Songs my mother Taught Me
Meet the artists that make up Kentucky Opera’s concert, Songs My Mother Taught Me. We’d like to wish all of the Mother figures in our lives a Happy Mother’s Day!
Maria Palombo Costa
Her operatic roles include Monica in The Medium, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Servilia in La clemenza di Tito, Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, and the title role in Massenet’s Cendrillon. She has also been featured in educational and outreach programs with North Carolina Opera, sharing her passion for opera with young audiences.
On the concert stage, Maria has appeared as soprano soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, and Alice Parker’s Melodious Accord. She has also performed internationally at the Oberlin in Italy Emerging Artist Program and the Amalfi Coast Festival.
She holds a Master of Music in Voice and a Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy from New York University, and dual Bachelor’s degrees in Music and Drama from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her passion for sharing the art of singing led her to open her private voice studio, Finely Tuned Voice Lessons, currently based in Louisville, KY.
She would like to thank her wonderful family for their unwavering support.
Katherine Calcamuggio Donner
Equally at home on the operatic, concert and recitals stages, she has a diversified performing portfolio, however, favorite roles and works include the comic and light-hearted operatic roles of Ruth in Pirates of Penzance (Kentucky Opera), Buttercup in HMS Pinafore (Union Avenue Opera), Julia Child in Bon Appetit! (Opera Lynchburg), Hansel in Hansel and Gretel (Syracuse Opera) to the more serious concert roles of the mezzo-soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and performing the soprano soloist in John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine with eighth blackbird. As an active recitalist, she has travelled across the United States with the Piatigorsky Foundation, performing over one-hundred and fifty recitals over the last ten years.
Dr. Calcamuggio Donner holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from University of Michigan, a Master of Music from Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Music from Bowling Green State University. She is currently an Associate Professor of Voice at the University of Louisville.
Rebekah Hardin
A graduate of the University of Louisville, she studied with the late MET soprano Gail Robinson and baritone Donn Everette-Graham. She is a three-time winner of the Metropolitan Opera Kentucky Auditions, a Tri-State Regional MET Encouragement Award recipient, and winner of the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition.
Rebekah calls Oldham County home and treasures the opportunity to make music in her hometown.
Jesse Donner
Mr. Donner was a resident artist at Lyric Opera of Chicago from 2014-2017, where he was commended for his “polished” and “heroic” tenor (Chicago Classical Review). Mr. Donner won the 2015 Luminarts Fellowship and the Bel Canto grand prize, a special encouragement award from the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Auditions, and first place in the 2012 Michigan Friends of Opera Competition. A native of Des Moines, IA, Mr. Donner completed graduate and post-graduate studies at the University of Michigan and received a Bachelor of Music degree from Iowa State University.
Zack Morris
Chad Sloan
His recent opera roles include Ponchel in Puts’ Silent Night and the Father in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. Upcoming performances feature appearances in Kentucky Opera’s production of All is Calm and as Don Pedro in Songbird.
As a concert soloist, he has been featured in Handel’s Messiah with the Louisville Orchestra, Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, and Utah Symphony; Orff’s Carmina Burana with the South Bend Symphony, Columbia Pro Cantare, and Flagstaff Symphony; and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem with the Lexington Philharmonic. He has also appeared with the Twickenham Music Festival, Bach Festival of Winter Park, Ensemble for the Romantic Century, and Chicago’s CONTEMPO series alongside eighthblackbird and the Pacifica Quartet.
Taylor Burkhardt
Taylor is a graduate of the doctoral program at the University of Minnesota, where she studied with Timothy Lovelace, and a graduate of the University of Missouri, where she studied with Peter Miyamoto. She is also an alumna of the Music Academy of the West, where she studied with Warren Jones.