Star power, operatic elegance, and Houston legacies. A Star is Born will honor three generations of Houston’s finest opera supporters and stars, raise vital support for Ars Lyrica's Opera Circle, and our upcoming fully-staged Baroque opera production, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, on May 15+16, 2021.
Date: Saturday, April 25, 2020, 6:30 PM
Tickets: A donation of any amount will grant you access to the Virtual Gala
Virtual Event
What is a virtual gala?
At the virtual A Star is Born gala, attendees will receive exclusive access to a digital gala experience, featuring special remarks from:
Robin Angly and Miles Smith, Gala Chairs
Lois Alba, Honoree
Michelle Bradley, Star Performer
Matthew Dirst, Artistic Director and Ars Lyrica founder
Kinga Ferguson, Executive Director
Virtual packages also include a never-before-seen performance by Michelle Bradley, discount codes to select restaurants to eat and drink in style on gala night, and a pre-gala “Choose Your Own Adventure” game. During the 20/21 season, we hope to celebrate our supporters with an in-person appreciation event as well.
Thank you for your support and for joining us for the re-imagined gala. For full access to the gala broadcast and the choose-your-own-adventure cocktail party experience, make a donation of any amount and we will send you an email with access links.
Principal Cast of Dido and Aeneas
Ars Lyrica’s production of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas will be staged by Catherine Turocy, Artistic Director of The New York Baroque Dance Company and star Abigail Fischer as Dido, Mark Diamond as Aeneas, and Lauren Snouffer as Belinda.
Honoree: Lois Alba
Houston native Lois Alba began her vocal studies at the age of 12, which continued through her teens in New York at Mannes as well as the Daykarhanova School. She became the first winner of the Southwest Division of the Metropolitan Opera Competition and was the first Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier at Houston Grand Opera. The legendary Mme. Lotte Lehmann prepared her for the role. Ms. Alba has performed on several occasions with the Houston Symphony and Leopold Stokowski.
In 1978, Ms. Alba founded Soma International Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping aspiring opera singers secure more opportunities, exposure, training and guidance in the exciting and highly competitive art world of opera.
As her professional presence grew, Stokowski and Mme. Lehmann, encouraged Ms. Alba to move to Europe to pursue her studies and career. She spent over a decade in Europe, and later returned to Houston to teach and promote the arts in the city. Her teaching specialty became bel canto technique, and with her spare time, she also co-founded Opera in the Heights in 1996.
A respected author, Ms. Alba wrote Vocal Rescue: Rediscover the Beauty, Power and Freedom in Your Singing. She will celebrate the 15th Lois Alba Aria Competition on May 31st, 2020, held in Cullen Hall at the University of St Thomas.
Chairs: Robin Angly & Miles Smith
Robin Angly and Miles Smith followed similar musical paths in life before meeting, marrying, and championing the city’s artistic and cultural communities together.
Robin can’t remember a time when music wasn’t a major part of her life. She started taking piano lessons at the age of five. Voice lessons came later. This began a romance with music that would continue for the rest of her life. As she was growing up, her eclectic musical tastes led Robin to listen to soprano Joan Sutherland and jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald and to fall in love with the music of Bach. She went on later in life to sing in the Houston Grand Opera (HGO) Chorus and the Houston Symphony Chorus.
Music was an essential part of Miles’ life from an early age as well. He took clarinet lessons as a child and added voice lessons later. Miles continued playing clarinet at the University of Illinois, where he was a member of the marching band. His developing taste in music led Miles to Wagner and jazz. Although he also eventually sang in the HGO Chorus, he and Robin didn’t meet until later.
Their musical connections and shared passion for music eventually brought Robin and Miles together, and they have been active copatrons of the arts ever since. HGO, Houston Symphony, Da Camera, Ars Lyrica, and Inprint are all institutions that have benefited from their unwavering support. It has been said of the couple that their “tireless advocacy and generous support of many of Houston’s leading cultural organizations has been crucial to artistic growth, financial sustainability, and long-term impact in the community.”
Robin and Miles were founding members of Ars Lyrica Houston and are now leading Ars Lyrica's Opera Circle, a fundraising initiative that supports the organization’s biennial Baroque opera productions. Robin and Miles were the honorary chairs and the honorees at the Ars Lyrica Roaring Twenties Gala in 2017, and Robin was honored at an Artful Women concert in February of 2018 as part of Ars Lyrica’s movement to recognize some of Houston’s leading female philanthropists.
