Holiday Classics at Paul Nigra Center for the Arts

Presented by Paul Nigra Center for Creative Arts, the Caroga Lake Music Festival musicians returns for a special Holiday Concert!

Program to include selections from Handel’s Messiah and Holiday favorites!

Tickets – Click Here to Purchase Tickets
General Admission $10
Cash Bar: Beer/Wine

Thursday, December 19, 2019 at 7:00pm
Paul Nigra Center for Creative Arts
2736 New York 30Gloversville, NY, 12078

Caroga Arts Ensemble
Kyle Barrett Price, director
Abigail Fischer, soprano
Jason Slayden, tenor

Program:
Borodin: String Quartet No.2 (Mvmt I, II)
Grieg: String Quartet No.1 (Mvmt II, IV)
Tchaikovsky: Quartet No. 1 (Mvmt II)
Piazzolla: Winter from The Four Seasons
Vivaldi: Winter from The Four Seasons
Handel: Songs from Messiah
O Holy Night
Holiday Jazz and Pop tunes

Abigail Fischer, soprano

Known for her “serenely captivating” operatic presence “and disarming intimacy,” (NY Times), the versatile soprano Abigail Fischer has made a vibrant career starring in contemporary operas such as Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar and Du Yun’s 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning Angel’s Bone, as well as in more classic operas such as the title roles in Carmen and Cenerentola, with companies such as Los Angeles Opera, Chautauqua Opera and Cincinnati Opera. Abigail is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music (MM), Vassar College (BA), Lorenzo di Medici in Florence, Italy (Certificate in Italian language and literature), is a sound meditation practitioner, transformational voice coach, and holds Mindful Sounding circles as a way to connect to the deeper truths. She is dedicated to awakening conscious awareness through practice and artform, and through multi-media collaborations with her husband Jason Slayden in their duo belhaven.

Abigail has performed Handel’s Messiah with Kansas City Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Rhode Island Symphony, Virginia Symphony, and in other repertoire with the Columbus Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. As an early music performer, she has worked with the American Bach Soloists, Rebel Baroque, Early Music New York, Boston Baroque and Mercury Houston. In 2017 Ms. Fischer made her Italian stage debut in Bolzano, Italy in Toshio Hosakawa’s The Raven, a setting of the Edgar Allan Poe text. She has sung the title role in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia with Opera Memphis, Testo in Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento with Gotham Chamber Opera, and premiered Lee Hoiby’s This is the Rill Speaking with American Opera Projects.

Trained as a cellist, Ms. Fischer has worked often also as a vocal chamber musician, from the Marlboro Music Festival and Chamber Music Northwest, to St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble. She has premiered Elliott Carter’s Mad Regales and Bernard Rands’ Walcott Songs at the Tanglewood Music Festival, numerous John Zorn chamber works all over the world including the Lincoln Center Festival, and Nico Muhly’s Elements of Style, also at Lincoln Center.

Jason Slayden, tenor

Jason Slayden has become internationally recognized for his interpretation of leading tenor roles in the bel canto, verismo, and french grand opera repertoires. Role highlights include Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Boheme, Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca, Ruggero in Puccini’s La Rondine, Lt BF Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Werther in Massenet’s Werther, Romeo in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette, Don Jose in Bizet’s Carmen, as well as many Verdi roles, including Gabriele Adorno (Simon Boccanegra), Alfredo (La Traviata), Fenton (Falstaff) and il Duca di Mantua (Rigoletto). In 2016, he made his debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago under the baton of Mo. Emmanuel Villaume in Bartlett Sher’s production of Romeo et Juliette as Tybalt and Romeo understudy. He has also sung with Vancouver Opera, Seattle Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera de Montreal, Pacific Opera Victoria, the Seito Kinen Festival, Ash Lawn, Berkshire Opera Festival, Virginia Opera, and the Des Moines Metro Opera. He has been awarded a Sullivan Career Grant, the Gerda Lissner Foundation First Prize, a George London encouragement award, and was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Finalist.

Along with a career in opera, Jason is a multimedia artist working in the disciplines of sound design, photography, video and animation. With his wife, soprano Abigail Fischer, he creates immersive performance projects with art song, field recordings, and electronic music in their multimedia duo BELHAVEN.