Wendy Hillhouse and Catherine Cook, mezzo-sopranos

Tickets:
$20/$15 Call the box office at 415.503.6275

Program:
Let Us Garlands Bring by Gerald Finzi
Statuesque by Jake Heggie
Three Songs by Frank Bridge
Three Songs by David Conte
Eine Kleine Snailmusik by Elinor Armer
Compound Carmen: A Burlesque by David Garner

Description:
Wendy Hillhouse, mezzo soprano, has achieved a versatility and rare mastery of diverse repertoire. Her operatic career has encompassed performances with the Metropolitan Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival as well as other international companies, and most of the major American opera companies, including the Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the Seattle Opera Ring Cycle. Mrs. Hillhouse is an accomplished concert artist, having performed with the symphony orchestras of Boston, Seattle, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Denver, and the Tanglewood, Cabrillo and Midsummer Mozart Festivals, as well as maintaining a busy schedule of Bay Area concert appearances and recordings. She teaches a technique that is suitable for opera, oratorio and concert repertoire, based on strong and flexible breath support. Her students sing with an open, free and centered tone, easy and accurate diction, and an individual timbre free of falsification. She has been on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1997, was co-chair of the voice department for five years, and currently serves as Faculty Associate to the Dean's Office. She holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the University of California, Berkeley.

American mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook has excelled in a wide range of roles with leading companies throughout the United States. The Cincinnati Post wrote that she "more than once recalled the great mezzo Marilyn Horne: her luxurious voice showed remarkable flexibility." Her exciting characterizations garner acclaim as well. A frequent presence at the War Memorial Opera House since her 1991 San Francisco Opera debut, Ms. Cook's roles with the company include Tisbe in La Cenerentola, Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Emilia in Otello, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Florence Pike in Albert Herring, Lapák in The Cunning Little Vixen, Mrs. Sedley in Peter Grimes, Naina in Ruslan and Lyudmila, Second Norn in Götterdammerung, and Jade Boucher in the world premiere of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking. After making her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in Kát'a Kabanová, she returned in the 2002-03 season for performances of Marthe in Faust, a role which she has also sung with Los Angeles Opera and Baltimore Opera.

Performers:
Catherine Cook, mezzo-soprano
Wendy Hillhouse, mezzo-soprano

Venue:
Concert Hall