A Lenten Memorial Concert and Fundraiser

Carol Chickering, soprano
Maren Montalbano, mezzo-soprano
William Burden, tenor
Brian Ming Chu, baritone

with orchestra and the Redeemer choirs
Michael Stairs, organist
Michael Diorio, director

Where
Church of the Redeemer
230 Pennswood Road
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Map It

When
Friday, March 16, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets $20, ($10 students) available online or at the door.
Advance ticket purchase is recommended for priority seating.
Childcare available by advance online request.

All proceeds go to benefit the music program at The Redeemer.

Click here to purchase tickets

Millersville University

Maren Montalbano, mezzo-soprano
Millersville University choirs
Dr. Mark Boyle, conductor

Where
Steinman Hall
The Ware Center
Millersville University Lancaster
42 N. Prince St.
Lancaster, PA 17603

When
MASTERCLASS: Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 12:00 PM (free)
CONCERT: Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 7:30 PM (tickets: $10 – free for students)

For more information, contact the Millersville music department at 717-872-3357.

Lyric Fest’s ‘Bawdy Bard’ – Tom Purdom for Broad Street Review, September 27, 2011

Mezzo Maren Montalbano added color and personal liveliness; bass Colin Dill contributed a pleasingly unforced masculinity; and tenor Steven Bradshaw spanned a broad range with a knowledgeable feel for the nuances of period music. They’re all notably expressive vocalists.
…
Montalbano: Cheerfully risqué.

Michael Caruso of Chestnut Hill Local, September 26, 2011

Leslie Johnson’s soprano rang with scintillating brilliance beautifully paired with creamy refinement. Maren Montalbano’s mezzo rang with throaty vibrancy and tawny resonance. Steven Bradshaw’s tenor took flight with effortless projection and eloquent lyricism. And Colin Dill’s baritone coursed with power cloaked in velvet. Glandorf achieved equally exemplary results with the choir as a whole. Blend and balance were flawless, pitch and tuning were immaculate, and phrasing was arched and shapely.

Musically, the Undark Ages – by Lewis Whittington for ConcertoNet.com, October 11, 2011

…“L’autrier jost’una sebissa,” a 12th century pastorale by Marcabru sung by Montalbano and Dill made it a saucy mezzo and basso duet. “Le Chant des oiseaux” from the 14th century by Clément Janequin is an a capella quartet for the soloists who all displayed both silky technique in the vocal overlays and crisp interlocks in the transitional phrases.

Choral Arts Society’s Gesualdo Program (2nd Review):

David Price’s dark tenor and Maren Montalbano’s mezzo created a vivid, remorseless picture of a father tormented by divided loyalties and a son who gradually works out the truth of his situation.

Choral society in top form for program of sacred works

The soloists, who were featured throughout the concert, were impressive…Soprano Jennifer Michalik (who sings with the Wheatland Chorale) has a crystalline timbre, and alto Maren Montalbano Brehm is equally clear in the lower range. The four blended beautifully in all their work.

Reading Choral Society

Peter Hopkins, conductor
Jennifer Michalik, soprano
Maren Montalbano, mezzo-soprano
Steve McMahon, tenor
Jackson Williams, bass

Where
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church
701 Franklin Street
West Reading, PA 19611

When
Sunday, April 10, 2011 at 4:00 PM

General Admission
$18 advance tickets
$20 at door
Students $1 at door
To order tickets, call the RCS office: (610) 898-1939

Written in 1952, Britten adapted text from medieval language of the Chester Miracle Plays rather than the authorized version of Bible. During this canticle, Britten portrays the most dramatic moment in the life of Abraham as recounted in Genesis 22, the binding and near sacrifice of his beloved son Isaac in obedience to God.
- program notes from Krista Tippett’s Being from American Public Media

Benjamin Britten

David Price – Abraham
Maren Montalbano – Isaac
Matthew Glandorf – conductor

Where:
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
1625 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103

When:
Friday, April 8, 2011 at 8:00pm

Click here to purchase tickets

The title of Ligeti’s Clocks and Clouds refers to an essay by the Anglo-Austrian philosopher Karl Raimund Popper, “On Clocks and Clouds.” Popper’s essay describes two different kinds of processes that occur in nature, one that can be measured exactly (“clocks”) and the other, made up of indefinite occurrences that can only be described in a statistical approximation (“clouds”). According to Ligeti: “I liked Popper’s title and it awakened in me musical associations of a kind of form in which rhythmically and harmonically precise shapes gradually change into diffuse sound textures and vice-versa, whereby then, the musical happening consists primarily of processes of the dissolution of the ‘clocks’ to ‘clouds’ and the condensation and materialization of ‘clouds’ to ‘clocks’.”
- from Steve Lacoste’s article on the LA Philharmonic performance

For more videos and commentary by Maestro Salonen about the piece, go here.

György Ligeti

When:
Thu, Mar. 24, 2011 at 7:30PM
Fri, Mar. 25, 2011 at 2:00PM
Sat, Mar. 26, 2011 at 8:00PM

Where:
Avery Fisher Hall
New York, NY

Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
New York Philharmonic
Women of the New York Choral Artists (Joseph Flummerfelt, director)

Click here to purchase tickets

When:
February 25, 2011 at 8:00 p.m.

Where:
William Chatlos Memorial Chapel
Philadelphia Biblical University
Langhorne, PA

Joseph Caminiti, conductor
Steven Condy, baritone – Elijah
Donna Lee Ramsey, soprano
Maren Montalbano, mezzo-soprano
David Shockey, tenor

Click here to purchase tickets

Verdi concert is a powerful show – Intelligencer Journal, November 12, 2010

The four soloists — soprano Julie-Ann Whitely Green, mezzo-soprano Maren Montalbano, tenor Jeffrey Halili and baritone Zeffin Quinn Hollis — were capable interpreters of their parts. These parts were, in fact, roles without names and the piece calls for a great deal of interaction among soloists.

Requiem inspires jubilation – Sunday News, November 13, 2010

The four distinguished soloists included soprano Julie-Ann Whitely Green, mezzo-soprano Maren Montalbano, tenor Jeffrey Halili and bass-baritone Zeffin Quinn Hollis.

…A sequence goes on to describe the particulars of judgment in detail, as soloists and chorus go back and forth from Hollis’ awesome “Confutatis maledictas” (“When sentence on the damned is passed and all to burning flames consigned”) to the poignant and utterly sublime “Lacrimosa”…

Verdi’s operatic prowess is continually apparent in the music. The agonizing “Recordare, Jesu pie” (“Remember, loving Jesus”) of Green and Montalbano is on par with Violetta’s beautiful aria “È Strano” (“I wonder”) from Act 1 of “La Traviata” (1853). And the four soloists build on each other in the “Offertorio” in much the same way Verdi’s operatic ensembles do.