New York Premiere of New Opera by Trinkley and Charnesky

February 15, 2005

The Memorial, a new opera by composer Bruce Trinkley and lyricist Jason Charnesky, will be given its world premiere by Mary Kay McGarvey, soprano, on Friday, Feb. 18, at 8:00 p.m. at the Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music, 42-76 Main Street, Flushing, New York.

Trinkley is professor of music at Penn State and director of the Penn State Glee Club. Charnesky is an instructor in English at the University.

The Memorial is for solo performer and tells the story of a woman obsessed by a newspaper article recounting the death of a young highway construction worker. In sequences alternating between the harrowing and the humorous, the woman comes to appreciate the fleeting evanescence of life, through the tragic fate of family and strangers.

Mary Kay McGarvey is a well-known recitalist and opera performer in the New York area. Her recital program is entitled “Women in Love” and includes songs by Clara Schumann, Fanny Hensel, and Ricky Ian Gordon. She has degrees in voice from the Manhattan School of Music and Northwestern University and she made her Lincoln Center debut singing Mozart concert arias with the Goliard Ensemble. She has played many leading roles in opera, including Susanna, Despina, Micaela, Sophie, Mabel, Baby Doe, Manon and Violetta.

Contact: Amy Milgrub Marshall, alm157@psu.edu or 814.863.2104