History and Heritage
Event Details
Ashley Galvani Bell, soprano
Alexander Wu, piano
Celebrating this great musical heritage and tradition and its influences on the continents of the Americas, this talented New York City duo will perform a spectrum of vocal and keyboard works by composers of Italian descent and of Italy; from Neapolitan songs to light opera classics and its influence on popular American and Latin music.
About the artists:
Ashley Bell has been performing from an early age, starting at age 9 as a member of the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus and making her Off
Broadway debut at 16 in the world premiere of the musical The Golden Touch. Ms. Bell has since performed as a soloist in the United States, Italy, Spain, France and Russia. Performances this past season have included Norina in Don Pasquale in Logroño, Spain, Violetta in La Traviata at the Bay Street Theatre, Fiordiligi and Donna Anna at the Narni Festival in Italy with the Orchestra Filarmonica di Roma, Isabella Colbran in the premiere of Discovering Mrs. Rossini at the new Sheen Center in NYC, and Musetta at the National Opera Center. Other recent performances include Beauty in Giannini’s Beauty and the Beast, Mimi in La Bohème and Katrina in Legend of Sleepy Hollow with Di Capo Opera, the soprano soloist in the Italian Cultural Institute and the Basilica of St. Patrick Old Cathedral’s commemoration of the 175th Anniversary of Lorenzo da Ponte, Dorothée in the U.S. premiere of Offenbach’s La Bonne D’Enfant with Salome Chamber Orchestra, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with Teatro Lirico D’Europa and Opera New Hampshire, Adina in L’Elisir D’Amore in New York and Tuxedo Park, Violetta in La Traviata with the Hawthorne Symphony, Serpina in La Serva Padrona Off-Broadway and on tour in Arizona, and Molpe in Choreo Theatro’s world premiere of the Odyssey at the 92nd Street Y.
Pianist & arranger, Alexander Wu joined the elite roster of Yamaha Performing Artists in 2010. The Washington Post recently praised, “Wu’s exuberant etudes on Gershwin songs and the dreamy Ellington’s Reflections in D – sounded assured and settled…he is uncommonly attractive and entertaining.
” Wu regularly performs on the international stages with orchestras and chamber groups throughout Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States and, with concerts sponsored by Lincoln Center, Starbucks, Target, Yamaha Pianos, Spanish Embassy and New York Council for the Arts. Wu’s discography, available on cdbaby and itunes, includes his solo CDs, Bach to the Future: Classical & Jazz Piano and Rhythm Road across the Americas, his newly released Four Hand Band-Broadway to Classical, his crossover chamber jazz band CD ZigZag Quartet and the much anticipated all Gershwin piano solo CD in 2016. Wu has served on the piano faculty at City College at the City University of New York and artist-in-residence at the Black Bear Conservatory of Music in northeastern Pennsylvania.
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