10th Anniversary ED&M: Persian Songs

What: Dinner and Music – Persian Songs: “Four Songs of Desire”
When: Sunday 17 November 2019 at 5pm
Where: the home of Paul Cassedy in Baltimore Maryland.
Who: Melissa Wimbish and Aaron Thacker
Program: “Four Songs of Desire” by Daniel Sabzghabaei
Menu: A selection of Persian delicacies….
Cost: $20 per person

The wonderful Melissa Wimbish and Aaron Thacker return with a very special program featuring recent a composition: love songs from Persia!

This should be an especially exciting evening! The songs, entitled “Four Glimpses of Desire” composed by a composer named Daniel Sabzghabaei, currently teaching at Peabody, are modern settings of very beautiful traditional Farsi love poems. These songs are very difficult to sing, both because of the music and because of the language – they are settings of Farsi. So it is especially exciting to have them performed at my house.

For more information about this extraordinary;y talented young composer and these wonderful songs, follow this link:
https://danielsabzghabaei.com/four-glimpses-of-desire-2016/

Menu:
As many of you already know, it is my usual habit to try to make a meal which compliments the program. So I’ve already begun having a huge amount of fun researching Persian dishes to serve. So our menu will be a wonderful selection of (relatively simple) Persian specialties. We will, of course, have at least one Persian meat dish; but never fear vegans, there are lots of really wonderful vegan dishes from Persia.

Performer Bios:

In the world-premiere of Josephine with UrbanArias, The Washington Post raved, “... the afternoon belonged to Melissa Wimbish, who was creating the role of Josephine Baker … Beautifully prepared, vocally stunning, and theatrically riveting, Wimbish effortlessly held the audience in her hand throughout this one-woman show.” The New York Times wrote of her “show-stealing turn as the hormonal pageboy Cherubino” while DC Metro Theatre Arts called her portrayal of Juliette “especially captivating.”

Melissa made her Carnegie Hall solo recital debut with a program of works by American composers and the world-premiere of Space in Chains by Jessica Meyer. She made her Baltimore Symphony solo debut performing Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre. Other career highlights include Carmina Burana and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Kennedy Center with Washington Ballet, Candide with Baltimore Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem with Richmond Symphony, and the NYC-premiere of Josephine with Chelsea Opera.

At the NATS National Conference, Melissa was awarded the Grand Prize NATS Artist Award as well as the Franco-American Award for Best Interpretation of French Repertoire. Melissa and her accompanist Ju Young Lee received special honors for Best Interpretation of American Song at the 2013 Liszt-Garrison At the NATS National Conference, Melissa was awarded the Grand Prize NATS Artist Award as well as the Franco-American Award for Best Interpretation of French Repertoire. Melissa and her accompanist Ju Young Lee received special honors for Best Interpretation of American Song at the 2013 Liszt-Garrison Competition. Other awards include the Vocal Arts Discovery Award, Denver Philharmonic Concerto Competition, Kennett Square Concerto Competition, Hilda Perl & Douglas Goodwin Award for Opera, and the Peabody Voice Award.

Upcoming appearances include the world-premiere of That Which We Cannot Live Without, a cycle for soprano and orchestra, set to the poetry of Ellen Tifft with Peabody Modern Orchestra, The Juliet Letters with UrbanArias, soprano soloist in Mozart’s Grand Mass at the New Hampshire Music Festival, and as a featured soloist at the Annapolis Chamber Music Festival. In the brand new studio recording of Paul’s Case by Gregory Spears, Melissa recorded the role of the History Teacher.

Melissa fronts the pop duo, Outcalls, whose song “Keep Falling Over” was voted #1 of the Top 89 Songs of 2018 by WTMD Radio listeners. Their album No King was featured in Baltimore Magazine’s “Best Music of 2017” with its title-track listed in The Baltimore Sun’s “30 Songs that Defined Baltimore in 2017.” Outcalls’ latest single, “Stay” was released on Valentine’s Day and can be downloaded on iTunes or Bandcamp. Melissa lives in Baltimore with her mute cat, Billy.
Learn more at www.melissawimbish.com.

Aaron Thacker is an accomplished pianist, who has performed extensively in the realm of Opera. He has served as rehearsal pianist for North Carolina Opera, Baltimore Lyric Opera, Peabody Conservatory, and The Ford's Theatre. He has appeared on NPR with famous tenor Noah Stewart and played for many other of the greatest and most sought after opera singers in the country, including Christine Goerke, Anthony Dean Griffey, Nathan Gunn, Soloman Howard, Denyce Graves, and Steven LaBrie. He currently is full-time faculty at specialty high school, George Washington Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, in Towson, MD.