Soprano Twyla Robinson will make her New York Philharmonic debut in Mendelssohn's Elijah, led by Music Director Alan Gilbert, Wednesday, November 10, 2010, at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, November 11, at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, November 13, at 8:00 p.m. Ms. Robinson has graciously agreed to sing in these performances on short notice, replacing Carolyn Sampson, who is unwell and who has been advised by her doctor not to travel for the time being.
Also joining the cast is mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson (Philharmonic debut) and boy sopranos Noah Sadik and Benjamin P. Wenzelberg, both from The Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus. Previously announced soloists are mezzo-soprano Alice Coote; tenor Allan Clayton (Philharmonic debut); bass-baritone Gerald Finley in the title role; joined by the New York Choral Artists, Joseph Flummerfelt, director. Mezzo-soprano Teresa Buchholz will step out of the chorus to perform the role of second alto.
These Elijah concerts mark the start of a tribute to Dimitri Mitropoulos, the New York Philharmonic's Music Director from 1949 to 1958, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his death, sponsored by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
Artists
Soprano Twyla Robinson regularly performs with orchestras throughout North America and Europe including the London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Staatskapelle, The Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, and Houston Symphony Orchestra. She has collaborated with conductors Franz Welser-Möst, Bernard Haitink, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pierre Boulez, and Michael Tilson Thomas. This season she will be heard in performances of Janácek's Glagolitic Mass with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Robert Spano in Atlanta and at Carnegie Hall, and she joins Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra for Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony; St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and David Robertson for Brahms's A German Requiem; and she opened the season with Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the New Jersey Symphony.
Ms. Robinson will make her debut with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, with Riccardo Chailly, and will be heard in the same work with the Milwaukee Symphony and Edo de Waart. Previous engagements include performances of Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic; Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in Sydney, New Zealand, Bochum, Germany, and with the Orchestre National de Paris. She has performed R. Strauss's Four Last Songs with The Cleveland Orchestra and at Opéra National de Paris in a tribute to famed choreographer Maurice Béjart. On the opera stage, Ms. Robinson is recognized for her portrayal of Mozart heroines, including Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and she made her Wagnerian debut in the summer of 2010 as Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with Cincinnati Opera. A frequent recitalist, Ms. Robinson has been heard on the stages of Carnegie Hall, London's Wigmore Hall, and Spivey Hall in Atlanta. She is a winner of The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was a member of the prestigious Adler Fellowship Program with San Francisco Opera.
Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson, a first-prize winner in the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, makes recital debuts this season in New York, sponsored by the Peter P. Marino Prize, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Equally at home in the worlds of opera, Lieder, and chamber music, she appears as Ludmila in Smetana's The Bartered Bride and as Wellgunde in Wagner's Das Rheingold at The Metropolitan Opera; returns to the Chicago Opera Theater to sing Schumann's Frauenliebe und leben; and tours with Musicians from Marlboro. Ms. Johnson performs recital and outreach activities with the Brownville Concert Series and at the Strauss Performing Arts Center in Omaha, and appears at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Macomb Center for the Performing Arts in Michigan, and Saint Vincent College in Pennsylvania.
