Concert: On Toscanini

Katherine Whyte has delighted audiences and critics alike on opera and concert stages across her native Canada, the United States and Europe. Opera Today has praised her "keen artistic sensibility" while the San Francisco Classical Voice singled out "her glamorous, vibrato-rich voice". Following her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2007 in Strauss’ Die Ägyptische Helena, she has returned to the company for productions of Iolanta, Rigoletto, Jenufa, The Gambler, The Enchanted Island, Two Boys, Parsifal, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and Suor Angelica. 

Katherine performed her first Donna Elvira with the Norwalk symphony and her 9th Countess Almaviva with Opera Las Vegas.  Upcoming performances include recitals at Gordon College, a recital in Toronto with Suna Chung, a recital at the Hartt School with pianist Samuel Martin and baritone Troy Cook and a Manhattan recital with pianist Djordje Nesic.  Katherine will be returning to work with conductor Christine Howlett as featured soloist with the Greenwich Choral society.  She will be singing Barber’s Knoxville summer of 1915 with conductors Justin Bischof in NYC and Larry Loh in Waco Texas.   

Photo: Gillian Riesen

Djordje Stevan Nesic’s performances are celebrated as artful, assertive, sensitive, and quietly virtuosic. His multifaceted career spans recitals, concertos, chamber music, and collaborative performances both in the U.S. and internationally. Notably, Nesic utilizes his platform to promote music addressing contemporary issues, social justice, and human rights. 

Most recent engagements include conducting The Barber of Seville at Charlottesville Opera in Virginia, Handel’s Alcina at the Opera Seme Festival in Arezzo, Italy; at Manhattan School of Music: Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht’s Seven Deadly Sins, Jack Perla and Jessica Murphy Moo’s An American Dream, Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, Ullmann/Kien’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis, as well as Ana Sokolovic’s Svadba at both MSM and the Peabody Conservatory.  

As a pianist, Nesic has performed at major international venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the United Nations General Assembly Hall, and the Prototype Festival. Overseas, he has appeared at Kolarac Hall (Belgrade), the KotorArt Festival (Montenegro), the Serbian Cultural Center (Paris), Caixa Cultural (Brasilia), and FUJI TV (Japan). His festival credits include Aspen, Tanglewood, Glimmerglass, Opera Saratoga, and Berkshire Opera. 

Recordings include Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock on Bridge Records, Ricky Ian Gordon’s Ellen West on Bright Shiny Things, and Opera America Songbook.  

Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere are interdisciplinary artists whose practice spans over twenty years of projects that actuate music and sound, radio, dissent, and the cultural complexities of the public sphere. The artists have produced works in video installation, lyric writing, performance, and photography. Their research interests lie in the intersection between music, civic action, and historical moments that resonate through distinct musical instrumentation and sonorous traditions. 

Nevarez and Tevere have exhibited and screened their work at The Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim Museum, Creative Time, New Museum, and Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York; Manifesta 8/Spain; Museo Raúl Anguiano, Guadalajara, Mexico; Casino Luxembourg, LU; Henie Onstad Art Centre, Høvikodden, Norway; Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Austria, and elsewhere. The first US survey of their work was presented at the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in 2016. Their fellowships and grants include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Creative Capital fellowship, an Art Matters grant, an NEA Project Grant, and a Franklin Furnace Performance Art fellowship. Both Nevarez and Tevere were Studio Fellows at The Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program, artists-in-residence at Wave Hill and Pioneer Works in New York; the International Artists Studio Program in Sweden; Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, CA; Artpace, San Antonio, TX; Marble House Project, Dorset, VT; Interlude, Livingston, NY; and Antenna Gallery, New Orleans. 

Nevarez, also a musician, studied Biology at the University of California, San Diego, and has taught at various Universities and Art Schools in New York and across the Northeast. 

Tevere earned an MFA in photography from California Institute of the Arts and a BA in political science from the University of California, San Diego, and is Professor of Media Culture at the College of Staten Island / City University of New York. 

Learn more about the artists at nevareztevere.info.

Photo: Lourdes Severny