The Phenomenal Woman
April 30, 2022 @ 7:00 PM
Mellon Institute Auditorium, Oakland
featuring
Takesha Meshé Kizart-Thomas, soprano
Proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required for entry, and all audience members must properly wear a mask at all times while in the venue
International superstar soprano Takesha Meshé Kizart-Thomas makes her Pittsburgh debut in this one-night-only concert of opera, art song, jazz, and more. Praised by critics worldwide for her vocally compelling performances, Kizart-Thomas brings her versatility as a classical, jazz, soul, and pop vocal soloist to this program celebrating the significant contributions of women artists. Kizart-Thomas’s voice has been described by The New York Times as “powerful, lustrous, silky, caramel-hued, wiedling impressive ease and elegant control.”
This unforgettable performance will feature arias honoring the dramatic heroines of the opera stage portrayed by such artists as Shirley Verrett, Leontyne Price, and Jessye Norman, jazz standards popularized by the “First Lady of Song” Ella Fitzgerald, art songs by contemporary Black women composers, and new pieces commissioned and created by Kizart-Thomas. Presented in the intimate setting of Oakland’s Mellon Institute Auditorium, this concert is a powerful testament to the women who shaped music during the 20th century.
Takesha Meshé Kizart-Thomas is “blasting star quality all over the stage with her stunning voice and sensational good looks” (Opera News). The New York Times describes her singing as “powerful, lustrous, silky, caramel-hued, wielding impressive ease and elegant control”. She is “Worthy of all superlatives. With a breathtaking mastery and unflinching portrayals... a vocal flexibility that enables her to acutely pass from a tearful murmur to a firm luminosity. And her dramatic intelligence is worthy of the great "lionesses" of the lyric theater.” (Opera Magazine), and critics worldwide have praised her visually and vocally compelling performances.
Kizart-Thomas’ versatile body of work includes leading operatic heroines of the bel canto, verismo, and contemporary eras, as well as multiple genres of popular music. Her musical roots run deep. A performer since the age of two, the Chicago native, Washington D.C. transplant, U.S. Coast Guard wife, new mother, marriage and family advocate, and radical holistic self-care champion is an alumnae of the lauded University of North Texas and Philadelphia’s renowned Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA), and counts music legends McKinley “Muddy Waters” Morganfield and Tina Turner among her relations.
She made her professional debut in 2006 as The Dutchess in Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face with Musikfest Bremen and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. Her American professional debut occurred in 2008 in the title role of Tosca with The Dallas Opera. Both occurring while she studied as an Artist in Residence at AVA. Her exceptionally vivid portrayals include the title role of Tosca (Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Frankfurt, Oper Köln, Opera Australia, Opera North-UK, and The Dallas Opera); the title role of Respighi’s Marie Victoire (Deutsche Oper Berlin); Clitennestra in Gnecchi’s Cassandra led by Maestro Donald Runnicles (Deutsche Oper Berlin); the title role of Madama Butterfly (Deutsche Oper Berlin and Slovenian National Opera); Mimì in La bohème (Opera Australia and Deutsche Oper Berlin); a rare feat of performing both Margherita and Elena in Mefistofele (Opéra National de Montpellier); Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle (Oper Köln); Donna Leonora in Il trovatore (Staatsoper Stuttgart, National Theater Tokyo); Donna Leonora in La forza del destino (Caramoor International Music Festival and The Academy of Vocal Arts); Lucrezia Contarini in I due Foscari (Opera Orchestra of New York); Costanza in L’isola disabitata (Gotham Chamber Opera); Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra); Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang (The Fort Worth Symphony) and Elijah (AVA); Wagner’s Liebestod (Symphony in C); Lady Macbeth in Macbeth and Desdemona in Otello (Altamura Center for the Arts); Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, the title role of Vanessa, Anna in Le Villi, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Rossini’s Stabat Mater (AVA); Violetta La traviata; Giorgetta in Il tabarro; the title roles of Norma, Manon Lescaut, Suor Angelica, and Donizetti’s Maria di Rohan; Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte; Contessa Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro; Hanna in The Merry Widow; Lià in L’Enfant prodigue; Händel’s Messiah; Dubois’ Seven Last Words; and Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio. Further appearances include Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, L’Orchestra della Fondazione Arturo Toscanini, WDR Broadcast Orchestra of Cologne, Kölner Philharmonie, Winspear Opera House, Fort Worth Opera, The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Alte Oper Frankfurt, La Orquestra Filharmonica de Pilsen, Palm Beach Opera Orchestra, Duisberg Philharmonic Orchestra, Ocean City Pops Orchestra, MIDEM Festival, Palais des Festivals Cannes, Aspen Music Festival, the African American Museum of Philadelphia, Knoxville Museum of Art, Dallas Arts District Tuesday Nite Jazz, Broadway in Chicago, WRTI Radio, NPR Performance Today, PBS, NBC’s Today Show, The Verdian Voice (ARTE), France Musique, Spicks and Specks (ABC TV), and HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness. Professional collaborations of note have included Yo-Yo Ma (with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and Wynton Marsalis (with Jazz at