Over 150 Musicians Featured as the Bozeman Symphony Presents “Gloria”
Matthew Savery, Conductor, joined by Soprano Clarissa Lyons
Local singer, songwriter, pianist, and actor, Lori Rosolowsky featured as Special Guest Conductor
Bozeman, December 2018 – Under the direction of Maestro Matthew Savery, over 150 musicians will be featured on the Willson Auditorium stage as the Bozeman Symphony presents Gloria on December 8th and 9th. Featuring the Bozeman Symphonic Choir and soprano Clarissa Lyons, the centerpiece of the concert will put us all in the spirit of the season as we perform Francis Poulenc’s playful – and gorgeous – Gloria! You’ll also hear Johann Strauss Jr.’s mischievous Fledermaus Overture, the sublime prelude to Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, and Mozart’s exuberant Exsultate jubilate. Local singer, songwriter, pianist, and actor, Lori Rosolowsky, will join as special guest conductor beginning the performance with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Polonaisefrom “Christmas Eve.”
Performances will be held Saturday, December 8th at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 9th at 2:30 p.m. Both performances held at Willson Auditorium (404 West Main Street), Downtown Bozeman. Tickets can be purchased online at bozemansymphony.org, at the Bozeman Symphony offices located at 1001 West Oak Street, Suite 110, by phone at (406) 585-9774, or at the door based on availability. Adult tickets range from $27.00-$67.00. Student discounts are available. A limited number of rush tickets will be released prior to this performance based on availability. Please contact the Bozeman Symphony at (406) 585-9774 or [email protected] with questions you have regarding performance, ticket sales, venue, and seating information. This concert season is generously sponsored by David and Risi Ross. Thank you to an anonymous donor, and member, Board of Directors, for sponsoring these performances.
Clarissa Lyons, Soprano
A recent graduate of The Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Clarissa Lyons has been garnering praise for her “luxuriant large soprano” (Los Angeles Times) and “arresting, magisterial voice and presence” (Washington Post). She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Karolka in Janáček’s Jenůfa in October of 2016 and sang Countess Ceprano in Verdi’s Rigoletto in January and April 2017. During her time as a member of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms. Lyons performed excerpts from Don Giovanni, La Clemenza di Tito, Idomeneo, Alcina, Dialogues of the Carmelites and Pelléas and Mélisande under the guidance of Maestro James Levine. Additionally, she appeared as Lisa in The Met + Juilliard coproduction of La Sonnambula conducted by Speranza Scappucci.
Ms. Lyons returns to The Metropolitan Opera in December 2017 for Lehar’s The Merry Widow. The 2017-2018 season also brings her debut with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Franz
Welser-Möst in The Cunning Little Vixen at Severance Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, and Philharmonie Luxembourg.
In 2016, Ms. Lyons joined the roster of Wolf Trap Opera’s Filene Young Artist Program where she appeared alongside Steven Blier in recital and as Stonatrilla in the US Premiere of Gassmann’s L’Opera Seria. This opera-within-an-opera, directed by Matthew Ozawa and conducted by Eric Melear, earned extensive praise from critics and audience members alike with a sold out run at The Barns at Wolf Trap. Ms. Lyons is also a proud recipient of the 2016 Catherine Filene Shouse Career Development Grant from Wolf Trap Opera. Clarissa has also spent summers as a Bel Canto Young Artist at Caramoor where she covered Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmelites, and at Opera on the Avalon where she sang Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
As a frequent recitalist, Ms. Lyons has performed recently at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, the Park Avenue Armory, Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Auditorium, Opera America’s National Opera Center, Carmel’s Sunset Center, New York’s WMP Concert Hall, and at the famed Frick Collection. She cultivated a strong connection to song repertoire while studying with Dawn Upshaw at Bard Conservatory of Music’s Vocal Arts program, and during her summers at the Tanglewood Music Center, SongFest, and recently at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute. Ms. Lyons also participated in The Song Continues series at Carnegie Hall helmed by iconic mezzo-soprano, Marilyn Horne.
