Two of St. Louis’ best young operatic talents — soprano Kate Reimann and tenor Keith Boyer — will be featured soloists for the 2015 Chancellor’s Concert at Washington University in St. Louis.
The annual event, which begins at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 12, is among the university’s largest concerts of the year. It includes more than 100 musicians from the combined Washington University Symphony Orchestra and Washington University Choirs.
The program will feature excerpts from 11 operatic favorites, including Gioacchino Rossini’s “La Gazza Ladra” (1817), Giuseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto” (1851), Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme” (1896), Johann Strauss Jr.’s “Die Fledermaus” (1874) and Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin (1846).
Reimann is a cofounder of Gateway Opera, a new company launched in 2014. She has sung with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Union Avenue Opera Theatre and Winter Opera. She has appeared as a soloist with the St. Louis Symphony in Beethoven’s Mass in C Major and Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
As a principal singer with the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, she has made three trips to Carnegie Hall and in 2014 sang in the U.S. premiere of Athanasios Argianas’ “A Canon for Three Voices” at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. She earned a master’s degree from the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences in 2012.
Boyer was named Best Male Opera Singer by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2014. He has performed with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Union Avenue Opera Theatre, Winter Opera, Kingsbury Ensemble, Jacksonville Symphony Society and the Gateway Symphony Orchestra, among many others.
In 2013, he sang the role of the vicar in the St. Louis Symphony’s performance of Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes” at Carnegie Hall. Last winter, he performed the Brindisi duet from “La Traviata” on New Years Eve to a sold out audience in Powell Hall.
The 2015 Chancellor’s Concert will take place in the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall of the 560 Music Center. Nicole Aldrich, director of choral activities, leads the WashU Choirs. Steven Jarvi conducts the WashU Symphony Orchestra. Sandra Geary is accompanist for the choir.
The 560 Music Center is located at 560 Trinity Ave., at the intersection with Delmar Boulevard. For more information, call 314-935-5566 or email daniels@wustl.edu.
