Season Finale of the Tutunov Piano Series
The Oregon Center for the Arts (OCA) at Southern Oregon University presents the Tutunov Season Finale, a celebratory concert to conclude a successful year of outstanding performances in the Alexander Tutunov’s 2016-2017 Piano Series. The concert will be Friday May 12th at 7:30 PM at the SOU Music Recital Hall.
The Tutunov Season Finale will feature special guest Madeline Abel-Kerns, the internationally renowned soprano (see bio below), who will join Alexander Tutunov on stage for the Oregon Premiere performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s version of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling. Alexander Tutunov will also perform the Sonata in B-minor by Franz Liszt and Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7. He will also perform audience favorites, such as Liebestraum by Listzt and Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev.
Alexander Tutunov, the founder of the series, is Professor of Piano and Artist in Residence at Southern Oregon University. He is widely recognized as one of the most outstanding virtuosos of the former Soviet Union. First Prize winner of the Belarusian National Piano Competition and winner of the Russian National Piano Competition, Tutunov’s playing was described by Soviet Culture, Moscow, as “exhilarating and inspired, and which demonstrated a unique talent.”
All tickets are $20 general admission and free to students, and are being sold through the Oregon Center for the Arts Box Office. The box office is located in the SOU Music Building, off South Mountain Avenue, adjacent from the Theatre building, which is currently under construction. OCA Box office hours are noon to 6 PM Monday through Friday. Tickets can be purchased with a credit card over the phone by calling 541-552-6348 or in person at the box office.
About Madeline Abel-Kerns
Named the “mezzo-toned soprano” (Frankfurter Allgemeine) with a “warm and expansive voice” (Cool Cleveland), who “filled the house with thrilling sound” (San Francisco Chronicle), Madeline Abel-Kerns has garnered awards in every genre in which she sings.
In January 2016, she joined SOU as an instructor of voice for the Oregon Center for the Arts. Last May, she and Dr. Rhett Bender performed “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” a song cycle for soprano and saxophone composed by Lori Laitman, with text from children of the Terezin Concentration Camp. Tonight, Ms. Abel-Kerns is thrilled to perform Sergei Prokofiev’s “The Ugly Duckling” with Dr. Alexander Tutunov at the piano. It has been twenty years since these two artists have collaborated, and long overdue!
Opera and oratorio credits include soprano roles in Aida, Albert Herring, Beethoven’s 9th, Carmen, Cavalleria, Creation, Die Walküre, Der Rosenkavalier, Madama Butterfly, Messiah, Siegfried, Tosca, and the Mozart, Rutter, & Verdi Requiem with the Bahamas Music Society, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Heidelberg Opera, Hessische-Rundfunk Orchestra, National Chorale, NY Choral Society, Opera Orchestra of NY, Sacramento Opera, SF Choral Society and SF Opera, among others. Concert and theatre credits include opera, sacred music, musicals, cabaret, dinner theatre and original works in the Bahamas, Germany, and throughout the U.S. in Arizona, California, New York, Oregon, Ohio, Utah, Virginia and Washington.
She has taught voice, breath, acting, and physical conditioning at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Hebrew Union College, Holy Names College, James Madison University, Mary Baldwin College, Southern Oregon University and New York University, and has presented master classes and workshops around the country, in the Bahamas, and abroad.
Supplementing professional training in California, Germany, Oregon and New York, Ms. Abel-Kerns earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance, summa cum laude with Distinction, at Mary Baldwin University in 2013. She is a long-time union member in good standing of AEA, PWSA, and SAG-AFTRA.
