2-3-09

Joanna Petrie, a 2008 graduate of Lycoming College, will be featured in an upcoming performance with Opera for Humanity, a non-profit organization based in New York City. She was selected as one of five “rising stars” to showcase several scenes and arias from classical operas in a benefit concert planned for April 18 at 5 p.m. at the Advent Lutheran Church in New York. The show will help support the church’s campaign to restore its Tiffany windows and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Nashville.

Petrie, a mezzo-soprano who earned a bachelor's degree in music, takes voice lessons from the founder of Opera for Humanity, internationally-known soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra. After Petrie performed last fall as a member of the chorus for the organization’s production of “Lucia Di Lammermoor,” Shoremount-Obra asked her to be a part of the upcoming show.

President Obama with Petrie and John Scarangello, who sang the national anthem prior to Obama's town hall campaign event at Lycoming on April 18, 2008.

“Amy came up with the idea of featuring a few ‘emerging’ artists from the chorus in their own professional recital, because she wanted to give us a chance to be showcased,” Petrie said. “We are all in our 20s and pursuing a career in vocal performance.”

Petrie, who works as a general music teacher at Wildwood Elementary School in Mountain Lakes, N.J., said she hopes to pursue a career in performance.

“I will continue teaching music in the public schools for another year so I have enough time to really prepare my voice for graduate school auditions,” she said. “I am looking at conservatories and universities in Boston, New York and Philadelphia and wish to pursue a degree in vocal performance and pedagogy. I would love to someday have a steady career in performance while maintaining a successful private voice studio or a job in higher education. It would be ideal to keep both performance and teaching in my life.”

The mission of Opera for Humanity is to help children all around the world overcome poverty and disease through benefit performances of world-class opera in concert version performed by some of opera’s most up-and-coming stars.

More information about Opera for Humanity can be found at www.operaforhumanity.org.

:: See More Lyco News :: See More Events ::