American lyric-spinto soprano, Karen Anderson has received consistent praise for her operatic and concert performances. She has performed
with the Lancaster Music Festival in title role of
Turandot with a live
National Public Radio broadcast, and with Cincinnati Opera in the role
of Kitty Hart in
Dead Man Walking. She triumphed in performances of
Suor Angelica and Tosca to considerable acclaim with California's
Festival Opera.
Ms. Anderson has performed the title roles in the baroque Alcina and
Agrippina, the classical Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Pamina in Die
Zauberflote and the bel canto in Donizetti's Maria Padilla. The
favorites of the Romantic literature include Mimi in La Boheme, Amelia
in Un Ballo in Maschera, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Marguerite in Faust,
Nedda in I Palgiacci, Violetta in La Traviata, and Liu in Turandot, with
opera companies including Arizona, Eugene, Marin, Sacramento,
San Francisco Pocket Opera, Spokane, Utah, and West Bay Opera.
On the concert front she has performed Mendelssohn's Elijah in Israel
with the Jerusalem Symphony, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Mahler 4th
Symphony, Strauss' Four Last Songs, and many other works with
professional orchestra throughout the United States and abroad. Ms.
Anderson has also been a guest soloist with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
on a live televised broadcast. Other works include the Dona Nobis Pacem
by Vaughn Williams with the Sacramento Choral Society and the Verdi
Requiem with the San Francisco Community Chorus and the San Francisco
Choral Society at Davies Symphony Hall. Most recently Ms. Anderson
performed for the National Harp Convention.
Ms. Anderson has an array of vocal awards including National Finalist
in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, International
Semi-Finalist in the Rosa Ponselle Competition, and Semi Finalist in the
MacAllister Opera Competition.
This season, Karen will solo in several recitals and a June opera
concert with the San Francisco City Chorus, and a Verdi Requiem in 2009.
This year she released three CD's which includes sacred, classical and
Christmas repertoire.
Robin Hancock pursues many areas in the world of music: teaching, performing,
adjudicating, composing, arranging, conducting, and chamber music. He is
sought after as one of the region's leading pianists and accompanists and has
appeared in such diverse venues as the 1974 Spokane World's Fair and the National
Performing Arts Center in the Philippines. He was a 1988 competitor in the
International Gina Bachauer Competition. He earned a doctoral degree in piano
performance from Boston University in 1992. He is a member of the
internationally renowned American Piano Quartet.
The list of performers with whom he has collaborated, reads like a who's who
of the Utah musical scene: Michael Ballam, Stanford Olson, Clayne Robison,
James Arrington, David Osmond, James Conlee, Jenny Oaks Baker, Ron Staheli,
Mack Wilberg, Ray Smith, and Daron Bradford. He has appeared with the Mormon
Tabernacle Choir, and is a Pearl Award nominee with the American Piano Quartet.
He appears frequently on BYU and KBYU Television and Radio networks, and has
released discs on the BYU-Tantara label. He was rehearsal pianist for Leonard
Slatkin with the American Symphony Orchestra performance of A Sea Symphony in
Carnegie Hall. He played for Metropolitan Mezzo Soprano Dolora Zajick, in her
Utah appearances.
Recent appearances have been: Bachauer International Piano Festival; the
Presidio in San Francisco; West Coast Clarinet Congress; North American
Saxophone Association; University of the Americas in Puebla Mexico;
University of Goianas in Brazil; Frankfurt Hochschule for Music; Japan Piano
Teachers Association; Tuesday Musicale in Detroit; Southern Utah University;
Utah Valley State College; Cathedral of the Madeleine; Orchestra on Temple Square.
Formerly on the faculty at University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Dr. Hancock
currently teaches on the piano faculty at Brigham Young University. He has
been head of piano accompanying programs, and coordinates non-major piano study.
