Shorter graduate Indra Thomas to headline Rome Symphony Orchestra’s 2011-2012 season opener

September 9, 2011 - Acclaimed international opera singer Indra Thomas, who graduated from Shorter University in 1993, will be featured in the 2011-2012 season opener for the Rome Symphony Orchestra. She will be performing Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” a piece she debuted with the Philadelphia Symphony, as well as two Gershwin pieces: “Summertime” and “I Got Rhythm.” Brahms’ “Symphony No. 1” will also be part of the evening’s performance. The concert will take place Saturday, Sept. 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rome City Auditorium. Tickets for the event are $30 for adults, $20 for seniors and $5 for students. They are available online at www.romesymphony.org or at Kroger, World Hi-Fi, the Rome Visitor Center, Merry Bee Gallery, Living & Giving, Riverside Gourmet, Bussey’s Florist in Cedartown, or the Rome Symphony office at 21 John Maddox Drive.

A soprano, Thomas has built a reputation as one of the foremost Aidas in the world today. In the 2010/11 season, she performed in a Gala Concert for the Artist Series of Sarasota; sang Aida at the Palau De Les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain, the Israeli Opera, and the Chorégies d’Orange; and made her New York recital debut in Weill Recital Hall. Additional performances during this season were the Verdi Requiem with the Flint Symphony and a performance of Chausson’s Poèms de L’amour et la Mer with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia.

During the summer of 2009, Thomas performed Aida in a new production at the Bregenz Festival, which was followed by Sir Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. The 2009/10 season brought performances of the Verdi Requiem in a tour of four cities in Spain with the Euskadi Orchestra under the direction of Andres Orozco Estrada, a special holiday concert with the Little Orchestra Society of New York, Britten’s War Requiem with the Orchestra de Paris, the Verdi Requiem with the Vermont Symphony, and Aida at the Avignon Music Festival and the Bregenz Festival.

During the 2008/09 season, Thomas made her debut at the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Wiener Staatsoper, as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera. She sang in a gala concert in Abu Dhabi to open the Abu Dhabi Classics Festival which was hosted by Jeremy Irons, performed in a Christmas concert with the Vermont Symphony, and sang a concert of Gershwin songs and operatic arias in Istanbul. In addition, there was a Verdi Requiem with the Lahti Symphony in Finland and performances of the Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in Seoul, South Korea, and the Missa Solemnis with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. Thomas sang works by Gershwin and Barber with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, performed a concert of opera arias with the Cleveland Symphony, and sang Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Malaysia Symphony Orchestra.

Thomas was a soloist in the 2003 Fourth of July concert with the Boston Pops and has performed in recital at the Caramoor Festival and at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. She made her professional debut in the Verdi Requiem in Carnegie Hall with the New York Choral Society and has recorded a CD for National Public Radio which includes lieder by Strauss, Duparc, John Duke, and Spirituals, and is featured on A Night at the Opera on Naxos. While in her teens, she sang “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” in the funeral scene of the Academy Award-winning film Driving Miss Daisy.

Founded in 1873, Shorter University is a Christian university committed to excellence in education. Since 2003, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Shorter among the South’s best baccalaureate colleges, and The Princeton Review annually includes Shorter on its lists of best value and best Southeastern colleges. The university offers traditional bachelor’s degree programs in 48 major areas as well as undergraduate degree programs for working adults, master’s programs, and online courses and degrees. For more information, visit www.shorter.edu.

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