SOUNDS OF THE CLASSICS
Susana Diaz, Raymond Gniewek, Richard Bosworth
Susana Díaz is an accomplished lyric coloratura soprano and rising operatic talent to watch for. Her warm, crystalline timbre and intelligent, artistic style bring polished interpretations to the concert and stage. Susana, a Cuban-American, has been featured by many leading regional companies, such as the Cincinnati Opera, Dayton Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Ballet Florida, and Bay View Music Festival. In South Florida, Ms. Díaz has appeared with Festival Miami, Gold Coast Opera, Miami Lyric Opera, Pro-Arte Grateli, Florida Chamber Orchestra, Alhambra Orchestra, Amici dell’Arte, Hispanic-American Lyric Theatre, and Miami Oratorio Society. Interpreted roles include the title roles of Lakmé and Lucia di Lammermoor, Adina in L’Elisir d’amore, the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, the Sandman/Dew fairy in Hansel and Gretel, and Amarilli in Handel’s Il pastor fido. Upcoming roles include Elvira in the Riuniti Opera’s 2007 production of I Puritani.
Susana is an engaging recitalist and concert singer, excelling in the works of Mozart, Debussy, Turina, Richard Strauss, and Webern. She was an award winner of the Metropolitan Opera District Auditions, a finalist in the Columbus Opera Competition and a winner of the Schloss Leopoldskron Voice Competition in Salzburg, Austria. Ms. Díaz holds a Master of Music degree from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she is also completing her doctoral thesis on the vocal works of Cuban-American composer Aurelio de la Vega.
Raymond Gniewek was Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for 43 years until his retirement in the summer of 2000. In the history of the MET, he was the youngest person ever to be appointed to that position.
During the span of those many years he performed more that 100 different operas under the leadership of the world’s most renowned conductors including Dimitri Mitropoulis, Karl Boehm, Herbert von Karajan, George Solti, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Carlos Kleiber, Bernhard Haitink, Zubin Mehta, and, of course, for 29 years, James Levine.
Besides solo appearances with the MET Orchestra in Carnegie Hall and on tour, he has appeared with the orchestras of Chicago, Detroit, San Diego, Augusta and Miami. Chamber appearances include the prestigious Met Series with James Levine at Weill Concert Hall, New York; Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church Series; Luzerne, New York Music Center; and as one ot the founding members of the Newport (R.I.) Romantic Chamber Music Festival. He has also appeared numerous times on recitals as collaborating artist with his wife, retired Metropolitan Opera soprano, Judith Blegen.
Raymond Gniewek is a native of Long Island, New York and received his early training in New York City and later at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. At the invitation of Erich Leinsdorf, he joined the violin section of the Rochester Philharmonic at age 17 and went on to become Associate Concertmaster of that orchestra as well as concertmaster of the Eastman Rochester Symphony under Howard Hanson. In 1957, at the age of 25, he left those positions to accept the concertmaster post at the Metropolitan.
At the invitation of James Levine, Mr. Gniewek has spent the past three summers teaching and coaching members of the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Verbier, Switzerland. The spring of 2005 and 2006 he served as concertmaster of Tokyo Opera Nomori under the direction of Seiji Ozawa in Tokyo, Japan.
During his winter residency in Naples, Fl., Mr. Gniewek has performed annually as guest artist on the series of Classic Chamber Concerts, and other venues in southwest Florida. He and his wife now divide their time between Naples, Florida and Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Richard Bosworth has led a distinguished professional career which earned him a trip to the White House in 1999 to play for President Clinton and the fifty State Governors. After receiving a doctorate from Indiana University, he debuted at London’s Wigmore Hall and has performed ever since as a guest soloist and with orchestras throughout the United States and virtually every major continent in the world. Described by noted conductor Anthony Armoré as an artist who “captivates, transports and communicates deeply with his audience,” Mr. Bosworth wins similar praise from international collaborations with world-class conductors including Keith Lockhart and Erich Kunzel. Winner of several competitions, he competed in Moscow at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition and was a semifinalist at both the Beethoven Klavierwettbewerb in Vienna and the Pretoria Competition in South Africa. Mr. Bosworth’s recordings of contemporary and classical works can be found at major record stores and online. One of his most recent releases RETURNS: Pacific Northwest Composers from Central Europe highlights the work of Swiss-German composer and conductor Klaus Cornell for VDE Gallo Records of Switzerland. A noted chamber musician, Bosworth’s performances have aired over National Public Radio including WQXR-FM in New York, WGBH-FM in Boston and, most recently, Sirius Satellite Radio. In 2005, he completed a two piano tour that took him from Chicago to halfway across the world to Sri Lanka.
A pioneer in using the internet to revolutionize classical music, Bosworth was the featured artist this past October in a groundbreaking event - the world’s first interactive piano master class. Recorded and webcasted live at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, The World’s Largest Piano Lesson™: Preparing for a Solo Perfomance allowed a worldwide audience to study the life of a professional musical artist and the architecture, design and actual preparation of a solo recital. This experience is now available as a pay-per-view webcast as well as on DVD at www.masterartists.com.