UC Davis Verdi Requiem

	Arianna Zukerman, soprano, is known for her intense musicality, her vivid stage acumen, and her rich, lyric voice. In the 2002–03 season, Zukerman sang Pamina in The Magic Flute for Chattanooga Opera, a highly acclaimed Governess in The Turn of the Screw for Chicago Opera Theater, and created the role of Nizza in the world premiere of Donizetti’s long-lost opera Elisabeth at the Caramoor Music Festival. In July 2004 she will sing Marzelline in a concert version of Beethoven’s Fidelio with the Minnesota Orchestra. Equally comfortable in repertoire from Handel and Mozart to Stephen Sondheim, Zukerman has sung with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the English Symphony Orchestra, Eos Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Orchestra of the State of Transylvania, the Pasadena Pops, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, and the Winterthur Musikkollegium. This season, she makes her debuts with the Colorado Symphony and the Cathedral Choral Society in Washington, D.C. Zukerman studied theater at Brown University and earned a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School.
	Judith Malafronte, mezzo-soprano, has appeared with numerous orchestras and oratorio societies, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the San Francisco Symphony, the St. Louis and Baltimore Symphonies, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and the Handel and Haydn Society. Malafronte has sung at the Tanglewood Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Utrecht Early Music Festival, and is a frequent guest artist with the American Bach Soloists and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and the Harp Consort. Her operatic performances have included the title role in Handel’s Serse at the Göttingen Festival, Scarlatti’s L’Aldimiro at the Berkeley Festival, Dido and Aeneas with Mark Morris Dance Group (singing both Dido and the Sorceress), and Nero in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea for the Aston Magna Festival. She has also sung leading roles at the opera houses of Lyon, Liège, and Montpellier. She holds degrees with honors from Vassar College and Stanford University, and pursued post-graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music, with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and with Giulietta Simionato in Milan as a Fulbright scholar. She has recorded a wide range of repertoire, from the twelfth-century chant of Hildegard of Bingen to the Deutsche Motette of Richard Strauss, for BMG, Koch Classics, and Harmonia Mundi. Her writings on music have appeared in Opera News, Early Music America, Stagebill, Schwann Inside, and Schwann Opus. Malafronte is well known to UC Davis audiences for her appearances with the Early Music and Baroque Ensembles, and for her Berlioz Childhood of Christ (December 2000) and Brahms Alto Rhapsody (March 2002) with the UCDSO and Chorus.
	Steven Tharp, tenor, is equally at ease with Bach, Donizetti, Verdi, and Wagner. The Badisches Neueste Nachrichten called him “a lyrical tenor of refined vocal style” whose “lieder had the effect of entering a cozy room. … His phrasing radiated thoughtfulness.” In the New Yorker, Andrew Porter described his performance in Frank Martin’s Le Vin Herbé as “ideal … strong, free, and forward in tone, verbally sure, lyrical in utterance,” and the Newark Star-Ledger noted, “he thrilled all with his blazing high register.” Opera News has praised the “bel canto flexibility and sweetness” of his voice. Will Crutchfield in The New York Times wrote: “He can handle the coloratura of Mozart and Rossini (including real trills) at a level that was simply not available from tenors 30 years ago and is still rare.” Tharp has appeared with most of the major U. S. orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Cleveland Orchestra. Early in his operatic career he received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council and San Francisco Opera auditions. His operatic repertoire of more than forty roles includes the major tenor parts of Mozart and Handel. With Will Crutchfield as pianist, Tharp presented “The World of Schubert’s Songs” and “The World of Heinrich Heine,” both multi-evening lieder series, at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. He performed at gala recitals celebrating Schubert’s 200th birthday at the 92nd Street Y and Weill Recital Hall. He can be heard on Sir Georg Solti’s Grammy award-winning recording of Die Meistersinger for London/Decca and excerpts of La Calisto, from the Glimmerglass Opera, released by BBC Music. His world-premiere recording of the complete songs of Edward MacDowell has recently been issued by Naxos American Classics.
	David Arnold, baritone, has performed leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, English National Opera, the Komische Oper Berlin, and elsewhere. He has also sung with the major orchestras of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, New York, St. Louis, and Amsterdam. Leonard Bernstein chose him to perform the world premiere of David Diamond’s Ninth Symphony for Baritone and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and James Grant wrote the baritone solos in Such Was the War for David Arnold’s voice, the work having its premiere at the Kennedy Center in 2003. Abroad, he has been heard at the Holland, Spoleto, and Thessalonika Festivals, the Concertgebouw, and at England’s Bath Opera. His recordings include John Harbison’s Full Moon in March, the Mozart Requiem (Levin completion), Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass (with the American Bach Soloists), Mendelssohn’s Walpurgisnacht, Zaimont’s The Magic World, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (Jesus), and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with the Boston Symphony. A winner of many awards, Arnold has also made guest appearances at the White House for Presidents Carter and Clinton.