Songs of Life, Songs of Love
Acclaimed Bay Area soprano and Jarvis favorite, Morgan Harrington, returns to Napa with dazzling guest mezzo-soprano, Leandra Ramm, and phenomenal pianist and renaissance music man, Frank Johnson, for a beautiful concert of opera jewels, cabaret gems, and art song treasures!
Sat April 20, 2023 @ 7:00pm
Doors open for general seating at 6:30pm
1711 Main Street, Napa, CA 94559
A beautiful Performing Arts Theater in the Heart of Napa Valley
$30 for General Admission
$25 for Students and Seniors
Pre-order online until 1pm the day of the event.
Remaining tickets will also be available on 4/20 at the box office at 6pm (one hour before the show begins).
Beloved opera favorites and luscious, multi-faceted songs will unlock moving, passionate, amusing, and poignant musical journeys of life and love. Revel in selections from Léo Delibes’ Lakmé (Flower Duet), Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Barcarolle), Verdi’s La Traviata and Bizet’s Carmen. Savor the exquisite music of Clara Schumann, Gustav Mahler, Charles T. Griffes and more. We cordially extend an invitation to you to join us for this special evening of wonderful music!
About The Performers:
Morgan Harrington, soprano
“Combine her absolute knockout beauty with her knockout voice and knockout personality [and] you have a triple threat” (Director Elly Lichenstein quote, Sonoma Valley Sun). Award- winning soprano Morgan Harrington is known for her “spectacular” (Monterey Herald) voice filled with “ardent charm” (Classical Sonoma) as well as her “nuanced” (Napa Valley Register) performances. Performing on opera, theater, and concert stages, chameleon Harrington delights in sharing the exquisite, diverse, powerful, and multi-faceted characters and stories of opera, musical theater, song, and theater.
Harrington’s performances of Donna Elvira in Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni were described as “poised and refined and full of nuance, and sung with great warmth and beauty” (Andrea Grant, Music Staff, University of Toronto, Opera Division, Wexford Festival Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis). In the musical The Addams Family, "Harrington [stood] out as mother Alice, a Debbie Reynolds gone bonkers, totally winning us over with song and absurdity in the dark dinner game” (TalkinBroadway.com). Other notable roles include Elsa Schraeder (The Sound of Music), Judy Haynes (Irving Berlin’s White Christmas), Grace Farrell (Annie), Theo, The Minstrel (The Bracebridge Dinner at Yosemite), Mother (A Christmas Story, The Musical), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Cecily Pigeon (The Odd Couple), Mimì (Puccini's La Bohème) and Sharon Graham (Master Class), which earned her an SFBATCC nomination for Best Featured Performance - Drama.
National concert highlights include Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Sonoma County Philharmonic, and iSING! San Francisco: Hao Jiang Tian with iSING! International Singers at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. In 2022, Harrington was the Gold Winner in the International Friends Division of the Cultures of China Water Cube Cup Chinese Songs Contest. Internationally, Harrington has performed Donna Elvira at the Banff Centre’s Opera as Theatre Program in Canada, and she has participated twice in the iSING! International Young Artists Festival in China, which included performances with the Hangzhou Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and a concert in Beijing at the Great Hall of the People.
Leandra Ramm, mezzo-soprano
Leandra Ramm is a remarkably versatile mezzo-soprano with an “extraordinary voice” (Anderson Cooper 360), whose “beautiful and quite moving” (Nordstjernan Newspaper) performances have graced prestigious venues including San Francisco Opera, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the United Nations, Symphony Space and Davies Symphony Hall. Ms. Ramm made her debut as a soloist in Kurt Weill’s The Eternal Road with the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall. With the San Francisco Symphony, Ms. Ramm performed as alto soloist in Bach’s Magnificat under the baton of Ragnar Bohlin, and then returned to solo in the work in performances conducted by Jane Glover in 2023. She made her solo debut with the orchestra in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.
This season Ms. Ramm looks forward to many exciting career opportunities including First Witch in Dido and Aeneas with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Third Lady in The Magic Flute with Livermore Valley Opera, Paggio in Rigoletto with Opera San Jose, Lapak in The Cunning Little Vixen with Pocket Opera, as well as alto soloist in Elijah with San Francisco City Chorus and a debut with New Century Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Ramm’s work as a concert soloist includes alto soloist in Mendelssohn’s Psalm 13 from Drei geistliche Lieder and Schubert’s Miriam’s Song of Triumph with San Francisco City Chorus, alto soloist in Bach’s Magnificat and Christmas Oratorio with San Francisco Choral Society, as well as alto soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Silicon Valley Philharmonic. www.leandraramm.com
Frank Johnson, pianist
Frank Johnson (San Francisco) is a composer/arranger, conductor/musical director, pianist and educator, with performance and composition degrees from Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. He served as Founding Director of Pittsburgh Philharmonia; Executive Director of Music at Gretna; and General Director of Mississippi Opera. He has provided music and vocal direction for TheatreWorks, Marin Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Beach Blanket Babylon, American Conservatory Theater, Pocket Opera and many other companies. Compositions include score/sound design for Lord of the Flies, Importance of Being Earnest, Shakespeare and other stage works, songs, works for chorus, dance, chamber, orchestral and electronic works. He is noted for chamber music and song explorations of composers such as Samuel Barber and Toru Takemitsu, and for cabaret. Among local educational associations have been the SF Community Music Center, San Francisco State University, and as faculty and adjunct to the Masters Degree Program of American Conservatory Theater.
