Candlelight Processional at Epcot 2011

So for the Holiday season this year, one of the events I will be performing in will be the Candlelight Processtional at Epcot! andlelight Processional is not to be missed. A mass choir, joined by a 50-piece live orchestra and a celebrity narrator, tell the story of Christmas in words and music, in a very moving performance. Performances are held at the America Gardens Theatre. am so excited to actually be singing in Orlando! FINALLLY!
The Narrators for each evening are-
11/25 - 11/27: Mira Sorvino
11/28 - 12/01: Michael W. Smith
12/02 - 12/03: Whoopi Goldberg
12/04 - 12/06: TBA
12/07 - 12/09: Isabela Rossellini
12/10 - 12/12: Neil Patrick Harris
12/13- 12/15: TBA
12/16 - 12/18: TBA
12/19 - 12/21: Trace Adkins
12/22 - 12/24: Susan Lucci
12/25 - 12/27: Blair Underwood
12/28 - 12/30: Marlee Matlin (interpreter: Jack Jason)
November 25 - December 30, 2011
Performances take place each evening at
5:00 pm, 6:45 pm and 8:15 pm

Bananas American Diner

I started performing weekly at Bananas American Diner every Tuesday night in their Broadway at Bananas nights! They are very popular here in Orlando. My good friend Joshua Eads Brown who is the head of the events at Bananas hired me, we go way back to when I worked for Lion King and he plays the AMAZING Ginger Minj! Every week we have different themes including...Glee, Disney, 50's, Hair! It's a great night, and the food is YUMMY!

Spooktacular at SeaWorld Orlando!

I am very excited that I accepted an offer with Odd-O-Ts Entertainment and SeaWorld Orlando for their Halloween event SPOOKTACULAR! I went to the event last year as a guest, and loved it. It's SeaWorld's version of Halloween for a younger audience, with a twist of the sea! I am so lucky to be playing the role of Gordy the Pumpkinfish! So come see me and the gang, starting Oct. 1st, every weekend and also including the last Friday of October.
*Not me in the photo displayed!

I will be in La Boheme at the Bob Carr PAC

The Orlando Philharmonic, in collaboration with Mad Cow Theatre and Florida Opera Theatre, presents Puccini’s classic opera

Friday, April 29, 8:00 PM & Sunday, May 1, 2:00 PM

Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre

Christopher Wilkins, conductor & Frank McClain, director



Purchase Tickets – April 29, 8 PM | Purchase Tickets – May 1, 2 PM

Seating is assigned based on the date orders are received. Last year’s Concert Opera subscribers will be seated first and new orders will be seated after February 1. If you would like to receive a follow-up call or email regarding your seat assignments, please enter “PLEASE CALL” in the Promotion Code field. Someone from the box office will be in touch when your seats have been assigned.

With thanks to Darden Foundation, United Arts of Central Florida, Florida Opera Theatre and individual donors from the community, the Orlando Philharmonic is proud to continue its popular Concert Opera performances with a concert staging of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème. Performances will be held on Friday, April 29, 2011 at 8:00 PM, and Sunday, May 1, 2011 at 2:00 PM at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre, 401 W. Livingston Street, Orlando. The Philharmonic once again collaborates with Mad Cow Theatre, and also collaborates with Florida Opera Theatre for this production. Frank McClain, who has directed Philharmonic productions Porgy and Bess and Guys and Dolls, to critical acclaim, serves as director.


La Bohème is one of Puccini’s most popular operas. The story focuses on the love between the seamstress Mimì and the poet Rodolfo. Arias include “Che gelida manina,” “Quando me’n vo’ (Musetta’s Waltz),” “O suave fanciulla” and “Si, mi chiamano Mimì.” The world première performance of La Bohème took place in Turin on February 1, 1896 at the Teatro Regio and was conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini. The opera quickly became popular throughout Italy and productions were soon produced throughout the country.

Conducted by Philharmonic Music Director Christopher Wilkins, the Philharmonic’s production stars Maria Antuñez as Mimì and Noah Stewart as Rodolfo. We are thrilled to say that María Antúnez has just advanced to the semi-finals round of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Read More.

Wilkins describes the opera, “La Bohème is a story of young people: youthful idealism, close kinship, first love and the coming of springtime. I am thrilled that we can feature a leading pair who embodies everything this opera is about. Maria Antuñez and Noah Stewart are young, beautiful, and ardent performing artists. They also are consummate musicians with the necessary vocal agility and power to deliver these demanding roles with tremendous power and punch.”

Wilkins continues, “La Bohème is quintessential Puccini. On stage, spirits soar and emotions are hot. We are won over by the glowing personalities of Puccini’s characters right from the start. The action is taken from everyday life and is completely believable. Gradually, we are seduced into a more empathic understanding of Mimì, Rodolfo, Musetta, and the whole cast of young people. With every musical phrase, each one more beautiful than next, we fall into deeper connection until…

“Well, it is quintessential Puccini. What we love most, we live in dreaded fear of losing. This drama touches us so deeply. La Bohème is a great example of why Puccini has been called the most intuitive of all composers. His music seems to know so much about each one of us.”

Unlike traditional opera, the Philharmonic’s opera performances are described as Concert Opera. The key difference between these productions and fully staged opera is that the orchestra performs on stage rather than in the orchestra pit. Generally, the chorus sits on risers behind the orchestra in a traditional concert placement. This places greater emphasis on the musical expression of the drama rather than on sets, costumes, and movement. As a musical organization, this fits the Philharmonic’s mission completely. Without all of the set and costume elements, audiences are more likely to focus on and enjoy the music. In all other respects, the singers come on and off stage and interact in the same way they do in a fully staged production. Lighting plays an even more crucial role in these productions than it does in traditional opera stagings because it is the primary agent for creating mood and establishing spatial relationships.

