compositions and arrangements have been performed at the White House, Washington National Cathedral, and Basilica of the National Shrine, and they have been broadcast nationally. As assistant conductor for the Victorian Lyric Opera Company, her conducting was hailed as “stellar... a balletic piece of choreography” (Ruby Griffith Award). She is the Assistant Conductor of the U.S. Navy Band Sea Chanters, the official chorus of the U.S. Navy. Amy holds degrees in both voice and conducting from the University of Maryland. Learn more at amy-broadbent.com
Maren Montalbano
A graduate of both New England Conservatory of Music and Tufts University, mezzo-soprano Maren Montalbano can be heard on four GRAMMY Award-winning albums: Born (2023), Lansing McLoskey’s Zealot Canticles (2019), Gavin Bryars’ The Fifth Century (2018), and John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls (2005). Among her 30+ commercial recordings are Douglas Cuomo’s opera Arjuna’s Dilemma, Gavin Bryars’ A Native Hill, Edie Hill’s Evolutionary Spirits, and her debut solo album, Sea Tangle: Songs from the
North. Her performances have been praised as “wonderful” and “suave and sensuous” by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Ms. Montalbano has been a guest artist with Claire Chase, the Folger Consort, Lyric Fest, Choral Arts Philadelphia, Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, Network for New Music, Tempesta di Mare, Piffaro, the Renaissance Band, and she performed as a soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with the Lancaster Symphony in 2010. During the pandemic, she turned to the digital world; she wrote, produced, and premiered a one-woman show called The Bodice Ripper Project as an interactive digital performance at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and began recording (in her own closet!) for films and commercial albums. In the 2023-24 season, Ms. Montalbano continues to walk the line between the digital and live worlds, with performances ranging from a traditional recital with guitarist Thomas Schuttenhelm, to creating and selling digital collectibles on the new online platform StageYo. Ms. Montalbano lives in New Jersey and sings professionally throughout a wide geographic area with Opera Philadelphia, Trio Eos, and The Crossing. Learn more at www.marenmontalbano.com
Fran Daniel Laucerica
Hailed by Opera News as “a very promising high tenor,” Cuban-American, Fran Daniel Laucerica has been praised for his clarity, agility, and musical versatility as a rising star on the operatic and concert stages.
This season, Mr. Laucerica joins Pittsburgh Opera as a Resident Artist, where he will be performing the role of Conte Almaviva/Il barbiere di Siviglia in a student matinee performance, as well as Pylade/Iphigénie en Tauride, Miles Zegner/Proving Up, and Gastone/La traviata. Additionally, in the 2023/24 season with Pittsburgh Opera, he will be covering the roles of Steuermann/Der fliegende Holländer, and Alfredo/La traviata, a role that he debuted with Virginia Opera last season. Also this season, Laucerica rejoins GRAMMY-award-winning new music ensemble The Crossing in his Philadelphia Orchestra debut, singing Vespers of the Blessed Earth by John Luther Adams, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, as well as returning as the Evangelist and Tenor Soloist for Cantata, BWV 8 and Christmas Oratorio, Part V with Madison Bach Musicians.
As included above, Laucerica’s 2022-2023 season as a Virginia Opera Emerging Artist saw him performing as Alfredo/La Traviata as well as Gastone, and covering Frederic/The Pirates of Penzance and Timothy Laughlin/Fellow Travelers. Later in the season, he joined The Crossing, debuting Hearne’s Farming and making his New York Philharmonic debut, singing the premiere of unEarth by Julie Wolfe. Other performances included his house and role debut with First Coast Opera as Silvio/Le docteur miracle, as a guest soloist at Lawrence University in the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52, and his debut with Madison Bach Musicians in a concert of Latin American Baroque Music.
In the 2021/22 season, Laucerica was a young artist with The Glimmerglass Festival, premiering the leading role of Dante/Tenor Overboard, a newly fashioned Rossini pastiche by Ken Ludwig, and covered the tenor roles in both Sankaram’s Taking Up Serpents and the premiere of Geter’s Holy Ground. He was also a Resident Artist with Toledo Opera, where he sang Count Almaviva in a touring production of The Barber of Seville, Ferrando/Cosí fan tutte (Resident Artist Performance), and Gastone in La Traviata. Additionally, Mr. Laucerica joined Seaglass Theater Company to perform scenes from Les pêcheurs de perles and Arrieta’s Marina.
