Horne Picks Alattar to Sing at UPB

Award-winning soprano Hanan Alattar, who was handpicked by internationally known opera star and Bradford native Marilyn Horne to sing in her hometown, will perform a recital at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford on Saturday, Sept. 27.

Alattar, hailed as “a singer of obvious promise” by the Denver Post, will perform at 7:30 p.m. in Bromeley Family Theater in Blaisdell Hall. Tickets for the concert, which was made possible by a grant from the Marilyn Horne Foundation, are $6 for the public; students are free.

For more information on tickets, contact the Bromeley Family Theater Box Office at 814-362-5113.

In addition to her recital, Alattar will be in residence at Bradford area schools from Sept. 23-26.

“We are so fortunate to have Hanan Alattar do her outreach residency in Bradford,” said Randy Mayes, Pitt-Bradford’s director of arts programming. “The Marilyn Horne Foundation can send artists almost anywhere since many cities vie for the honor of working with Marilyn’s hand-chosen singers, but we always seem to wind up with the best.

“Hanan Alattar is in that mold. If her success at the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall wasn’t enough, Alattar just finished a stellar performance at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony. Music lovers around Bradford have the chance to hear her at a fraction of the cost of what music fans in the Chicago area paid, and I hope they will take advantage of it.”

Romainne Harrod, a sophomore English major from Peoria, Ariz., took in last year’s recital by soprano Elaine Alvarez despite the fact that she is not familiar with opera.

“It was amazing,” Harrod said. “She was good. Not many people get to see an opera singer like that.”

At her Bradford recital, Alattar, who is of Lebanese descent and a native of Texas, will perform selections by some of the classical composers – Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy and Gabriel Fauré. However, she will also perform more contemporary songs, such as “Sure on This Shining Night,” Samuel Barber’s most popular vocal song; and “Song for a Friend” by Michael Gonzales.

She has performed with many symphonies in addition to the Chicago Symphony, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and New World Symphony in Miami Beach Fla. She also sang at the Spoleto Festival in Italy and has also performed at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall last season.

Alattar’s harshest critique came years ago when she was a child. One of her elementary school teachers told her not to sing because her voice was too loud. However, since then, her performances have gotten rave reviews.

The Denver Post, in addition to calling her a singer of obvious promise, said, “Miss Alattar’s musical gifts combined with her sultry physical beauty create a compelling presence on the opera and concert stage.”

Most recently, when she performed at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony in August, the Chicago Tribune said she performed “with vibrant power and fearless coloratura gymnastics.”

Alattar has received several awards, including a Sullivan Foundation Award from The William Matheus Sullivan Music Foundation Inc., a New York foundation that presents $10,000 awards to young gifted singers in the early stages of their careers to be used for career-related purposes.

She was a finalist in The Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers sponsored by the Houston Grand Opera, a national competition for aspiring singers; and was the New Horizon Scholar at the Aspen Music Festival, where she won the 2002 Aspen Concerto Competition. She was also invited to participate in the Opera Theatre of St. Louis Young Artist Program in seasons 2002 and 2003.

Alattar is a graduate of the University of Texas and holds a master’s degree from The Juilliard School, which she attended on a full scholarship.

She'll be the guest on WESB's LiveLine at 12:40 p.m. Tuesday.