Wolf Trap Opera Company and The Phillips Collection Present Vocal Colors, a Fusion of Music and Visual Art to Be Performed July 8 and 22

Six artists, Three performances, Two Locations—A Rare, Not-to-be-Missed Experience from the Wolf Trap Opera Company and The Phillips Collection. Performances July 8 and 22, 1 p.m. at Center for Education at Wolf Trap July 22, 6:30 p.m. at The Phillips Collection .

Vienna, VA (Vocus) July 8, 2010

The GRAMMY-nominated Wolf Trap Opera Company, one of the nation’s most highly regarded opera residency programs, is partnering for the second consecutive year with The Phillips Collection, an internationally recognized museum of modern and contemporary art, to present Vocal Colors. The program weaves together the worlds of visual and performing arts as Wolf Trap’s Filene Young Artists respond to artworks from The Phillips Collection with a wide variety of musical selections. Two performances will take place at Center for Education at Wolf Trap, and the series will conclude with a third performance at The Phillips Collection.

Filene Young Artists Ryan Belongie (countertenor), Eve Gigliotti (mezzo-soprano), Kenneth Kellogg (bass) Ashlyn Rust (soprano), and pianists Michael Baitzer and Jeremy Frank will perform musical selections from Irving Berlin, George Handel, Joni Mitchell, and Stephen Sondheim in response to paintings by Paul Cézanne, Marsden Hartley, Mark Rothko, and John Henry Twachtman, among others. Immediately following the performance, the musicians will take questions about the artworks that inspired their musical choices.

“Our artists relish this opportunity to take complete artistic control in these concerts,” said Kim Witman, director of Opera & Classical Programming at Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts. “Vocal Colors is a unique multidisciplinary initiative in which audience members will be immersed in both visual and performing arts.”

“We at The Phillips Collection could not be more thrilled by this collaboration with the Wolf Trap Foundation,” said Dorothy Kosinski, director of The Phillips Collection. “The evening promises to be enriching, dynamic, and—with selections from the likes of Joni Mitchell and Stephen Sondheim—just plain fun! Music programs have been a vital part of the Phillips’s cultural offerings since 1921, and we are delighted to continue this rich tradition with such a stellar partner.”

Center for Education at Wolf Trap performances are by email reservation only to ryant(at)wolftrap(dot)org, but are free of charge; admission to the Phillips Collection performance is $8 for museum members, $20 for the public. Reservations are required: http://www.phillipscollection.org/calendar

About the Wolf Trap Opera Company
Established in 1971, the GRAMMY-nominated Wolf Trap Opera Company continues to earn national and international recognition for its mission to discover and encourage outstanding emerging talent in the opera field, serving singers of exceptional achievement and potential who are ready to make the transition to full-time professional careers. In addition to the young professional singers, the company also features the work of emerging designers, directors, and conductors; and provides opportunities for aspiring stage managers, administrators, coaches, and technical theatre professionals. The Wolf Trap Opera Company is part of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, founded by Catherine Filene Shouse (1896-1994), that produces and presents a full range of performance and education programs in the Greater Washington area, as well as nationally and internationally.

About The Phillips Collection
The Phillips Collection is one of the world’s most distinguished collections of impressionist and modern American and European art. Stressing the continuity between art of the past and present, it offers a strikingly original and experimental approach to modern art by combining works of different nationalities and periods in displays that change frequently. The setting is similarly unconventional, featuring small rooms, a domestic scale, and a personal atmosphere. Artists represented in the collection include Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Claude Monet, Honoré Daumier, Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Mark Rothko, Milton Avery, Jacob Lawrence, and Richard Diebenkorn, among others. The Phillips Collection, America’s first museum of modern art, has an active collecting program and regularly organizes acclaimed special exhibitions, many of which travel internationally. The museum also produces award-winning education programs for K–12 teachers and students, as well as for adults. The museum’s Center for the Study of Modern Art explores new ways of thinking about art and the nature of creativity, through artist visits, seminars, and lectures. Since 1941, the museum has hosted concerts in its wood-paneled Music Room. The Phillips Collection is a private, non-government museum, supported primarily by donations.

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