NOTE: This event will move to INSIDE at 2437 15th Street NW , just across the street from Malcolm X Park- due to the forecasted Air Quality Index. Washington Concert Opera is pleased to once again present its popular Opera Outside event

This a FREE concert, no tickets required! Come and go as you please, and come as you are — children and pets welcome! Bring your own chairs and/or blankets.

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THE ARTISTS

Featured

Katerina Burton, Soprano

American vocalist Katerina Burton, acclaimed for her “rich and warm” singing (Opera Wire), is a recent graduate of the Cafritz Young Artist program at Washington National Opera where she made her role debut as Micaëla in Francesca Zambello’s acclaimed production of Carmen. She has been a soprano soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Bach’s Magnificat, as well as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with renowned conductor Marin Alsop. She recently joined Aspen Music Festival as a Renée Fleming Artist where she took on the role of Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff opposite acclaimed bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel. This upcoming season she debuts with Richmond Symphony, Madison Opera, and returns for yet another collaboration with the National Symphony for the world premiere of Adolphus Hailstorck’s “JFK: The Last Speech” with Phylicia Rashad providing narration. Next season she makes her much-anticipated role debut as Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Ms. Burton is a proud recipient of multiple awards including the 2022 Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation, the 2021 William Matheus Sullivan Foundation Award, the Novick Career Advancement Grant from The Juilliard School, and the Gaddes Career Award presented by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

Kevin Punnackal, Tenor

Kevin Punnackal, is a first generation Indian-American tenor from Sugarland, Texas. He received his Bachelors of Music in Vocal Performance, where he prepared the role of Romeo (Romeo et Juliette) at Houston Baptist University. Mr. Punnackal has also performed the role of Sam Kaplan (Street Scene) and covered Ruggero (La Rondine) while attending Varna International in Bulgaria. While attending the University of Oklahoma, he sang the role of Le Baron de Pictordu (Cendrillon), and prepared Nemorino (L’Elisir d’amore). Since then, his recent performances have been with the Santa Fe Opera for their 2021 and 2022 seasons, where he performed the title roles in scenes from Faust, Pagliacci, and Lucia di Lammermoor. He has sung with the Washington National Opera where he did a role study of Don Jose (Carmen), performed Ruiz in Il Trovatore and Rodolfo in the Young Artists performances of La Boheme. He has been featured as the tenor soloist in Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis with the Choral Arts Society of Washington and expected to reprise Rodolfo with the Chattanooga Symphony for their upcoming La Boheme. He will then go on to start his season residency at the Opera national de Paris this coming September.

Joy Schreier, Piano

Grammy-nominated pianist Joy Schreier is praised by Plácido Domingo as an “orchestra at the piano” and hailed by Opera News as a “superbly emotive pianist [that] wrings every nuance out.” She is acclaimed as an “ideal support” at the piano, “providing much of the evening’s musical nuance” (The Washington Post) and “perfection itself…the dream accompanist.”

Schreier is Assistant Conductor of the Washington National Opera, coach of the Cafritz Young Artist Program, faculty of the Peabody Conservatory, and Assistant Conductor and Pianist of the Cathedral Choral Society. She has been presented in recital at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, the White House, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and numerous recital halls throughout the country. Her concert engagements include a recital series with mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard for the Marilyn Horne Foundation, performances with violinist Pinchas Zukerman and mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves.

Schreier received wide-spread critical acclaim for Confessions, her Grammy-nominated 2020 CD release with soprano Laura Strickling. For that release, Schmopera declared Schreier as “an indispensable accompanist. She is either preternaturally intuitive or has achieved perfect communication…perhaps a bit of both.” An avid art song recitalist, Schreier performs as official pianist of the Washington International Voice Competition at the Kennedy Center. She received her Doctorate in Collaborative Piano at the Eastman School of Music under Dr. Jean Barr where she was the recipient of the Barbara Koeng Award for Excellence in Vocal Accompanying and the piano prize in the Jessie Kneisel German Lieder competition.

Opera Outside @ Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park (July 2023)

THE ARTISTS