Media Inquiries:

Stephanie Shapiro, MBA, MSW, CFRE

Director of Development | 678-520-5325| stephanie@atlantamusicproject.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BRITISH SOPRANO ALISON BUCHANAN TO OPEN 2018 ATLANTA MUSIC PROJECT SUMMER SERIES

ATLANTA MUSIC PROJECT’S ANNUAL SUMMER SERIES TO SERVE 150 STUDENTS, HOST 5 FREE CONCERTS IN HISTORIC SOUTHWEST ATLANTA NEIGHBORHOOD

Alison Black Headshot2 IMG-1190-2ATLANTA, GA – The Atlanta Music Project (AMP) Summer Series, a music festival and school, has announced its third annual concert series with an opening night performance featuring British soprano Alison Buchanan. Known for her “luscious voice with incredible richness and clarity,” soprano Alison Buchanan has been regaling audiences around the world with her versatility, “great dramatic flair,” musicality, and depth of emotion.

Ms. Buchanan will perform on Friday, June 8, at 7 p.m. at Sylvan Hills Middle School in the Sylvan Hills neighborhood of Southwest Atlanta. Accompanied by the AMP Summer Series Festival Orchestra and Choir, Ms. Buchanan will sing George Gershwin’s Summertime, Spirituals, and famous opera arias by Giussepe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini.

The AMP Summer Series concert series continues on June 14 when the faculty of the AMP Summer Series will share the stage with students in a side-by-side concert. June 18, brings an evening of chamber music, featuring the AMP Summer Series’ advanced students in small ensembles. Conductor John Conclkin leads the AMP Summer Series Festival Orchestra in its final concert on June 20 and conductor Verena Lucia Anders leads the AMP Summer Series Festival Choir in its final concert on June 21.  All concerts are free and open to the public, and begin at 7:00PM at Sylvan Hills Middle School.

The Presenting Sponsor for the 2018 AMP Summer Series is The Molly Blank Fund of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.

AMP Summer Series concerts are produced by the Atlanta Music Project in an effort to bring free, high-quality musical performances to underserved neighborhoods, featuring not only internationally renowned musicians, but also accomplished student musicians from southwest Atlanta neighborhoods and beyond.

Launched in 2016, the AMP Summer Series is a tuition-free, three-week summer music festival and school, the foundation of which is three weeks of intensive orchestral and choral music instruction for 125 experienced middle school and high school-aged students. Students receive group lessons with AMP teaching artists, participate in master classes and workshops and perform in orchestra and choir. The AMP Summer Series is inspired by the great American summer music festivals, such as the Aspen Music Festival, the Interlochen Music Camp, and the Brevard Music Festival. The AMP Summer Series is a program of the Atlanta Music Project, a year-round tuition-free after-school music program for youth based in underserved neighborhoods of Atlanta.

 

About Alison Buchanan

Praised for her musical versatility, her luscious voice and her ability to communicate with an audience, British soprano Alison Buchanan is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music in London and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Alison is the winner of the Kathleen Ferrier, the Luciano Pavarotti, the Washington International and the Maggie Teyte competitions.

As a young artist with San Francisco Opera, Alison made her debut with the company as Mimi in La Boheme whilst an Adler she was invited to L.A Opera to sing Nedda in I Pagliacci working with Placido Domingo and Franco Zeffirelli. Alison has performed with New York City Opera as Bess in Porgy & Bess and Elvira in Don Giovanni, Opera company of Philadelphia, Michigan Opera and Wexford Opera. She has performed under the batons of Sir. Simon Rattle, Sir. Colin Davis, Donald Runnicles and David Robertson to name but a few, with orchestra’s such as the Royal Philharmonic, the Philippines Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Kibbutz Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

In recent seasons, the soprano made her Carnegie Hall Debut, returned to New York City Opera for Margaret Garner, an opera by Richard Danielpour and Toni Morrison, performed at Sadlers Wells in London for Pegasus Opera in the opera Koanga by Frederick Delius, joined Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra for performances and a recording of Peter Grimes, Britten, and gave recitals in Madison-Georgia, Oakland-California, Montenegro in the Balkans, Jacksonville and Gibraltar. Buchanan made her debut singing the role of Tosca at the festival de Sédières in France and performed at the Tanglewood and Ravinia festivals. In addition the Soprano joined the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for Porgy & Bess conducted by Marin Alsop and made her Royal Opera House, Linbury theatre debut in the Opera YES composed by Errollyn Wallen, returning for the ROH2 initiative ‘Exposure Opera’ championing the works of emerging opera composers.

More recently, Ms. Buchanan joined Marin Alsop for performances in Brazil with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, returned to the Boston Symphony Orchestra to perform in Porgy & Bess, gave recitals in St. Louis, Washington DC and in Jacksonville, performed the role of Janthe in Der Vampyr with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, performed concerts with the Detroit Symphony and gave a recital at National Sawdust in Brooklyn. Buchanan recently released a recording of the songs of Dr. George Walker accompanied by the composer for Albany records, sang Knoxville Summer 1915, Barber, at the Kennedy Center with the Apollo Orchestra and joined members of the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Atlanta Symphony for the Classical Pops Festival in Barbados. http://alibuchanan.com/ab_bio.htm

 

About the Atlanta Music Project

Founded in 2010, the Atlanta Music Project provides more than 5,000 hours annually, of intensive, tuition-free music education for underserved youth right in their neighborhood. Now serving 300 students at six sites, AMP provides all its students with an instrument, a teaching artist, classes in Symphony Orchestra; AMPlify, the choral program of the Atlanta Music Project; the AMP Academy, providing advanced musical training to AMP’s most talented and dedicated students; and the AMP Summer Series, a music festival and school. AMP music ensembles perform 40 concerts per year. Its members have participated in Georgia All-State ensembles and have performed in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Aspen and Mexico. In 2015 Clayton State University established the Atlanta Music Project Endowed Scholarships, providing college scholarship funds for AMP students. AMP’s program partners include the City of Atlanta Department of Parks & Recreation, and The Kindezi Schools. AMP is the recipient of the prestigious 2016 Bank of America Neighborhood Builders award. In 2016 and 2017 the White House named AMP one of the top 50 after-school arts programs in the nation. For more information:www.atlantamusicproject.org

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