2015 was an especially notable year for Ms. Lyons after she was named the Grand Prize Winner at Florida Grand Opera’s Young Patronesses of the Opera Competition, the Glenn & Ginger Flournay Award Winner at Shreveport Opera’s Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year Competition, and the Audience Favorite and Third Place at the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition. Clarissa been named the winner of the Carmel Music Society Competition and West Bay Opera’s Henry and Maria Holt Competition.
Ms. Lyons has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra while in residence at Tanglewood, UC Berkeley University Chorus, the Vermont Philharmonic, and with San Francisco Choral Society at Davies Symphony Hall in their performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah featuring Rod Gilfry. She also performed with Mark Morris Dance Group in their productions of Love Song Waltzes and New Love Song Waltzes in both New York and Seattle, Dido & Aeneas at The Mostly Mozart Festival, and Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
In addition to her degree from Bard College Conservatory, Ms. Lyons holds a M.M. in Classical Voice from The Manhattan School of Music. A Native Californian, Clarissa graduated with Honors from University of California Berkeley where she received the Eisner Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts upon graduation and the 2014 Alfred Hertz Memorial Traveling Fellowship.
Lori Rosolowsky, Singer, Songwriter, Pianist, and Actor
Lori creates and performs music that inspires people to make the world a better place. From satire to tributes, her message gets across.
Mix together an Oberlin-trained classical pianist, piano teacher and educator, pop singer-songwriter, jazz pianist and bandleader, comic actor and improviser, Founder and Networker-in-Chief of Open Sky Artists, LLC, former Ph.D. environmental scientist, social activist and creator of a live multi-media documentary about her parents’ escapes from Nazi Germany, triathlete and yogi, mom and wife, and what do you get? Lori Rosolowsky.
Lori lives full-time in Bozeman, Montana but returns to her long-time community of Bucks County, Pennsylvania often. She represents dozens of artists and works with cultural organizations to produce captivating programs through her company Open Sky Artists, and she writes and performs songs for individuals and organizations. She never sits still.
In addition to being an accomplished classical pianist, Lori Rosolowsky is also well known as a singer songwriter whose style and voice have been compared to Carole King and Carly Simon. “Pass It On,” her CD of 11 original songs, features Lori on vocals and piano, backed by a full band. She has released two singles: “If You Wanna Be A Voter,” (“The Ballad of Sarasota”) which was a finalist in the 2008 South Florida Folk Festival, received national radio airplay, and was used as the theme song for the “Voice of the Voters” radio show in PA and NJ. In 2009, she released the maxi-single “Goddess of Infinity,” a memorial tribute to her yoga teacher. Lori led the Goddess of Infinity Project, whose mission honored her mentor’s teachings and benefited social welfare.
Lori is frequently praised for “captivating” her audiences both as a classical musician and a singer/songwriter and actress. John Peter Holly, music director and conductor for the Greater Trenton Symphony, likened her approach to that of the late Leonard Bernstein in his Young People’s Concerts.
In 2001, she also won raves for her role as emcee for the Bucks County Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Concert where her symphonic arrangement of Pass It On was performed by an 80-member choir in concert with the orchestra. She regularly performs with the Bucks County Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Gary Fagin.
She acts, sings, writes music for, and is Music Director of Phillips Mill Community Players, whose annual musical comedy shows sell out each year. She also enjoys stretching her vocal and piano chops as leader of Jazz With Friends and pianist for the Doylestown Heat Jazz Band.
As a teen, Lori won the Mozart Concerto Competition in Maryland and was a soloist with the Montgomery County, MD orchestra. She continued her music studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music while earning a B.A. in environmental studies and biology at Oberlin College. She was the pianist for the Washington, D.C.-based Potomac Valley Opera Company, where she received critical acclaim
for her “marathon playing, rhythmic vitality and expert phrasing and technique.”
Lori exemplifies the strong link between science and music.
Lori holds a PhD and worked as an environmental consultant before returning to music. She balances her time between music, motherhood and promoting social welfare. In addition to performing, Lori teaches private piano to adults and children and has been Vice President of the Bucks County (PA) Association of Piano Teachers. She is happily married to husband Mark, a retired scientist. Their most proud accomplishments are being parents of two children, Kurt (b. 1994) and Cody (b.2002).