Shorter University to Host Guest Recital and Master Class by Renowned Mezzo-Soprano Katherine Ciesinski March 12, 2013 - The Guest Artist Series at Shorter University will feature mezzo-soprano Katherine Ciesinski in recital at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 18, in Shorter’s Brookes Chapel. The recital is open to the public at no charge. The New York Times has called Ms. Ciesinski “a singer of rare communicative presence and a musician of discrimination and intelligence.” Her major operatic credits include three Metropolitan Opera productions, as well as performances with Covenant Garden, Paris Opera, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and Santa Fe Operas among many others. Her world premieres include Mark Adamo’s Little Women, Dominick Argento’s The Aspern Papers, Jack Heggie’s The End of the Affair, and the title role of Maurice Ohana’s La Celestine. Ms. Ciesinski has been seen on national televised broadcasts of operas and concerts on PBS Great Performances and heard on NPR’s World of Opera.

In addition to her recital at Shorter, Ciesinski will present a master class from 4 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 17, in Shorter’s Brookes Chapel. The event is open to the public. One of the few master performers to also become a master teacher, Ms. Ciesinski is a frequent clinician at the annual International Symposium on Care of the Professional Voice. She is on the international faculty of the Artescénica Encuentro Operistico in Mexico. Most recently she was elected to the American Academy of Teachers of Singing. She joined the faculty of the Eastman School of Music in August 2008.

Ms. Ciesinski has also performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including performances in the United States with the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras and the Symphonies of Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and in Europe with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, L’Orchestre de Paris, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle and L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. She has been heard in recital across the United States and in Paris, Cologne, Zurich, Milan, and at the Aix-en-Provence, Geneva, Spoleto and Salzburg Festivals.

Her contemporary chamber music activities have included performances at the Caramoor Festival; Musica Festival, Strasbourg; Ars Musica Festival, Brussels; Festival d’Automne, Paris; Voix Nouvelles, Fondation Royaumont; Schlern International Festival in Italy, and with the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris.

Founded in 1873, Shorter University is a Christian university committed to excellence in education. The Princeton Review annually includes Shorter on its list of best value and best Southeastern Colleges. Shorter University is a member of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). Shorter offers traditional bachelor’s degree program in 48 areas of study, online courses and degree programs, undergraduate programs for working adults, and four master’s programs. Shorter is online at www.shorter.edu.

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