Shepherd Masterworks to present Verdi's Requiem May 6

ISSUED: 1 May 2007
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
(Shepherd Masterworks to present Verdi's Requiem May 6)

Shepherdstown, WV--The Shepherd University Masterworks Chorale, under the direction of Dr. Erik Reid Jones, will present Guiseppe Verdi's Requiem on Sunday, May 6 at 7 p.m. in the Frank Center Theater Auditorium.

The production will be performed with a full orchestra, 120-voice choir, and professional guest soloists, soprano Lorraina Markovic-Prakash, mezzo-soprano Michelle Rice, tenor Eric Sampson, and bass-baritone Andrew Cummings.

Markovic-Prakash was a Vocal Arts Society Discovery Series winner and has performed with the Opera Theater of Northern Virginia, Pittsburgh Opera, and the Wheeling Symphony. She currently teaches at Morgan State University and maintains a private voice studio in the Washington, D.C., area.

Rice has earned praise for her dramatic presence on the opera stage and has enjoyed critical success on the concert stage. Recent performances include Mrs. Grose in Britten's The Turn of the Screw at the Kennedy Center, Gertrude in Cleveland Opera's Romeo et Juliette, and Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with the Annapolis Orchestra.

Sampson has performed roles with the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. and the New Jersey Opera Theater. He was recently a district winner in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in Washington, D.C.

Cummings sang a title role in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and Belcore in Donizetti's L'Elsir d'Amore with the Martina Arroyo Foundation. Recently, he sang bass in the solo quartette for Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the University of Pennsylvania.

Reid Jones is the director of choral and vocal activities at Shepherd and founder of the Master Singers of Virginia. Reid Jones is also an avid choral composer, with more than twenty works to his credit, most of which have been premiered by the Master Singers.

Tickets are $10 for general admission; $5 for faculty and students 18 and under; and free to Shepherd students and Friends of Music MAC cardholders with advance registration. For more information and tickets, contact the Shepherd University concertline at 304/876-5555 or visit www.sufom.org.

-30-HORST

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