ENCINITAS — The city will debut its inaugural Music by the Sea Concert Series at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 24 with a performance by prize-winning Viennese soprano Sevana Salmasi in the Encinitas Library. Tickets are $10 for each of the 10 performances during the 2012-2013 season or $90 for a season pass. Concerts will be held monthly on Friday nights between August and November and January and June.
The iPalpiti Festival will return for a second year in July. There will be no performance in December.
Arts administrator Jim Gilliam said the decision to host a ticketed concert series was based on the success of the iPalpiti Festival, which was held here last month.
“The city is taking the arts one step further, with a considerable commitment of time and resources,” he added. “We are a city of artists and arts enthusiasts.”
Proceeds from ticket sales will support artists and the city’s arts programs.
Gilliam explained that the idea for the series came about through Encinitas’ participation in a consortium of music presenters.
“Each April, it holds the Beverly Hills Auditions with more than 60 performing groups,” he said. “From this, 10 are selected as winners, the best of the best. We will feature the winners in concerts in Encinitas, monthly on Friday nights; on Saturday, they perform in Manhattan Beach; on Sunday, Beverly Hills at the Greystone Mansion. We’re very excited to be invited to be a venue for the monthly concerts, bringing this great talent to San Diego audiences.”
Armenian-born soprano Salmasi trained at University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. A Mozart specialist, she was a top prize winner of international competitions including second prize and Audience prize at the International Heinrich Strecker Operetta Competition in Baden/Vienna in 2007.
She was also a finalist of the Young Artist Program of Placido Domingo/Thornton Auditions at Los Angeles Opera in April 2006.
Currently, Salmasi is working toward a doctorate in vocal arts at the prestigious Thornton School of Music at USC.
She will be presenting her signature Mozart Show, which celebrates the work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Strauss.
“The audience is going to get a selection of the most beautiful and famous arias and songs of the Viennese repertoire from a singer who was raised in ‘the most Viennese part of Vienna’ called Ottakring,” Salmasi said. “Arias from Mozart and Strauss are indeed my most favorite repertoire to sing. My heart and my soul are in these songs. If a singer truly loves the songs, and feels it, the audience will enjoy the performance for sure.”
Salmasi added that the first part of the program will be sung in Italian, and the second part in her native language, German.
“These two composers represent Viennese culture in the early 18th and 19th century,” she said. “My pianist and I will be dressed in baroque costumes, which will transport the audience to another time.”
Gilliam added, “Sevana is a true performer with a beautiful voice and great charisma. Her ‘Mozart Show’ will be the perfect first concert for the city’s new Music by the Sea Friday night concert series. The Encinitas audience will love her.”
The upcoming schedule also includes: Sept. 14, Chika Inoue, saxophone, first-place winner of the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus Young Artists Competition; Oct. 19, Iryna Krechkovsky, violin and Kevin Kwan Loucks, piano; artists-in-residence at the University of California, Irvine;
Nov. 16, Charissa Barger and Kate Loughrey, harpists; Jan. 18, Laurie Rubin, mezzo-soprano;
Feb. 15, recent principal violist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Victor De Almeida, violist; March 15, Andrew Moses, clarinet with Tania Fleischer, piano, winner of the 2012 Torrance Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition; April 19, Sashell Beck, soprano and Isaia Musik-Ayala, bass-baritone; May 10, Christopher Goodpasture, piano, first prize winner in the California Association of Professional Music Teachers Ensemble Competition and the American Fine Arts Festival; and June 14, Ceora Winds: Michelle Matsumune, flute; Heather Millette, clarinet; and Christin Webb, bassoon.
The Encinitas Library is located at 540 Cornish Drive in Encinitas. For more information, call (760) 633-2746 or visit themozartshow.com.
For schedule information, and to purpose tickets, visit encinitasCA.gov.
