Endless Pleasure - Songs of Love Lost and Found November 22, 2008

Augustana Arts presents Lauralyn Kolb, soprano

“Endless Pleasure: Songs of Love Lost and Found”

Augustana Arts presents Lauralyn Kolb, soprano, in “Endless Pleasure: Songs of Love Lost and Found,” works from Henry Purcell to Jerome Kern and the Colorado premiere of Jeffrey Kolb’s’ Eurydice, a song-cycle setting of poems by Eleanor Mathews. One performance only at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, November 22 at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5000 East Alameda Avenue, Denver. Tickets: $5 - $15. Tickets are available at 866-464-2626 or online at www.TicketsWest.com

Lauralyn Kolb and Tina Toglia, pianist, will perform songs of Handel, Henri Duparc, Hugo Wolf and George Gershwin. Also on the program the Western regional premiere of Eurydice, poems by Eleanor Mathews that express Eurydice’s point of view, set to music by Jeffrey Kolb, as commissioned by Heather Montana and financed by the Stephen Daniel Smallen Memorial Fund. Eurydice represents a unique collaboration between talented young people and honors the memory of Stephen Smallen, a young cancer victim.

A native of California, soprano Lauralyn Kolb holds degrees from Occidental College and Smith College. She has appeared throughout the United States as a recitalist, oratorio and opera singer. Ms. Kolb traces her bel canto lineage from her teacher Adrienne Auerswald back through Anna Hamlin and Metropolitan Opera soprano Queena Mario to the international operatic sensation Marcella Sembrich and has also studied with the noted American soprano Helen Boatwright.

She has recorded Lieder by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel with pianist Arlene Shrut (Centaur Records) and Songs by Clara Schumann, Poldowski, and Amy Beach with pianist Don McMahon (Albany Records). Her third CD, Just-Spring—Art Songs of John Duke, with pianist Tina Toglia, is part of the prestigious Recorded Anthology of American Music (New World Records.) Ms Kolb’s performances of both recital and oratorio have been heard on WCNY Classic FM Public Radio and her recording of Hensel’s Italien has been featured on NPR’s SchickeleMix.

Ms. Kolb has taught voice at Hamilton College for over twenty-five years, has served as the New York State Governor for the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and co-founded, with pianist Tina Toglia, the Young Artists Institute for High School Singers and Pianist at Hamilton College.

Pianist Tina Toglia is an active solo performer, collaborative pianist and teacher in Central New York. She maintains a private studio in New Hartford and is the organist at First Presbyterian Church in Rome. As an advocate for new music Ms. Toglia has given numerous premiere performances at Stony Brook, Merkin Hall, the 92nd St. Y, Columbia University and Princeton University. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Yale Summer School of Music and Art, the Bach Aria Festival, the Tanglewood Music Festival and was a finalist in the J. S. Bach International Piano Competition. Ms. Toglia studied harpsichord with Arthur Haas and was harpsichordist for the Stony Brook Early Music Ensemble and the Capital Chamber Players in Albany. She has studied with Alexander Fiorillo at Temple University, with Vladimir Sokoloff at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and received her doctorate from Stony Brook University where she studied with Gilbert Kalish.

PSA/Listing Information
Augustana Arts presents
“Endless Pleasure:Songs of Love Lost and Found,” featuring soprano Lauralyn Kolb with Tina Toglia, pianist
Sat., Nov 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Augustana Lutheran Church, 5000 East Alameda Ave., Denver
$15 Adult / $10 Senior / $5 Student
866-464-2626, www.TicketsWest.com