The Hellenic Music Foundation will present internationally acclaimed and double Grammy award winner Greek tenor Mario Zeffiri in his New York recital debut on Monday, April 11, 2011, at 8:00 p.m., at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church on West 69th Street in Manhattan. This year’s winner of two Grammy awards for Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance for his recording of the Verdi Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Muti, Mario Zeffiri will present a program of lieder commemorating the bicentennial celebration of the birth of composer Franz Liszt. The program will include the rarely-heard Liszt Sonetti di Petrarca, as well as songs by Richard Strauss. Greek pianist Yannis Xylas will accompany the program. Christ & St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church is located near Lincoln Center at 120 West 69th Street, between Broadway and Columbus Ave. Admission is $25.00, students and seniors $15.00. Tickets can be purchased online at Brown Paper Bag Tickets at http://www.brownpaperbagtickets.com/event/162104, or at the door on the day of the performance.
An esteemed interpreter of the belcanto repertoire, tenor Mario Zeffiri enjoys a brilliant international career. He has sung on many of the world’s great stages, including La Scala and Opera di Roma in Italy, Russia’s Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, the Palais Garnier and the Opèra Comique in Paris, Barcelona’s Liceu, the Deutsche Oper at the Philharmonie in Berlin, Athens’ Megaron Theater, Carnegie Hall in New York, and the Chicago Symphony Center, as well as in the opera houses of Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Köln, Glasgow, Düsseldorf, Essen, Brussels, Dresden, Leipzig, Helsinki, Brussels, Bordeaux, Nice, Montpellier, Liège, Salzburg, Zurich and Athens, Bordeaux, Düsseldorf, Liège, Essen, Stockholm, Berlin, Turin, Valadolid, Leipzig, among others. With a repertoire which includes more than 45 tenor roles, he is a regular collaborator with renowned conductors Jesus Lopez Cobos, Daniele Gatti, Roberto Abbado, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Alberto Zedda, Stefan Soltesz, and Helmut Rilling, and directors Dario Fo, Pierluigi Pizzi, Pier Alli, and Hugo de Ana. His long-term relationship with conductor Riccardo Muti has been particularly noteworthy. In recent years he has sung under maestro Muti’s baton throughout Europe and in the United States, dazzling audiences with his interpretation of the major tenor roles in Demofoonte, the Verdi Requiem and Berlioz’ Lelio, and this past season in I Puritani in Essen, Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Zurich, Petite Messe Solennelle at Napoli’s San Carlo and I Puritani in Cagliari. Their partnership continues in 2011-12 with Lelio at Carnegie Hall on April 16 and in September at the Chicago Symphony’s season opener, and with Stabat Mater at the Wiener Musikverein in November. Mr. Zeffiri’s other upcoming engagements include Barbiere di Siviglia in Catania and Zürich, Lucia di Lammermoor (Trieste), La Damnation de Faust (Rome).
The Hellenic Music Foundation, a non-profit organization under Section 501 © (3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and member of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, was founded in 1997 to promote, advance and preserve the full spectrum of the Greek Musical Heritage worldwide. It provides greater musical education for young artists interested in developing their knowledge of ancient Greek, Byzantine, medieval, folk and Western classical music.
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PROGRAM
FRANZ LISZT
Tre Sonetti di Petrarca
- Pace non trovo
- Benedetto sia’ l giorno
- I vidi in terra angelici costume
RICHARD STRAUSS
- Zueignung Op. 10, No. 1
- Heimliche Aufforderrung Op. 27, No. 3
- Die Nacht Op.
- Ständchen Op. 17, No. 2
- Befreit Op. 39, No. 4
- Liebeshymnus Op. 32, No. 3
- Winterliebe Op. 48, No. 5