Star performer: Michelle Bradley, soprano
Photo by Dario Acosta, provided by columbia artists
Michelle Bradley, a recent graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, is beginning to garner great acclaim as one of today’s most promising Verdi sopranos.
This season, Ms. Bradley will make debuts with the Vienna State Opera as Leonora in Il Trovatore (a role debut), the San Francisco Opera as Elvira in Ernani, the San Diego Opera as the title-role in Aida and will return to the Metropolitan Opera for their New Year’s Eve Gala as Liù in Act II of Turandot. She will appear in solo recital at the Kennedy Center and perform Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915 with the New World Symphony. Future projects include debuts with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and returns to the Metropolitan Opera, all in leading roles.
Last season, Ms. Bradley made a string of notable debuts in Frankfurt for Leonora in a new production of La Forza del Destino, in Nancy and Erfurt for the title role in Aida, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin for the soprano solo in staged performances of the Verdi Requiem. In concert, she debuted in Paris as the soprano solo in Sir Michael Tippett’s A Child of our Time with the Orchestre de Paris under Thomas Adès, sang the soprano solo in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin and sang in recital under the auspices of the George London Foundation in Miami and New York City.
Prior to that, Ms. Bradley returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Clotilde in the new David McVicar production of Norma. She also appeared in Santiago de Chile as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. On the concert stage the soprano made her debut at the May Festival in the Verdi Requiem, sang the Four Last Songs with the Santa Cruz Symphony, a program of Chausson and Caplet chamber works with the New World Symphony and solo recitals in Palm Beach and Santiago de Chile.
Ms. Bradley is the 2017 recipient of the Leonie Rysanek Award from the George London Foundation, the 2016 recipient of the Hildegard Behrens Foundation Award, and a first place winner in the Gerda Lissner and the Serge and Olga Koussevitzky vocal competitions. She is the 2014 grand prize winner of The Music Academy of the West’s Marilyn Horne Song Competition. She received her Masters of Music in Vocal Performance from Bowling Green State University. She has participated in master classes with Stephanie Blythe, Anne Sofie von Otter, Marilyn Horne, Deborah Voigt, James Morris, and Renata Scotto.
Schedule of Virtual Events
Rising Star Afterparty
A Star is Born Virtual Gala
Gala Committee Members
Gala Committee
Jano Kelley
Connie Kwan-Wong
Eva Wilke
Sonja Bruzauskas
Kinga Ferguson
Mario Gudmundsson
Afterparty Chairs
Shane A. Miller
Mario Gudmundsson
Underwriting opportunities are available for Star Performer underwriting. Please contact Kinga Ferguson at kferguson@arslyricahouston.org for details and benefits.
Sponsorship
As the leader among Houston’s early music ensembles, our commitment reaches beyond presenting exciting programs of early music on period instruments. Opera, an art form that had its beginnings in the late 16th century, offers full immersion into the world as it was centuries ago; stories, costumes, dances, and music serve to transport audiences from 21st century Houston to 17th century Europe in all its elegance, distinction, and drama.
Opera conveys stories and parables in a way no other form of music can, and we are dedicated to presenting Baroque masterworks that weave narratives that are still relevant hundreds of years after their premieres. Join us on this journey to celebrate legacy, stars, and Houston’s vibrant and ever-growing arts community.
Sponsorship Levels
Star Sponsor: $25,000
Recognition as a Star Sponsor and Opera Circle Principal Artist Sponsor
Onstage recognition at the event & in all printed & digital Gala materials
Featured in all promotional and media materials
4 VIP seats and reception invitations to all Ars Lyrica’s season concerts at the Hobby Center
Maestro Sponsor: $15,000
Recognition as a Maestro Sponsor and Opera Circle Artist Underwriter
Recognition in all printed & digital Gala materials
Featured in all promotional and media materials
4 VIP seats and reception invitations to all Ars Lyrica’s season concerts at the Hobby Center
Virtuoso Sponsor: $10,000
Recognition as a Virtuoso Sponsor and Opera Circle Supporting Producer
Recognition in all printed & digital Gala materials
2 VIP seats and reception invitations to all Ars Lyrica’s season concerts at the Hobby Center
Impresario Sponsor: $7,000
Recognition as an Impresario Sponsor
Recognition in all printed & digital Gala materials