The Orlando Philharmonic recognizes the importance of keeping opera as an art form alive in the Central Florida community. “The Orlando Philharmonic is grateful to our many individual donors, but offers special funding kudos to United Arts of Central Florida and Darden Restaurants Foundation, for helping to preserve opera as an art form in Central Florida,” says David Schillhammer, Executive Director. “We were overwhelmed by the critical acclaim and audience enthusiasm to our efforts last season, and are proud to continue the tradition this year with our production of La Bohème.”

Schillhammer continues, “We are also deeply respectful of our long standing collaborative partner, Mad Cow Theatre. With Mitzi Maxwell at the helm, Mad Cow has played a significant role in the production of these operas. We are delighted to be working with that team once again this year. We are pleased to announce a new collaborative partner for Boheme, Florida Opera Theatre. This organization, comprised of hard working, dedicated and generous supporters of opera, are deeply committed to ensuring that opera will never again fade in our community. With their recent hiring of the talented Frank McClain as their artistic director, they are a perfect and natural additional collaborator. It will take the efforts of many to further our long term goal of establishing a new opera organization in Orlando.”

Purchase Tickets – April 29, 8 PM | Purchase Tickets – May 1, 2 PM

Seating is assigned based on the date orders are received. Last year’s Concert Opera subscribers will be seated first and new orders will be seated after February 1. If you would like to receive a follow-up call or email regarding your seat assignments, please enter “PLEASE CALL” in the Promotion Code field. Someone from the box office will be in touch when your seats have been assigned.

For Tickets:
VISIT-http://orlandophil.org/the-orlando-philharmonic-in-collaboration-with-mad-cow-theatre-presents-puccini’s-la-boheme/

Review of Guys and Dolls

Just two weeks after giving an exceptional performance of a symphonic warhorse by Mahler, the Orlando Philharmonic exhibited its flexibility by shifting gears nearly 180 degrees to present one of Broadway’s classic musical comedies twice on Saturday at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre.


Davis Gaines and Andrea Canny (Sentinel archive photos)

In many ways the job was an easy one for the musicians, since Frank Loesser’s “Guys and Dolls” is a nearly foolproof show, with some of the best tunes ever composed for the Broadway stage. Add a cast of amusing characters — created by newspaperman Damon Runyon out of the gamblers, dancehall girls, petty crooks, and other “street” types that he knew in mid-20th-century New York City — to a simple tale that combines two pairs of lovers with a dice game in search of a home, and you’ve got two very entertaining hours of musical comedy.

In fact, the Orlando Philharmonic took a back seat to the many Runyon-esque characters, who held the stage for most of the first performance on Saturday afternoon.

Headlining the cast was Davis Gaines, who played gambler Sky Masterson with such ease that one might not immediately realize how good he was in the role. Opposite him, Orlando native Michelle Knight was a capable Sarah Brown, the prim mission girl Sky first deceives but then falls in love with, although her voice was perhaps more operatic than the Broadway sound that role requires.

If anything, the second couple was even more entertaining. Andrea Canny was perfect as Miss Adelaide, the dancer whose sinuses mirror the status of her fourteen-year engagement to the gambler Nathan Detroit. Her high-pitched “Betty Boop” voice gave life to a character who was not quite a ditz but always lovable, and her performances of “Adelaide’s Lament” and “Marry the Man Today” were both great fun. Philip Nolen’s Nathan Detroit was similarly outsized, yet still believable.

Supporting these leads were a number of excellent players. Andrew Meidenbauer as Nicely-Nicely Johnson and Michael Edwards as Benny Southstreet provided good comic relief and served occasionally as quasi-narrators of the plot. Meidenbauer’s turn in “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” was only one of several rousing numbers in the show.

The male portion of the company also gave enthusiastic and energetic performances of “The Oldest Established,” the first-act tribute to Nathan’s mobile game of craps, and the balletic “Luck Be a Lady” in the second act. The “Dolls” of the Hot Box Club found just the right point between earnestness and cheesiness to portray the sort of second-rate nightclub that these characters would have inhabited. All these dance numbers would have benefited from a wider range of movement.

The core of the Orlando Philharmonic, joined by a handful of extra musicians, transformed themselves into a capable pit band, hitting their stride just in time for “The Oldest Established” and all that followed.

There were also several fine ballads and other tunes in a wide variety of styles, which suggests that Frank Loesser, whose centennial is celebrated this year, was the biggest star of the day.

Scott Warfield is an associate professor of music history at the University of Central Florida.

Guys and Dolls is TODAY!

The last couple weeks have been amazing! Such a wonderful cast and crew! I am so blessed to have been asked to be in the show! The talent on the stage is top notch, from the costumes to the lights and sound...and esp. the musicians and cast! Today is a happy and sad day... I really wish we had more shows than just the two today...but I do hope to work with these people again.

GUYS AND DOLLS principals announced!

Mad Cow Theatre announces the complete list of the principals for the October concert staging of Guys and Dolls, a collaboration with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra:

Sky Masterson- Davis Gaines
Sarah Brown - Michelle Knight
Nathan Detroit - Philip Nolen
Miss Adelaide - Andrea Canny
Nicely-Nicely Johnson- Andrew Meidenbauer
Benny Southstreet - Michael Edwards
Big Jule - Mark Miller
Rusty Charlie -Rod Cathey
General Cartwright -Melissa Vasquez
Arvide Abernathy -Frank Siano