Lincoln Center). For two years in a row, she received nominations for Germany’s Opernwelt Award for Female Singer of the Year: for Marie Victoire (2009) and Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle (2010), as well as Live Performance Australia’s Helpmann Award 2010 for Best Female Performer in an Opera (Tosca). She has received top awards from The Marian Anderson Historical Society, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Classical Singer Magazine’s Young Artist Competition, Opera Index, The Caruso International Voice Competition, Guilds of The Dallas Opera, Connecticut Opera, Palm Beach Opera, and Florida Grand Opera, The Oratorio Society of New York, Competizione dell’Opera, Neue Stimmen; and the Foundations of William Matheus Sullivan, Gerda Lissner, Liederkranz, Mario Lanza, Giulio Gari, Sergio Franchi, and Albanese-Puccini. Kizart-Thomas was honored with the Grand Prize at the Concurso Internacional de Canto Montserrat Caballé by the luminous Caballé herself. In the film The Verdian Voice, she was lauded by jury, media and the public as Grand Prize Winner of the prestigious Concorso Internazionale Voci Verdiane “Città di Busseto” as the next great Verdian Voice of her generation. Of her 2010 debut with the Metropolitan Opera in La bohème, the New York Post pronounced, “The most intriguing of the new faces was Takesha Meshé Kizart. With her exotic and voluptuous soprano, her megawatt presence automatically drew the eye.” Fresh from her debut with The Colorado Symphony under the baton of Maestro Andrew Litton in the title role of Tosca, Mrs. Kizart-Thomas joined the Metropolitan Opera and The Lincoln Center Theater’s Opera Commissioning Program in the starring role of Esther Mills for Ricky Ian Gordon’s Intimate Apparel.
Most recently, Kizart-Thomas appeared in Corsair from “Tales From a Safe Distance” with Chicago Fringe Opera and the Decameron Opera Coalition (which won Chicago Reader‘s “Best Opera of 2020” award) and sang the role of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Fargo Moorehead Opera (“The soprano wields a bright, crystalline voice that she seems to deliver effortlessly, making her as compelling to watch as she is to hear…Kizart outshined everyone on the stage,” reported Inforum.com in their review of the production). The current season will include concert performances in Pittsburgh, PA of “The Phenomenal Woman” with Resonance Works (including the premiere of a work commissioned by the artist), “Mahogany Chamber Performances: A Night of Song” with Crosstown Theater in Memphis, TN, and a recital tour with Anima Mundi Productions (in collaboration with Southern Oregon University, Seattle Opera, the Northwest African American Museum, the Portland State University School of Music & Theater, and Opera in the Park Portland) in performances of “Maternità”, an original program that explores motherhood through the standard operatic heroine and a contemporary portrayal with the commissioning of world premieres by Black, First Nation Indigenous, and Latina women composers in which she also serves as Creator, Co-Producer and Librettist. With her passionate mission and vision for the arts and community that seeks to create, educate, advocate, unify, and empower she brings 15+ years of experience as a Master Vocal Technician, Performance Coach, and Mentor with a focus on holistically integrating and freeing the Artist’s Mind, Body, and Spirit to enhance clarity of purpose and application of expression. This is evidenced in her inaugural partnerships with Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas as the vocal artist-in-residence and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Notes for Peace. She is also an inaugural protégé of the OPERA America Opera Leaders of Color with Houston Grand Opera General Director, Khori Dastoor, as her mentor, as well as an Association of Fundraising Professionals Alford Group Women’s Leadership & Development protégé with AFP Board President, Audrey M. Johnson as her mentor. A scholarship recipient of the 2022 National Arts Strategies & University of Pennsylvania’s Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy, and having completed Executive Arts Management and Organizational Leadership training with Northwestern University, DeVos Institute of Arts Management at University of Maryland, Arts Business Collaborative, and Beth Morrison Projects Producer Academy, Kizart-Thomas is a lifelong resourceful learner with a desire to honor the legacy of the past, institute the best practices of the present, and foster the trailblazing strategies of the future. Under the auspices of The Meshé Legacy with a mission and vision to make the classical arts more accessible by developing innovative and immersive multidisciplinary works that center the experiences of families of the global majority to develop their communities in their own image while giving voice to underestimated creators and engaging diverse audiences, new works in development include SHONDJ, Opera Reconstructed, Maternità, The Phenomenal Woman, Black Caesar, and Tea with Takesha (a community engagement greater impact initiative in collaboration with The American Opera Project where she serves as the Director of Development). Kizart-Thomas is also currently developing a bespoke line of luxury teas.
ARTISTS
Takesha Meshé Kizart-Thomas, soprano
Karen Roethlisberger Verm, piano
Joseph Sheehan, piano
Anton DeFade, bass
Thomas Wendt, drums
Mellon Institute Auditorium
4400 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Entrance along Bellefield Avenue
Proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required for entry, and all audience members must properly wear a mask at all times while in the venue
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