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Clark University Professors Cailin Marcel Manson, baritone, and Nicholas Tocci, baritone, will perform scenes and arias from opera and musical theater as well as art songs, accompanied by pianist Christina Wright-Ivanova (piano faculty and artistic director of the Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College).
To view this performance program, please click here: Tenors Not Allowed Program
About the Performers:
Cailin Marcel Manson, a Philadelphia native, has toured as a soloist and master teacher at major concert venues throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia with many organizations, including the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, SWR Sinfonieorchester, Taipei Philharmonic, Bayerische Staatsoper – Münchner Opernfestspiele, Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Teatro La Fenice, Teatro San Carlo, Konservatorium Oslo, and the Conservatoire de Luxembourg.
A frequent guest conductor, clinician, presenter, panelist, and adjudicator for conventions, conferences, competitions, and music festivals, he has also been a guest cantor and soloist at some of the world’s most famous churches and cathedrals, including Notre Dame, Sacré-Coeur, and La Madeleine in Paris, San Marco in Venice, Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, San Salvatore in Montalcino, Santa Maria Maggiore and San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, Thomaskirche and Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, and Wieskirche in Steingaden.
Manson has served as Music Director of the Vorarlberger Musikfest, Music Director and Conductor Laureate of the Chamber Symphony of Atlantic City, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Montgomery County Youth Orchestra, Chair of Vocal Studies at the Hazleton Conservatory for the Performing Arts, Director of Music at The Putney School, and as Music Director of the Bennington County Choral Society. He also has served as a member of the faculty of the Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts and the Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary. He also founded and directed the Germantown Institute for the Vocal Arts and the Germantown Concert Chorus.
Manson studied voice performance at Temple University, and opera performance and orchestral conducting at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg.
Nicholas Tocci is becoming one of the most sought-after young artists in New England, with appearances in every state in the region. A New Hampshire native, Tocci is currently based in Boston, after earning his master’s in vocal performance from the New England Conservatory. During his time in at NEC, he appeared in leading roles in multiple productions, including as Nardo in Mozart’s “La finta giardiniera,” Manuel in De Falla’s “La vida breve,” Pallante in Handel’s “Agrippina,” The Priest/Badger in Janacek’s “The Cunning Little Vixen,” and Maestro Spinelloccio/The Notary in “Gianni Schicchi.”
In addition to his work on the lyric stage, Tocci can be seen performing as the bass soloist in several concert and oratorio works. He has performed as a soloist in productions of “L’enfance du Christ” as Joseph and Bernstein’s Mass with the Keene Chorale, and Robert Aldridge’s “Parables: An Interfaith Oratorio,” with the Bennington Choral Society. Additional performances include Handel’s “Messiah,” Faure’s “Requiem,” Bach’s “Cantata 140, Magnificat,” and Mozart’s “Coronation Mass,” among others. Not only a stage performer, Tocci also is involved in the creation of opera from an administrative perspective and made his directorial debut with the Barn Opera’s production of “The Barber of Seville” in Brandon, Vermont.
In the 2020 season, Tocci was featured as Bartley in a production of Vaughn Williams’ “Riders to the Sea” paired with a staged version of “Songs of Travel.” He will also be seen as Betto in Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi,” and the titular role in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” with Social Distance Opera.
Christina Wright-Ivanova, hailed by critics as “a brilliant pianist” (Wiener Zeitung, Vienna) with a “warm and reassuring sound” (Boston Intelligencer), is currently associate professor of music and coordinator of keyboard studies at Keene State College. She also is the interim artistic director for the Redfern Arts Center in the 2022–23 season. For the past nine years, she has been serving as the artistic director of the North End Music and Performing Arts “Winter Concert Series” in Boston, and she recently joined the faculty at New England Conservatory.
Wright-Ivanova frequently performs solo recitals with a special focus on new music. She is on the faculty of the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice and has premiered more than 125 works by living composers. She has performed both solo and collaborative new works in venues such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Berklee School of Music, MIT, The Harvard Club, Opera America (NY), Jordan Hall, Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall, Old North Meeting House, and in the Clutch New Music Series in Austin, Texas, and the NEXTET series in Las Vegas.
She has enjoyed working with composers such as Jo Kondo, Augusta Read Thomas, Steve Reich, Julian Anderson, Joan Tower, Daniel Brewbaker, Tristan Murail, Robert Beaser, Jennifer Bellor, Heather Gilligan, Daron Hagen, Paul Chihara, Virko Baley, and more. She has worked with several ensembles in new music, including the Callithumpian Consort, MIVOS Quartet (NEON Festival), HUB New Music, Juventas New Music Ensemble, and at the Academie für Neue Musik with the Arditti Quartet. She also recorded a series of demos for Jonny Greenwood’s (Radiohead) soundtrack for the 2012 movie “The Master.”