KSU to host recital by Spano, Rivera and O’Connor this week on their way to Carnegie Hall

by Mark Gresham | 13 Oct 2013

This Thursday, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra music director Robert Spano will be in metro-Atlanta but will not be on the podium with the orchestra at Symphony Hall.^* Instead, Spano will be with soprano Jessica Rivera and mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, at the Bailey Performance Center’s Morgan Hall at the Kennesaw State University. The performance is part of a nationwide tour that will include an October 29th performance in New York City at Carnegie Hall.

The recital tour features two new song cycles written specifically for the two singers: David Bruce’s “That Time With You” for O’Connor and Jonathan Leshnoff’s “Monica Songs” for Rivera. Thursday’s performance at the Bailey will include both of these plus music by Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Gounod, Mendelssohn, Federico Mompou and Gabriela Frank. It will be only the second stop in their national tour, which kicks off today in San Francisco.

[ ^*On the very same evening that Spano, Rivera and O’Connor are engaged in their performance at the Bailey, down at Symphony Hall the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will feature guest conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya and pianist Simone Dinnerstein in the world premiere of a new concerto by Philip Lasser, plus music by Respighi and Prokofiev. I will be on assignment at the ASO concert for ArtsATL. –Mark ]