MUSIC

Maria Markina, mezzo-soprano, performs a Vocal Recital at Hope Episcopal Church, Friday, May 8 at 7:30pm.  With Grant Loehnig, piano.  The program will feature songs of Tchaikovsky, Bolcom, Satie and Shostakovitch.

Mezzo-soprano Maria Markina, a native of Moscow, is a third-year artist with Houston Grand Opera Studio. This season at HGO she will sing Lola in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana & Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and Maddalena in Verdi's Rigoletto. Last season she sang Second Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and was a soloist in the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’s The Refuge.

Other HGO roles include Hansel in performances of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Amelia’s maid in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra and Lápak/Woodpecker in Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen.

Ms. Markina studied at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts with Professor A. B. Titel, and studied voice with E. T. Sarkisyan, graduating with honors. During her time at the Academy, she took part in performances at the K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Dancenko Theatre, singing in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Britten’s Albert Herring. In 2002, she joined Moscow’s Novaya Opera Theatre, where she sang Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Lel’ in Snow Maiden and Dunyasha in Tsar’s Bride (both by Rimsky-Korsakov), Naina in Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmila and, recently, the Third Lady in The Magic Flute with director Achim Freyer.

In summer 2008, Ms. Markina sang Bradamante in Alcina at Wolf Trap Opera. Ms. Markina won first place in HGO’s 2006 Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers.

Reprinted from: http://www.houstongrandopera.org/page.aspx?pageid=12017482.