For Immediate Release 
Contact:  David Mayhew for Cohn Dutcher Associates
 (203) 453-4275     david@davidmayhew.net

CARAMOOR ANNOUNCES GIOVANI STELLE - A BENEFIT CONCERT IN CELEBRATION OF ITS YOUNG STARS - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11

Caramoor's Fall Vocal Gala benefits Bel Canto at Caramoor and the
Terrance W. Schwab Fund for Young Vocal Artists

Katonah, NY - Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts will celebrate its mentorship of young vocal and instrumental artists on Saturday, November 11, 2006 at its annual Fall Vocal Gala.  GIOVANI STELLE (Italian for "young stars" will benefit Bel Canto at Caramoor and the Terrance W. Schwab Fund for Young Vocal Artists.

Giovani Stelle will be conducted by Caramoor's Director of Opera, Will Crutchfield, and will feature several notable singers including acclaimed soprano Georgia Jarman, who began her professional career at Caramoor.  She will be joined by mezzo-soprano Laura Vlasak Nolen, tenor Michael Szczesniak, and bass Eric Jordan.  In keeping with Caramoor's commitment to emerging musicians, the Bel Canto Soloists will be accompanied by members of the Caramoor Virtuosi, led by cellist Edward Arron, and joined by Karen Gomyo, violin; Nicholas Cords and Leslie Tompkins, viola; Marco Granados, flute; James Roe, oboe; and Michael Barrett and Rachelle Jonck, piano, in a program including works by Bach, Handel, Rossini, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Donizetti, and Brahms.

Giovani Stelle is co-chaired by Mr. and Mrs. Donald M. Kendall of Greenwich, Claire G. Schwab and Stephen Vogel of New York City, Johanna and Matthew Schwab of Greenwich, and Catherine and Paul Welykoridko of Robbinsville, NJ.

The gala evening will begin with cocktails at 6:00 pm, followed by dinner at 6:45 pm and the concert at 8:00 pm.  A post-concert champagne and dessert reception with the artists at 10:00 pm will conclude the evening.  Attire for the evening is black-tie optional.

Tickets for Giovani Stelle are available at $1,000 per person ($850 tax-deductible), including a pre-concert dinner in the magnificent House Museum at Caramoor, preferred concert seating in the elegant and intimate Music Room, and post-concert reception.  $500 per person tickets ($400 tax-deductible) include prime concert seating and post-concert reception.  A limited number of $100 ($20 tax-deductible) concert-only tickets are also available for the evening.  Major gifts of $10,000 and above ($9,700 tax-deductible) benefit the Bel Canto at Caramoor Endowment Fund and include two tickets to the pre-concert cocktails and dinner, preferred concert seating, and post-concert reception with the artists.

To make a reservation or for more information please call 914.232.1492 or e-mail events@caramoor.org. 

About Bel Canto at Caramoor

Dubbed "essential" for its exploration of operatic rarities by The New York Times and celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2007, Bel Canto at Caramoor brings the world's foremost singers and the Orchestra of St. Luke's together with the rising stars of one of America's most significant operatic training programs.  The Caramoor Bel Canto Soloists, a select group of 16 emerging artists, forms the ensemble company for the Festival season.  Besides joining the guest soloists in the productions, they present short concerts before each opera, offering further musical perspectives on the theme of each. All Bel Canto at Caramoor presentations are sung in their original languages with English supertitles, in Caramoor's acoustically superb outdoor Venetian Theater.  Last summer's acclaimed Bel Canto presentations were Bellini's I Puritani, featuring the internationally-renowned soprano Sumi Jo, and Rossini's Tancredi with contralto Ewa Podles and soprano Georgia Jarman, as well as an evening of Mozart Bel Canto in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the composer?s birth.

About the Terrance W. Schwab Fund for Young Vocal Artists

The Terrance W. Schwab Fund was created to nurture and support the artistic development and careers of young vocal performers at Caramoor.  Caramoor is proud of its tradition of supporting young talent and through the Schwab fund will be able to enrich the program.  The Fund will allow Caramoor to offer select singers career development opportunities such as performances at Caramoor (in opera, oratorio work with orchestra, recital and chamber music), coaching, voice and language lessons, or other experiences that the Caramoor artistic administration deems valuable to the young artist.  Artists who will benefit from the Fund will be at the start of their careers and below the age of 30, but exceptions may be made, based on extraordinary merit.  In addition, the Fund may award a prize or scholarship or help underwrite a performance for a Schwab Vocal Artist, depending on the event or opportunity.

About the Artists

Will Crutchfield spent his teens as a vocal coach and rehearsal pianist, made his name as a writer and musicologist in the mid-1980's (becoming the youngest music critic in the history of The New York Times), and returned to his theater roots in the mid-1990's to conduct opera.  After initial conducting successes with productions in small companies and conservatories, Crutchfield was named to two positions:  Director of Opera for the Caramoor International Music Festival (1997-present) and Music Director of the Opera de Colombia in Bogota (1999-2005).  At these two theaters he built his style, which the Financial Times called "a fine balance of bravado, intensity, sensitivity and scholarly savoir-faire," in cycles of standard repertory classics as well as pioneering revivals of less familiar works. 

