St. Matthew’s Music Guild continues its 39th season of concerts in Pacific Palisades on Friday, February 2 at 8 p.m. with a recital by mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis. Hailed by The New York Times as a “striking mezzo soprano” and by the San Francisco Chronicle for her “electrifying sense of fearlessness,” Bryce-Davis has most recently been heard in the role of Fricka in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold. Other notable recent performances include her Metropolitan Opera debut in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and in Verdi’s Il Trovatore at the Glimmerglass Festival.
Additional credits include Leonora in Donizetti’s La Favorite at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Marguerite in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust conducted by Maestro John Nelson with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica, Ms. Alexander in Satyagraha at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Kristina in The Makropulos Affair at the Janáček Brno Festival, Wellgunde in Wagner’s Die Ring-Trilogie at Theater an der Wien, Madeline Mitchell in Heggie’s Three Decembers at Opera Maine, and Nezhata in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.
Ms. Bryce-Davis will be accompanied by pianist Jeanne-Minette Cilliers in a program entitled In Honor of Women. Featured on the program will be Three Browning Songs by Amy Beach, Fi Mi Love Have Lion Heart by Peter Ashbourne, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, and songs by Margaret Bonds and Maria Thompson Corley.
Bryce-Davis is a 2018 recipient of the prestigious George London Award at the George London Competition, the 2017 1st Place and Audience Prize-winner of the Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino competition; chaired by Dominique Meyer, Winner of the 2016 Richard F. Gold Career Grant at the Merola Opera Program, Winner of the 2015 Hilde Zadek Competition at the Musikverein in Vienna, and the 2015 Sedat Gürel — Güzin Gürel International Voice Competition in Istanbul. She holds a Master of Music and Professional Studies certificate from the Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Texas at Arlington.
All Music Guild concerts take place at St. Matthew’s Church, 1031 Bienveneda Ave, Pacific Palisades. Tickets are $45 or Music Guild Season pass. Passes for all remaining subscription concerts are available for as little as $165. A free pre-concert lecture offered by Music Guild president Tom Neenan begins at 7:10pm prior to each concert. For complete information, reserved tickets and season passes visit MusicGuildOnline.org or call (310) 573-7422.
Submitted by Tom Neenan
