Faculty Recital: Dione Parker Bennett, soprano

Presented by Ashland University Music

Sunday, February 26, 2012 (5:00 pm - 6:00 pm) Ashland University Department of Music presents a faculty recital with soprano Dione Parker Bennett. Her voice has been heard in recitals, operas, and guest appearances across the country and beyond. She has performed operatic roles such as Micaela in Bizet's Carmen, Bess in Porgy and Bess; Mimi in Puccini's La Bohéme; Suor Genevieffa in Puccini's Suor Angelica ; Gertrude in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel; and Lucy in Scott Joplin's Treemonisha. Her oratorio performances include Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Mass in C, Schubert's Mass in G, Dubois' Seven Last Words of Christ, and Mozart's Vespers. She also debuted the role of Margaret Bonds in the premier of Karen Clark-Green's N'di. She has also been featured recently with such orchestras as the Warren Philharmonic, Akron Symphony, Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra and the Columbus Symphony. Recently she performed the works of Brahms, Berlioz, and Burleigh as well as a journey of the development of Spirituals with the renowned John Wustman. She is a featured performer with the new show Classically Black Voices which has performed at the King Arts Center in Columbus and Denison University. Invited to sing for the Cantilena Concert Series "Rags to Riches" at the Columbus Museum of Art led to a subsequent invite to sing for the series' Holiday Celebration. She also toured a recital entitled "Sounds of Hope. Sounds of Freedom." which focuses on the common threads of African-American Spirituals of Slavery and Jewish folk song of the Holocaust.

This concert is free and open to the public.