San Francisco Opera Singer to Return
to Centenary, Her Alma Mater,
for Vocal Recital March 25

SHREVEPORT, LA -- San Francisco Opera singer Twyla Robinson, a Centenary alumna, will return to her alma mater for a vocal recital at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 25.  The performance will be held in Centenary's Hurley Auditorium.

Ms. Robinson, soprano, is currently an Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera.  She has earned notices in several competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, the Eleanor McCollum Concert of Arias competition at Houston Grand Opera, the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artists  awards and the San Francisco Opera Center's national auditions.  She has also received invitations to participate in the Tucker Foundation Awards and the inaugural year of the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition in London. 

A Louisiana native, she graduated from Centenary in 1993 with a baccalaureate in music, vocal performance.  Starting as a horn major under Thomas Hundemer, she gradually moved to vocal studies with Dr. Horace English and Dr. Gale J. Odom.  She participated in Opera Centenary, the school's opera workshop, and performed the roles of the mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, the countess in The Marriage of Figaro, Rosalinda in Act II of Die Fledermaus, and the title role in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah opposite Dr. English. Centenary provided Robinson with the first opportunity to explore the concert repertoire with a performance of the second  soprano solos in Mozart's Mass in c minor, a concert given in memory of Dr. Frank Carroll, late dean of the Hurley School of Music. 

In 1999, Robinson concluded her stay at Indiana University in Bloomington and continues to study voice with Professor Costanza Cuccaro.  In her four-year stay, she performed the roles of Fiordiligi in Cosí fan Tutte, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Alice Ford in Falstaff, and the title role in Richard Strauss's Arabella. Active in the concert genre, Robinson performed as soloist for IU in such works as Bach's Matthäus-Passion and Weihnachtsoratorium, Honeggar's Le Roi David, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Schubert's Mass in G, Mozart's Requiem, and the Fauré Requiem. She has worked with such conductors as Imre Pallo, Robert Porco and James Bagwell. Robinson also taught for three years as an associate instructor for IU's School of Music, with a studio of 15 private voice students.

As a 1999 Merola Opera Program participant, Robinson was seen at San Jose's Villa Montalvo as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.  Later reprising Donna Anna and adding the role of Donna Elvira, she went on to visit 31 cities with the 1999 Western Opera Theater National Tour. In April of 2000, Robinson was the San Francisco Opera Center's overbearing Lady Billows in Britten's comedy Albert Herring, and later that month performed in the prestigious Schwabacher Debut Recital Series for an afternoon of all Brahms--both performances meeting with critical acclaim.  May included a solo turn at Stanford University in Beethoven's 9th Symphony, and June brought a trip to Cedar Rapids Opera Theater for the world premiere of Edwin Penhorwood's Too Many Sopranos.  In a role created for her, she portrayed the "larger-than-life" Madame Pompous, singing in varying styles: from gospel to music of Wagnerian proportions.

Robinson debuted at the San Francisco Opera in its Fall 2000 season as Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte.  She also covered the Marschallin of Renée Fleming in Der Rosenkavalier. Spring of 2001 brings another Schwabacher Debut Recital and the role of Giunone in Caccini's La Calisto in the San Francisco Opera Center's Adler Showcase.

Tickets are available at Hurley School of Music for $8 for adults and $4 for students.  The concert is free to Centenary faculty, staff and students.  For further information contact the Hurley School of Music at 318-869-5235.

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