The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
Curtis Institute of Music
Ainadamar
2007 Grantee
$60,000
The Curtis Institute of Music will present the Curtis Opera Theatre’s Philadelphia premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s debut opera “Ainadamar,” which is based on the life of Margarita Xirgu, the Catalan actress who collaborated frequently with Spanish poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca. The production will feature Curtis Institute students Layla Claire (soprano), Katherine Lerner (mezzo-soprano), Amanda Majeski (soprano), Brian Porter (tenor), and Evan Hughes (bass-baritone). Guest artists will include Chas Rader-Shieber (director), Corrado Rovaris (conductor), Mark Barton (lighting designer), and David Zinn (set and costume designer). Five performances will be presented at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
The Curtis Institute of Music trains exceptionally gifted young musicians for careers as performing artists. Founded by Mary Louise Curtis Bok in 1924, the Curtis Institute offers merit-based full-tuition scholarships to all its students, who train with today’s most respected artists and teachers, including Richard Danielpour, Leon Fleisher, Pamela Frank, Mikael Eliasen, Gary Graffman, Jennifer Higdon, Ida Kavafian, Seymour Lipkin, Edgar Meyer, Otto-Werner Mueller, Ned Rorem, Aaron Rosand, Joseph Silverstein, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, members of the Guarneri Quartet and many of the principal players of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Enrollment is small (about 160 students per year), and is based on the musicians needed for a symphony orchestra, opera department, and select programs in piano, organ, harpsichord, composition, and conducting. http://www.curtis.edu/
Layla Claire and Dominic Armstrong – photo by David Swanson