Amidst the shutdown, he joined Wolf Trap Opera for both the 2020 and 2021 seasons as a studio artist, where he covered the roles of Adolfo Pirelli/Sweeney Todd, Comte Barigoule/Cendrillon, and Satyavān in Holst’s Sāvitri, and performed scenes from Billy Budd and Fellow Travelers.
On the concert stage, Mr. Laucerica has been the tenor soloist in varied works including Orff’s Carmina Burana with Lexington Symphony, Handel’s Messiah with the Callipygian Players, Hailstork’s I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes with Glencoe Union Church, as well as Mozart’s Coronation Mass, and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria as a guest soloist with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra. A passionate advocate for new music, Mr. Laucerica has premiered several works, including Samuel Carl Adams’ Light Readings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW initiative and David Lang’s a house with the Bienen Contemporary Vocal Ensemble.
Mr. Laucerica is a recent Encouragement Award Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, as well as the Third-Prize Winner in the 2023 Handel Aria Competition and semi-finalist in the SAS Performing Arts, Camerata Bardi, and Music International Grand Prix competitions. He graduated from the Boston Conservatory with a Master’s in Opera Performance and a Bachelor’s from Northwestern University.
Damian Savarino
Highly coveted bass Damian Savarino has performed all over the world in opera, operetta, and in concert. His rich voice, elegant musicality, and commanding acting have set him apart as one of today’s most gifted singers. He has appeared throughout the U.S. performing such roles as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Colline in La Bohème, Zuniga in Carmen, Guglielmo in Cosí Fan Tutte, Étienne in Naughty Marietta, Pish-Tush in The Mikado, and Michael in I Do! I Do!.
While at Ohio Light Opera, he sang and recorded the roles of Colonel Lester in Victor Herbert’s Eileen and Lord Dramaleigh in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Utopia Limited for the Newport Classic Label, as well as performed roles in Patience, Eduard Künneke’s Der Vetter aus Dingsda, Romberg’s New Moon, and Camelot. With the Harrisburg Symphony, he has sung the roles of Baron Douphol/Dottore Grenvil in La Traviata, the Boatswain in HMS Pinafore, and Samuel in The Pirates of Penzance.
With Teatro Grattacielo in NYC, Savarino has performed the roles of Rocco in I Gioielli della Madonna, L’uomo di legge in Il Re, Lo zio in I Compagnacci, Lucio Polo in La Nave, and Harìta in Sakùntala in venues such as the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center and NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. In a concert with Musica Sacra (NY) in Alice Tully Hall, he sang the role of the Father in Charpentier’s Filius Prodigus and the bass solos in Carissimi’s Vanitas Vanitatum.
He has sung the bass solos in Mozart’s Requiem with Manhattan Concert Productions in Carnegie Hall, as well as with the Greenwich Choral Society, the Messiah College Choral Arts Society, and the Harrisburg Symphony in a special 9/11 Memorial Concert. Also at Carnegie Hall, he has sung the bass solos in Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with Distinguished Concerts International of New York.
Additional concert performances include Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Connecticut Choral Society, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra/Symphonic Choir, and the Messiah College Choral Arts Society, Handel’s Messiah with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Aaron Copland’s Old American Songs with the West Shore Symphony (PA), and Schubert’s Mass in G, as well as several concerts of Bach and Handel with the Handel & Haydn Society of Boston. During a trip to Greece, Dr. Savarino performed the bass solos in Mikis Theodorakis’ oratorio Canto General, based on texts by Pablo Neruda.
Savarino is also an active recitalist who has performed recitals in Berlin, Germany, Katerini, Greece, Ravanusa, and Sicily, as well as presented guest artist recitals at Penn State University, Kutztown University, and Gettysburg College. He holds degrees from the Catholic University of America, New England Conservatory, and Ithaca College.