Crutchfield has accepted guest engagements in several theaters at home and abroad, including The Canadian Opera Company (Tancredi with Ewa Podles), The Washington Opera (Giulio Cesare with Hei-Kyung Hong), The Minnesota Opera (I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Sumi Jo and Vivica Genaux; La Traviata with Judith Howarth), the Baltimore Opera (La Cenerentola and Werner Herzog's production of Die Zauberflöte), Florida Grand Opera (Don Pasquale), L'Opéra Français de New York (Gluck's Pélérins de la Mècque), the Mark Morris Dance Group (Dido and Aeneas), Wolf Trap Opera (La Finta Giardiniera), the State Theatre Pretoria (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) and the Orquesta Filarmonica de la Gran Canaria (Norma).

In reviews of the celebrated Caramoor revivals - alongside praise for the musical interpretation - the press has consistently recognized the qualities of the rare operas themselves more positively than has been the case in productions elsewhere.  The New York Times, reviewing the production of La Donna del Lago that inaugurated the series, discerned "a palpable conviction that Rossini's serious operas are not static vehicles for elaborate vocal display, but elegant and humane musical dramas."  According to The Wall Street Journal, "Mr. Crutchfield brought his sure sense of bel canto style to bear upon Lucrezia Borgia, and the semi-staged concert version at Caramoor's Venetian Theater was both delightful and thought-provoking."  Subsequent revivals of Bellini's Il Pirata, Rossini's La Gazza Ladra and Otello, Handel's Deidamia, Gluck's Paride ed Elena and Donizetti's Élisabeth, a lost opera whose autograph manuscript Crutchfield himself discovered and reconstructed have been highly acclaimed.  Most recently Caramoor presented the first American performance of Bellini's La Sonnambula in the new Ricordi critical edition and the composer's original keys and an uncut Traviata based on period performance practice.

Crutchfield has also been involved in training the next generation of singers.  He prefers to work repeatedly with young artists he believes in so that the process can develop from production to production.  He served on the faculties of all three New York conservatories (Juilliard, Manhattan and Mannes) and he continues to devote the summer months to extensive training programs at Caramoor.  Some of the singers with whose debuts and early careers he has been associated include: Vivica Genaux, Nancy Herrera, Marguerite Krull, Bruce Fowler, Daniel Mobbs, Georgia Jarman, Patricia Risley, Yegishe Manucharyan, Olga Makarina, Kate Aldrich and Alexandra Deshorties. An often-noted component of Crutchfield's research, as of his practical work with singers, has been the recovery and development of the art of ornamental improvisation. 

Caramoor Virtuosi comprises alumni of the Caramoor Festival's Rising Stars Workshops, a program in which members began the transition from promising students to accomplished artists.  Heard around the world as soloists, concertmasters and orchestral and chamber players, Caramoor Virtuosi has been a presence since 1999 in the Music Room as well as at the Caramoor International Music Festival in the summer.

Cellist Edward Arron, Artistic Coordinator of the Caramoor Virtuosi, is rapidly gaining recognition worldwide for his elegant musicianship, impassioned performances, and creative programming.  A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Earlier that year, he performed Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Cellos with Yo-Yo Ma and the Orchestra of St. Luke's at the Opening Night Gala of the Caramoor International Festival. Since that time, Mr. Arron has appeared in recital, as a soloist with orchestra, and as a chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East.  The 2006-2007 season marks Mr. Arron's fourth season as the Artistic Director of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, a chamber ensemble created in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum's prestigious Concerts and Lectures series. Each performance of the MMAinC is broadcast live on New York's classical radio station, WQXR.  Mr. Arron is also the artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Summit County, Colorado. For four seasons, he was the artistic administrator and resident performer for WQXR's "On A-I-R" series, a weekly radio program dedicated to chamber music.

Georgia Jarman, soprano, has impressed audiences at home and abroad with her beguiling stage presence and elegant style.  Praising the way she "threw off showers of coloratura fireworks," The New York Times applauded her New York City Opera debut in Il Barbiere Di Siviglia, calling her "a soprano with a distinctive timbre and a real flair for ornament." Her subsequent roles at New York City Opera include Susanna in Le Nozze de Figaro and Cungeonde in Candide, and she will return in the Fall of 2005 in the role of Mélisande in Dukas' Ariane et Barbe Bleu.  Her career has already taken her to several international destinations including her European debut as Amelie in Auber's Gustave III, Ou Le Bal Masque for Opera de Metz in France and to the Opera de Colombia in Bogota twice to since the three heroine roles in Les Contes D?Hoffmann.   Ms. Jarman began her career as a frequent artist at the Caramoor Festival where she has been featured in many roles ranging from Norina in Don Pasquale , the title role in Handel's Deidamia and Violetta in last summer's La Traviata..

