Marine Band and upon retiring in 2020 was awarded the Legion of Merit. He served as String Section Commander for “The President’s Own” U.S. Peter is the former senior enlisted music advisor to The White House, where he led countless ensembles and performed as a Marine violinist for 30 years in direct support of five U.S. He serves as Music Director of the Richmond Philharmonic and The American Prize-winning Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra in Virginia as well as Artistic Director and Conductor of the American Festival Pops Orchestra in the National Capital Region, an appointment that began in 2022 following his 12 years as AFPO Concertmaster. Learn more about Steven Smith, Conductor.Has been noted as “first-class” by The Washington Post. Learn more about Denyce Graves, Mezzo-Soprano. Though she meets an untimely death at the hands of a discarded lover, this powerful character is immortalized in the operatic cannon defined by her passionate nature, respected for strong will, and remembered for the music that carries her story. Set in 19th century Spain, the opera presents themes of love, jealousy, and free will, as Carmen operates on her own agenda: seductive and intimate on one note, sardonic and hedonistic the next. Displays of crude femininity are augmented by staged knife fights and choruses of smoking cigarette-factory girls. Audiences were taken aback by the female protagonist’s unscrupulous behavior. USA Today identifies her as “an operatic superstar of the 21st century,” and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution exclaims, “If the human voice has the power to move you, you will be touched by Denyce Graves.”īizet’s Carmen was the most famous of the composer’s operas, introducing an unfamiliar element of realism to the form. Recognized worldwide as one of today’s most exciting vocal stars, Denyce Graves continues to gather unparalleled popular and critical acclaim in performances on four continents. Join the Richmond Symphony for a spectacular final event of their Altria Masterworks series, featuring Mezzo-Soprano Denyce Graves in a concert performance of Bizet’s Carmen (un-staged), in partnership with Virginia Opera. Bizet Carmen (unstaged concert performance).

Carmen opera richmond va