FREE CONCERT
October 20, 2024 / 2:30pm
St Patrick's Church
9 North Clinton Ave., Bay Shore, NY
QUEENS SOUND
Helena Kim has been an active performer as a pianist, organist and conductor. Currently, she is a music director at St. Ephrem RC Church in Brooklyn, NY. Ms. Kim participated in various productions of New York Grand Opera under the direction of late Maestro Vincent La Selva, and studied orchestral conducting under his tutelage. In 2019, she was the music director of Gilbert and Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island, and conducted the opera “The Gondoliers” with great success. She is currently a pianist for Queens Sound, and has performed on the piano in various recitals throughout the United States. She received a DMA in organ performance at Mason Gross school of the Arts at Rutgers University and was awarded the Elizabeth Wyckoff Durham Award.
Linda Teixeira is a Long Island-based soprano, music educator, and co-founder of Queens Sound, a music group that has performed classical and contemporary works around the country at concert series and festivals. Linda is the co-creator and co-star in the music education webseries, Maestro’s Magical Music Box. She is frequently a guest performer with the West Islip Orchestraand regularly sings with Opera Night Long Island. Regionally, Linda has performed with Dicapo Opera, dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, Regina Opera, Rockland Opera, and Garden State Opera. She has also sung abroad with the Amalfi Coast Musical Festival andwith Dicapo Opera in Szeged, Hungary. She studied vocal performance at The Hartt School of Music and Hunter College and music education at Queens College. Linda is a music teacher at the Masera Middle School with Eastern Suffolk BOCES.
Special Guests
Italian-American tenor Vincenzo Fiorito is based in NYC and studied classical voice at Manhattan School of Music. Vincenzo enjoys bringing traditional repertoire to life with a modern interpretation, as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. In 2022, he performed in Italy with Opera Lucca where he sang in scenes from L’elisird’amore as Nemorino and in 2023, The Marriage of Figaro as Don Curzio. Fiorito has sung multiple seasons with the Gilbert and Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island as Frederic (Pirates of Penzance), Palmieri (The Gondoliers), Strephon (Patience), Lieut. Officer of Dragoon Guards(The Duke of Dunstable) and Ralph Rackstraw (H.M.S. Pinafore. Additionally, he was an ensemble member at the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice in their productions of Othello, La Boheme and Carmen. Fiorito is a recent graduate of Manhattan school of Music and continues to study with his voice teacher, tenor Dmitri Piettas.
Gina Haver has credits in classical music, opera, oratorio, Off-Broadway, television and film. She’s performed at Merkin Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Northport Theatre and others. Soloist with The National Chorale, MUSE Ensemble, The Singers’ Theatre of NY, The NY Chamber Players, NY Selah Ensemble, Dicapo Young Artist Program, Northport Opera and with Divalicious. Soloist: Carmina Burana, Brahms’ Requiem, Israel in Egypt, Faure’s Requiem and Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate. Roles: Violetta/La Traviata, Mimi and Musetta/La Boheme, Gilda/Rigoletto, Queen of the Night/The Magic Flute and Lola/Cavalleria Rusticana. With an “outstanding, beautiful coloratura voice” (The New York Times) she has been described as a performer who brings “tremendous talent to opera and operetta.”
Christina Russo is Long Island-based mezzo-soprano whose journey has landed her in the classical crossover sphere. With a love for the operatic traditions of bel canto singing and the textual immediacy of American musical theater, she enjoys exploring many different styles of music. Christina has a dual passion for performing and teaching, and runs a thriving voice studio on Long Island, teaching various genres to clients of all ages. She holds a bachelor's degree in voice performance from Hofstra University, a master’s degree in opera performance from Binghamton University, and a graduate certificate in vocology from Lamar University. She has received awards from the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the Metropolitan Opera National Council.
Baritone Adam Unger is originally from Great Neck, New York. He is a former professional baseball player for the New York Yankees and Colorado Rockies and is currently an attorney at Herrick, Feinstein LLP. Mr. Unger has performed the roles of Schaunard in Puccini's La Boheme with Opera Company of Brooklyn, Peter in Beethoven's Mount of Olives with Westminster Presbyterian Church and Monterone in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Box in New York City. He has also performed with the Metropolitan Opera Guild and was a second prize winner in New York Lyric Opera Theatre's 2019 vocal competition. Mr. Unger has been featured in the New York Post and on Fox 5 New York. He currently resides in Hicksville, New York.
Presented by the Islip Arts Council through a grant from Suffolk County Legislator Steve Flotteron.
