Canceled | Metropolitan Opera Soloist Tatiana Melnychenko

NEW YORK CITY PREMIERE
AT THE UKRAINIAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICA
Metropolitan Opera Soloist Tatiana Melnychenko

Metropolitan Opera Soloist Tatiana Melnychenko and pianist Irena Portenko will feature an array of compositions for voice and piano, including art-songs, arias, zarzuelas and romances.

Wine and dessert reception to follow.

General Admission – $55
UIA Members – $45
Under 35 – $30

TATIANA MELNYCHENKO
Tatiana Melnychenko began her artistic career in the Opera Theatre of Odesa – a city of great operatic traditions. In 2000, the great Spanish tenor Alfredo Kraus chose her for the singing department of the Queen Sofia School of Music in Madrid where she completed her training with renowned mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza. After her recent and successful debut as Abigail in Nabucco at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, soprano Tatiana Melnychenko was re-engaged to sing Giorgetta in Puccini’s “Il tabarro” by the same opera house in November 2018. Ms. Melnychenko’s other debuts included: Turandot at Teatro Massimo di Palermo (January 2019) and Tosca at the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv (maestro Daniel Oren). Additional professional highlights include: singing the Verdi Requiem at the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon in Spain (June 2018) and appearing in the role of Abigail in Nabucco at many of the top opera houses around the world including the Arena di Verona, L’opera de Montreal, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Gran Teatre del Liceo in Barcelona and the Royal Opera de Wallonie in Liege. Other notable engagements included appearing as Lady Macbeth (Verdi’s Macbeth) in its new production at Stadttheater Klagenfurt and at the Greek National Opera in Athens.

IRENA PORTENKO
Named to a “select circle” of pianists by The New York Times, Dr. Portenko continues to delight in bringing the richness of her cross-cultural musical training and experience to the stage. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras and performed under the batons of Grammy Nominated Kenneth Kiesler (USA), Volodymyr Kozhuhar (Ukraine), Rossen Milanov (Bulgaria-USA), Volodymyr Sirenko (Ukraine), Uwe Harrer (Austria), Allin Vlasenko (Ukraine), and Dai Uk Lee (Korea). In addition to recital and solo work, Ms. Portenko is an avid chamber musician and has performed with distinguished artists at festivals and recitals around the world. Her career as a performer has included a distinguished array of performances including critically acclaimed Chopin’s Twenty Four Etudes Op. 10 at Carnegie Hall and Op. 25 of two Concerti by R. Schumann and by J. Brahms (No. 2) in one evening, accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in December 2017. Dr. Irena Portenko is an esteemed musical educator and strategic arts administrator promoting the longevity of live classical music through innovative educational programming and by overseeing all strategic, educational, operational, and artistic dimensions of the festival. She resides in Dobbs Ferry, where she teaches limited amount of talented students. Dr. Portenko is a Founding Executive and Artistic Director of “Music in the Alps,” an annual international music festival in Austria’s Innsbruck, Salzburg, Bad Gastein and Bad Hofgastein, driving cross-cultural learning and innovation in classical music performance.