I am so thrilled to announce that I will be the featured vocal soloist at Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra's 75th Annual Gala on April 9th, 2022! I will be singing some of my favorite songs from musicals and accompanied by the symphony. It's an incredible opportunity and I'm so grateful to Maestro Toshi Shimada for the invitation. I have been performing in the violin section for many years and cannot believe I'm getting the chance to sing with this wonderful group of phenomenal musicians.
Here's the Scoop
On Saturday, April 9, the ECSO will celebrate its 75th anniversary season with a festive and multifaceted Gala, hosted by the Friends of the ECSO. Plan to join us at the Mystic Marriott for a musical shower of diamonds! Tickets are $100 per person and will include hors d'oeuvres, libations, and concert attendance.
In addition, guests will have the chance to bid on a diamond pendant necklace donated by Simply Majestic, valued at $2,000. All proceeds go to support the ECSO's mission to "inspire, educate, and connect our communities through live orchestral music."
Schedule:
7:00pm Doors open
7:30pm Cocktail hour, passed hors d'oeuvres
8:30pm Guests take seats for live auction of diamond pendant necklace
8:45pm Concert with ECSO musicians and Music Director and Conductor, Toshiyuki Shimada begins
9:45pm Concert concludes
Program:
The sparkling evening program features such baubles as "Diamonds Are Forever" (written for the James Bond film), "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" (from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), and the first movement of the "Palladio" suite from Welsh composer Karl Jenkins's Diamond Music.
Musical theater performer Ariana Straznicky-Packer-a member of the ECSO's violin section-will sweep us off to Broadway, singing "Memory" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, "I Could Have Danced All Night" from Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady, and "He Plays the Violin" from Sherman Edwards's 1776.
Founded in 1946, the ECSO presented its first concerts at the end of the Swing Era. Here Come the Bands, a medley of "In the Mood," "Begin the Beguine," "You Made Me Love You," "Moonlight Serenade," and "Sing, Sing, Sing," will transport us to the "radio days" when the Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Harry James, and Benny Goodman bands filled ballrooms.
Of course, there will also be gems of the classical repertoire, including the Polonaise from the opera Eugene Onegin, a Tchaikovsky masterpiece; "Voices of Spring" by Viennese Waltz King Johann Strauss Jr.; and, to close the program, the delightful "Radetzky March" by Johann Strauss Sr.
