Sunset Music & Arts, invites you to celebrate its fifth anniversary in a gala concert featuring soloists from the San Francisco Opera Chorus, The program will include favorites from opera and Broadway shows.
Margaret Genovese, soprano
Sally Porter Munro, mezzo-soprano
Colby Roberts, tenor
Jere Torkelsen, baritone
Dr. Bryan Baker, piano
Date & Time: Sunday August 25, 7 p.m.
Venue: Incarnation Episcopal Church, 1750 29th Avenue, San Francisco
Tickets: $30 General, $25 Seniors, $20 Students
A free Gala Reception follows the concert
For more information visit http://sunsetarts.wordpress.com
About the Artists
Soprano, Margaret Genovese is originally from the Washington D.C. area. She received a Bachelor degree and Artist Diploma from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University where she was a two-time winner of the Liberace Foundation Scholarship. She was a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Pacific Regional Auditions and first place winner of the National Symphony Orchestra’s Young Soloist Competition. Ms. Genovese made her first professional operatic debut in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, appearing as Papagena with the Baltimore Opera Company. She also performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as a soloist and toured Sydney Australia as Christine in an adaptation of Phantom of the Opera.
Other credits include Micaela in Carmen with Pacific Repertory Opera, Musetta in La Bohème, and Donna Elivira in Don Giovanni with the Bear Valley Music Festival. Roles with North Bay Opera include Violetta in La Traviata, Mimi in La Bohème, and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni . She has also performed many roles with Pocket Opera including Manon in Manon Lescaut. Ms. Genovese has also appeared many times in the chorus with San Francisco Opera. Most recently she performed with West Bay Opera’s “opera in the schools program” in a production of the Magic Flute.
Sally Porter Munro (mezzo-soprano) is a native of London, England and a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, England. While living in England she sang with the English National Opera, Royal Opera de la Monnaie in Brussels, and as an oratorio soloist in Europe. She also performed with the BBC Singers on radio and television. She relocated to New York City to continue her studies. Since moving to San Francisco, Ms. Munro has sung as a soloist with Pocket Opera, Berkeley Opera, North Bay Opera, San Francisco Lyric Opera, and Lake Tahoe Festival. Ms. Munro has performed as a soloist with the Oakland East Bay Symphony Orchestra, the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Russian Chamber Orchestra, Master Works Chorale, the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. She is a full time member of The San Francisco Opera Chorus and has covered and sung a number of small roles. Ms. Munro teaches singing and the Alexander Technique and was a faculty member of the San Francisco Girls’ Chorus for twenty years. Since four years, she has been a faculty member of The Young Women’s Choral Project.
Tenor Colby Roberts has sung with opera companies throughout the country, including Orlando Opera, National Grand Opera, Connecticut Grand Opera, New York Grand Opera and New Jersey State Opera and has been part of the chorus with San Francisco Opera for over 30 years. His concert performances have taken him across the United States, and to Europe and Israel. Bay Area credits include performances with San Francisco Lyric Opera where he sang Alfredo in La Traviata, the title roles in Werther and Andrea Chenier, Rodolfo in La Boheme, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and Cavaradossi in Tosca. With Berkeley Opera he sang the role of Rodolfo in Luisa Miller, with Livermore Valley Opera he has sung the title roles in The Tales of Hoffmann and Faust and Rodolfo in La Boheme, and with the UC Berkeley Chorus and Orchestra he performed the role of Arbace in a concert performance of Idomeneo. He was soloist for Verdi’s Requiem at the Mendocino Music Festival, and has performed several roles with San Francisco Opera, including of Sam in The Ballad of Baby Doe and Parpignol in La Boheme. Recent engagements include Bach’s St. John Passion (Evangelista and tenor soloist) at First Lutheran Church in Palo Alto.
Jere Torkelsen has been a member of the San Francisco Opera chorus since 1987. During his tenure he has performed many roles including, Gen. John Rawlins in Philip Glass’ Appomattox, Melisso in Handel’s Alcina, The Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly, and The Journalist in Berg’s Lulu, among others. He has also appeared with other Bay Area opera companies as The Mother (Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins), Don Alfonso (Cosi fan tutte), Germont (La Traviata), Silvio (Pagliacci), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Count Almavia (The Marriage of Figaro), and the Four Villains in The Tales of Hoffmann. His concert performances with orchestra recently include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Brahm’s Requiem, Hayden’s Creation, Copland’s American Folk Songs, and Faure’s Requiem. He is also active in musical theater. Recent performances include Tony in The Most Happy Fella and Fred in Kiss Me Kate. He sang Firman and Bouquet in Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera while on the national tour.
Conductor and pianist Bryan Baker is in his eleventh season as Artistic Director and Conductor of Masterworks Chorale. He also holds the positions of Director of Music at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, Assistant Conductor of the San Francisco Choral Society, and Director of Serenade Chamber Choir. He often leads instrumental ensembles, and has conducted the Solaris Chamber Orchestra, Masterworks Orchestra, Peninsula Symphonic Winds, New Millennium Strings, and the Kensington Symphony. Some highlights include performances of Carmina Burana, (wth Peninsula Cantare and Ragazzi Boys Chorus), Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Mozart’s Requiem and Grand Mass, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, and Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna. He has judged and led choral clinics and frequently appeared as guest conductor in the Bay Area. Dr. Baker most recently conducted American choirs in Hungary, Romania, and Brazil. An accomplished pianist, Dr. Baker has played solo concerts, chamber music, and accompanied vocal recitals across the United States and in Europe and South America. Locally, he has performed in Davies Symphony Hall, Herbst Theater, at the Stern Grove Festival, on the Old First Concert Series, among others. During recent seasons, he played concertos by Beethoven, Haydn, Saint-Saëns and Shostakovitch, with the Kensington Symphony, New Millennium Strings, the Community Music Center Orchestra, the California Chamber orchestra and the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra.
Please Support Us!
Please consider making a donation to celebrate this special occasion. All donations are fully tax deductible. Donations received by July 31, 2019 will be listed in our program booklet. Suggested donation levels:
Friend: $1 – $99
Supporter: $100 – $249
Benefactor: $250 – $499
Patron: $500 or above
All donations are fully tax deductible. You can make your donations online via PayPal or by check. Please check our website https://sunsetarts.wordpress.com/2019-annual-gala-and-reception/ for details.