Patrons of the Arts hosts Kelly, Wong

The Outer Banks Patrons of the Arts presents a musical performance featuring award winning musicians, including baritone singer Michael Kelly, pianist Carol Wong, and local choral students of Cezette Barnes, on Friday Oct. 12 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the First Flight High School Auditorium in Kill Devil Hills.

Admission is free, and everyone is invited to attend.

Kelly and Wong will also be participating in a number of other events with several local groups this week at a wide variety of locations on the Outer Banks.

The pair will be leading workshops Tuesday, Oct. 9, with more than 60 choral students from the First Flight High School Oct. 9, and the 80 participants in the outreach program at Calvino’s Piano Studio on Wednesday, Oct. 10.

Kelly and Wong will perform live exclusively for the Outer Banks Patrons of the Arts on Thursday, Oct. 11 at the home of Beth Stories and Michael McOwen in Manteo.

Doors open for cocktails at 6:30 p.m., the concert starts at 7 p.m., and will be followed by a reception.

Tickets are $75 per person and can be purchased by contacting Arlene Price at arlene@obpatrons.org.

Michael Kelly is an accomplished baritone singer whose insightful interpretations, silken voice, and expressive use of language have garnered him comparison to such icons of song repertoire as Matthias Goerne and Gérard Souzay.

He is the winner of the Joy in Singing 2011 competition which requires vocal and expressive range and ability to show variety in mood style as well as emotionally move the listeners.

He recently appeared to great acclaim in John Corigliano’s Ghosts of Versailles at the Aspen Opera Theatre Center, the Boston Early Music Festival as Coridon in Acis and Galatea and in Charpentier’s Orphée,  as Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Festival de Musica Barocca de San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.

Kelly made his European debut with Opernhaus Zürich in Handel’s Rinaldo under the baton of William Christie. Kelly played Artémidore in Lully’sArmide with Mercury Baroque, and Aeneas in Cavalli’s La Didone with the renowned Internationales Opernstudio at Opernhaus Zürich, where he also sang in Così Fan Tutte.

Kelly has created roles in the premieres of two operas, Miss Lonelyhearts by Lowell Lieberman and The Secret Agent by Michael Dellaira.

His wide-ranging musical curiosity led him to co-found SongFusion, an ensemble dedicated to collaboration between singers and instrumentalists, dancers, actors, and visual artists.

Highlights of the group’s debut comprised five concerts, included a celebration of Franz Liszt’s bicentennial, States of Mind; collaboration with artist Kevork Mourad, a portrait of the composer Libby Larsen, and a tribute to composer Lee Hoiby.

Carol Wong is an award winning pianist from Vancouver, Canada. She  received the 2005 Juilliard Honours Recital, the 2005 Canadian Aldeburgh Foundation Award, and the 2004 Irene Diamond Award.

In 2003, Wong won the Marilyn Horne Foundation Award Com­petition and was also chosen as the first pianist to receive the Laureate Award from the Music Academy of the West. She is also a frequent winner of the Canadian competition circuit, including the Canadian Music Competition in Montreal.

In 2008, Wong was awarded “Sing for Hope Grant” an organization that maintains a roster of world-class artists who donate time and talent to the humanitarian causes that inspire them.

She was one of the 50 people invited to the Arctic Expedition for Climate Action, sponsored by National Geographic and made into a documentary.

Guests included President, Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn; Ted Turner, Madeline Albright, Chevy Chase, Google founder, Larry Page.

Her 2008 tour also included concerts in Leipzig, Germany, Oslo, Norway, Istanbul, Turkey and in Lima, Peru.

In 2009, Wong taught master classes at Orvieto Musica, a music festival in Italy. She also performed and taught lessons for an underserved community in Hilo, Hawaii.

She was personally invited by Marilyn Horne to perform in a tour celebrating the famed mezzo-soprano’s 75^th birthday.

The tour included stops in Italy, Croatia, Greece, and Turkey.

The Outer Banks Patrons of the Arts is a local nonprofit organization founded in 2006 by Debbie-Lyn Calvino, Jim Perry and Brenda Thacker.

Calvino has been teaching piano lessons for 36 years. When she moved to the Outer Banks from NY in 1989, she started taking her students to Holland Center in New York City to attend salon musical performances.

“The students just loved them,” said Calvino. “I noticed that it really influenced them. They love talking to the musicians afterward up close with just a few people in the room.”

She decided that instead of taking 6-12 students to New York, she could bring those musicians to the Outer Banks where more students will benefit working directly with the young musicians. She did it with the support from the Holland Center in New York, Jim Perry and Brenda Thacker.

“Our goal was to bring young gifted musicians to our community in order to inspire local students with their enthusiasm and dedication,” Calvino said.

The OBPA is well established now with an active board and about 54 patrons.

They have a limited 60-person membership, because they have “in salon” performance and the homes need to have a concert hall as well as reception hall.

“You can’t always find homes that big and it wouldn’t be intimate salon performance if there are more people,” Calvino said.

They rely on the generosity of the hosts.

“They are so kind to allow us to take over their homes. We bring in 60 chairs, cases of wine, food and tell them where everything else goes,” Calvino said.

All-Saints Episcopal Church in Southern Shores is a major supporter of the OBPA. “They lend us their chairs, let us use their space, and we’re very grateful,” she said.

The organization is funded through membership fees and generous sponsors.

A $150 annual membership fee includes tickets to two performances which they present twice a year: one in March and another one in October.

“Our musicians are of the highest caliber, many are international award winners,” she said.

OBPA hires these musicians a year ahead because they are very popular and in-demand.

Then the OBPA offers workshops and performances to the schools for a very small fee. However, due to the budget cuts, some schools can’t afford the performances even with big discounts.

But when they are able to hire them, it’s very rewarding experience for young students to work and perform with experienced-awarded musicians that have been all over the world.

The OBPA’s March event featured award winners, Tali Rooth, classical guitarist and Yulia Ziskel, violinist. More than 700 students from Manteo Elementary Schools and 100 guests of Calvino Piano Studio have been enriched with Yulia Ziskel’s and Tali Roth’s talents through educational outreach programs.

In March 2013, the Kontraa Quartet is coming to the Outer Banks, offering offer workshops and outreach programs for Dare County schools.

They will also have a salon performance for the patrons on March 21, and a live musical performance Friday, March 22 at the First Flight High School Auditorium.

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