Danielle Buonaiuto, soprano
Bethany Pietroniro, piano
 
Saturday, April 18
7:30 PM
 
In celebration and awareness of Earth Day, Danielle Buonaiuto and Bethany Pietroniro explore immortalizations of Nature in song. Odes to nature's beauty, musical activism, breathless depictions of spring, and even a musical bestiary make an appearance in music by Argento, Barber, Copland, Ives, Poulenc, and more. Local composers James Young, Douglas Buchanan, and Michael Oberhauser are featured on this program.

Danielle Buonaiuto appears as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Canada, singing a broad range of music encompassing the standard repertoire, rarely-performed operatic works, and modern music, as well as new works were written especially for her. Praised for her “wonderful subtlety” and “hypnotic” presence, as well as “impeccable comedic timing”, Ms. Buonaiuto brings compelling characterization and a gift for storytelling to her performances.
 
Ms. Buonaiuto made her symphonic debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as Knabe 1 in Die Zauberflöte. She appeared in 2013 as a Bel Canto Young Artist at the Caramoor Festival in New York, singing Voix en Haut in Don Carlos. She returns to Caramoor for their 2015 season. She was also seen in Quebec and Ontario as Musetta in La Bohème with Jeunesses Musicales Canada and appeared as Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring with the Bronx Opera. Other favorite roles include Mozart heroines Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), and Ilia (Idomeneo); she will appear this summer as Zerlina in Don Giovanni at the Peninsula Music Festival.
 
Ms. Buonaiuto is a sought-after interpreter of new music. Appearances have included Crumb’s Madrigals, Berio’s Folk Songs, Golijov’s Ayre, and Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. In August 2014, she joined the Lucerne Festival Academy for a performance of Berio’s Coro under Sir Simon Rattle. She has commissioned young Canadian and American composers individually and with her pierrot ensemble, the Lunar Ensemble, for whom she recently secured a New Music USA grant to support new works this season. The group will also celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch with a new dramatic cantata, at the Maryland Science Center, in March 2015. In June, Ms. Buonaiuto will appear in Miami as the soprano in Carson Kievman’s new opera Intelligent Systems.
 
Deeply committed to the genre of art song, Ms. Buonaiuto released her debut recording, Songs of Innocence and Experience, in April 2014, with pianist Bethany Pietroniro. This season, she continues to concertize with Ms. Pietroniro at the Wright Theater and War Memorial in Baltimore, as well as more intimate venues in the community. Their recital at St David’s Episcopal Church in Baltimore included the premiere of Douglas Buchanan’s arrangements of Scottish folk songs, in which the duo reached “great emotional depth”. For her calendar, media, and other information, please visit www.daniellebuonaiuto.com. 

Praised by Baltimore’s The Glass for demonstrating “beautiful, melodic tones as well as driving percussive force,” pianist Bethany Pietroniro is an avid collaborative artist. Gathering together her passions for music, languages, and literature, Bethany is embarking on a multi-faceted career devoted to chamber music, art song, and contemporary music performance.
 
In June 2014, Bethany was awarded the Marc and Eva Stern Fellowship to attend SongFest at Colburn, where she had the opportunity to perform under the guidance of leading artists including Graham Johnson, Rudolf Piernay, Lucy Shelton, and Suzanne Mentzer. In summer 2013, she premiered instrumental and vocal works by emerging young composers during a residency at New Music on the Point Summer Institute. Bethany is an active recitalist, frequently joining her vocalist and instrumentalist colleagues in creating innovative duo recitals. Other recent projects include coaching two celebrated operas by Benjamin Britten, The Rape of Lucretia and Albert Herring, presented by Baltimore’s hexaCollective and Charm City Collegium.
 
Bethany received dual master’s degrees in solo and collaborative piano from Peabody Conservatory, where she studied with Yong Hi Moon and Eileen Cornett. She holds bachelor’s degrees in music and mathematics from Indiana University.