Being in Demand--Cammy Watkins

Who doesn't want to be "in demand"? Being in demand is a goal for every artist or performer I know. It's wonderful to produce great work, create fantastic art, and to enjoy your life's work, but being in demand is what pays the bills. Cammy Watkins, Opera Omaha's Production Coordinator and chorus member, is in demand.

Cammy's day-to-day responsibilities with Opera Omaha include managing the young professional's group, Bravo Club, making contractual and travel arrangements for local and visiting artists, and providing invaluable management support to the production department in many other ways. When she is not facilitating great opera from the administrative and production side of the scene, she is on stage performing. 2012 marks Cammy's 8th year as a member of the Opera Omaha chorus. She also performs with the Omaha Symphony as part of their annual Christmas with the Symphony production. In addition to all of that, she regularly performs as a soloist at church.

If you are fortunate enough to be a teacher bringing kids to the Omaha Symphony's Carnegie Hall LINK UP event this week on Wednesday, March 14 or Thursday, March 15, you can see Cammy perform live at the Holland Performing Arts Center. If not, you can see her as part of the Opera Omaha chorus in our April 13 and 15 production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado. Don't miss seeing this vibrant and talented Omaha native in action. Cammy Watkins is in demand. Get your tickets today!

To purchase tickets to Opera Omaha's production of The Mikado, go online at Ticket Omaha or call 402-345-0606. More information about the Omaha Symphony's Carnegie Hall LINK UP event is below. Registration is closed for that event. 

Photo by Jim Scholz: Cammy Watkins in The Abduction from the Seraglio

This information and more is found here: http://www.omahasymphony.org/teacher_materials.asp

CARNEGIE HALL Link Up

 

The Orchestra Moves!

Grades 4-6

Wednesday, March 14, 2012  - 9:45 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.

AND

Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 10:00 a.m.

(Additional performance due to popular demand!)

Come to Play

Blue Danube

William Tell

Can - Can

Loud

Simple Melody

Holland Performing Arts Center

$5.00 per recorder student (includes student book, recorder, and concert!)

FREE for strings students

The Omaha Symphony is once again proud to partner with Carnegie Hall to present The Orchestra Moves!  Students will discover musical movement by exploring the way composers use motif, melodic direction, and dynamics, all while learning to read music and play instruments.  Designed for students learning to play the soprano recorder and stringed instruments, Link Up is a supplementary curriculum that culminates with your students performing live with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra.

Repertoire includes Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, Strauss's The Blue Danube, Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Toreador from Bizet's Carmen and more.

Meet the Artist--The Mikado, Kevin Short

Singing the title role in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado, is the incredible bass-baritone, Kevin Short. Mr. Short most recently graced the Orpheum stage for Opera Omaha in our 2010 production of The Marriage of Figaro and our 2008 production of Aida.  On April 8, 2008, Omaha World Herald reviewer John Pitcher praised Mr. Short's interpretation and performance of Ramfis in Aida as "burnished and unfailingly sensitive". Join us on April 13 or April 15 to hear the marvelous Kevin Short sing The Mikado in a style that will differ, but be no less musically fantastic, than his performance in Aida. 

 Photo by Jim Scholz: Kevin Short as Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro

 Photo by Jim Scholz: Kevin Short as Ramfis and Opera Omaha chorus members in Aida

Mr. Short's biography and information about past and upcoming performances is found here: http://kevinshort.net/index.php

Bass-Baritone Kevin Short

Versatile bass-baritone Kevin Short is thrilling audiences around the globe in a wide range of repertoire ranging from Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, to Verdi's Attila and Don Carlos, and Bizet's Carmen.

North America

In North America Kevin has performed multiple roles with the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Washington Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, Edmonton Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Pacific, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Indianapolis Opera, Utan Symphony, Opera de las Americas, Opera Memphis, Berkshire Opera Company, Nashville Opera, Opera Omaha, Opera Birmingham, New Jersey Opera Festival, Kentucky Opera and the Opera Theatre of St. Louis to name but a sample of the many companies where he's performed.

Europe

Making Switzerland his home now for a number of years, Kevin is also coming to the attention of European theaters and has performed at Paris' Opera Comique, Theatre Caen, Grand Theatre du Luxembourg Oper der Stadt Koln, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Theater Aachen, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Theater Basel, Theater Bern, Theater St. Gallen, and Teatro Nacional di São Carlos in such roles as Attila, Philippe in Don Carlos, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Mephistopheles in Faust, Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Escamillo in Carmen, Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress, Figaro and Il Conte in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Porgy in Porgy and Bess.

Festivals

Important festivals with which Kevin has performed include the Bregenzer Festspiele, Baden - Baden, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, France; Sarasota Opera Winter Festival, the Saito Kinen festival in Matsumoto, Japan, and festivals in Beijing, China; Hanoi, Vietnam; and Granada, Valencia, and Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Concerts

Kevin also enjoys an active concert schedule and has worked with important orchestras in the U.S.and around the world including the Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, the New York Pops Orchestra, and the Opera Orchestra of New York. In Europe and Asia, he has performed with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Swiss and Italian RAI Orchestra, Radio France Orchestra, Parma Reggio Emilia Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Hiroshima Symphony, and the Winter Olympics Festival Orchestra for the opening ceremonies of the winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. His vast concert repertoire include works by Bach and Beethoven and continue to the late 20th century, including Verdi's Requiem and Mendelssohn's Elijah.

Training

Kevin received his training at Morgan State University, B.S., the Curtis Institute of Music, M.M., and the Juilliard School of Music Opera Center. While attending these institutions he was a prize winner in numerous competitions, but a few highlights include the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the International Competition for Verdian Voices, the Rosa Ponselle International Vocal Competition, the Bruce Yarnell Competition for Basses and Baritones, the Opera America Competition, the Leiderkranz Competition, and received awards and grants from the Sullivan Foundation, the Shoshana Foundation, and Opera Index.

 For tickets to The Mikado contact Ticket Omaha at 402-345-0606, Opera Omaha at 402-346-4398, or go online at www.ticketomaha.com.