Eric Jordan, bass, has been sought by opera companies across the country for his trademark "big bass and presence to match" (Opera News). His voice was described as possessing "a resonant, ringing tone that was well produced throughout its range." (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) and "at times sounded truly imperial." (Essex County News) Recent appearances include the roles of Sacristan in Tosca with El Paso Opera, Sparafucille in Rigoletto at the Belleayre Music Festival, Bonze in Madama Butterfly and Ashby in La Fanciulla del West with the New York City Opera. During the 2005/06 season, Mr. Jordan was engaged to sing Superintendent Budd in Albert Herring with Gotham Chamber Opera and re-engaged by the New York City Opera in the productions of Capriccio, Il Viaggio a Reims, The Mines of Sulphur, Lysistrata and Carmen.  Mr. Jordan made his Caramoor debut during the 2006 International Music Festival in productions of Bellini's I Puritani, Rossini's Tancredi, and a Bel Canto celebration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart?s birth.  Next season, Mr. Jordan will return to the New York City Opera to appear in productions of La Bohème, Semele, Madame Butterfly and La Traviata. In addition, he has been reengaged by the Gotham Chamber Opera to sing the role of Gaudenzio in Rossini's comic gem Il Signor Bruschino.

Laura Vlasak Nolen, mezzo-soprano, made her professional debut in April 2003 in the role of Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte with the Cleveland Opera.  This season Ms. Nolen covered the role of Elvira Griffiths in the Metropolitan Opera's world premiere of An American Tragedy by Tobias Picker, and made her New York City Opera debut as Sélysette in Ariane et Barbe-Bleue.   In the summer of 2005 she performed the title role in Giulio Cesare with Opera Theater of Connecticut and Eustazio in Handel's Rinaldo with the Berkshire Opera.  Other recent engagements included a gala with the Opera Orchestra of New York, covering the roles of Amastre in Xerxes and Cefisa in Rossini's Ermione with the New York City Opera, the Rising Star Concert with the Richard Tucker Foundation in Alice Tully Hall with Edoardo Mueller conducting members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Handel's Messiah with the Danbury Chamber Orchestra, her Dallas Opera debut as the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, and the Richard Tucker Foundation Annual Gala at Avery Fisher Hall appearing alongside Denyce Graves and Barbara Frittoli.  This past summer her engagements included covering Siegrune with the Metropolitan Opera on their tour to Japan , and Mozart's Requiem with the Westchester Philharmonic, and performances in Bellini's I Puritani and Rossini's Tancredi at Caramoor. She returns next year to New York City Opera for Malcom in La donna del lago, and will record Sélysette in Ariane et Barbe-Bleue with the BBC Symphony.  Ms. Nolen has participated in the Renata Scotto Opera Academy at the Music Conservatory of Westchester.

Michael Szczesniak, tenor, made his professional operatic début in the summer of 2006 at the Pesaro Opera Festival as Conte di Liebenskof in Il viaggio a Reims under the baton of Maestro Alberto Zedda.  He began his 2005-06 season in Martina Arroyo's "Prelude to Performance" program in New York City, where he was heard as Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia and as Don Curzio in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. In the fall he performed the title role in Handel's Judas Maccabeus with the Long Island Symphony.  In 2007 Mr. Szczesniak will make his Gotham Chamber Opera debut as Florville in Rossini's Il signor bruschino.  Mr. Szczesniak's previous career highlights include his participation with the American Singers Opera Project for two summers, during which he made his stage début in as Fenton in Verdi's Falstaff and returned as Rinuccio in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.  Mr. Szczesniak graduated from Ohio State University with a double major of Vocal and Bassoon Performance, under the tutelage of Dr. Robin Rice and Professor Christopher Weait. He has also received vocal coaching from Bliss Johnston Virago, Charles Riecker, Eduardo Villa, Mark Rucker, and Rockwell Blake.  Michael Szczesniak was declared the winner of both the "Women in Music Columbus" Competition and the Junior Men division of the NATS Competition. While at Ohio State Mr. Szczesniak appeared as Henrick in Sondheim's A Little Night Music, as Nadir in Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles, and as Rodolfo in La bohème. A New York native, Mr. Szczesniak has performed as a bassoonist with many orchestras in the New York Metropolitan area and has worked with several esteemed conductors including Kurt Masur, Benjamin Zander, Lukas Foss, and Russell Stanger, and has made two appearances at Carnegie Hall. 

About Caramoor

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is the legacy of Walter and Lucie Rosen, who built the great house and filled it with their treasures. Walter Rosen was the master planner for the Caramoor estate, bringing to reality his dream of creating a place to entertain friends from around the world.  Their musical evenings were the seeds of the International Music Festival of today.  Realizing the pleasure their friends took in the beauty of Caramoor - the house with its art collection; the gardens; and the musical programs on summer evenings - the Rosens established a Foundation to open Caramoor to the public in perpetuity.

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, New York.

All programs and artists subject to change