Opera on the Anchorage Museum Lawn

Event Date

Friday, June 25 @ 5:30-6:30 pm
FREE Concert
Anchorage Museum Lawn 
625 C Street
Anchorage, AK 99501

About the Event

Hundreds of supportive patrons came out for our first LIVE event since the pandemic. THANK YOU to each & every one of them! We had a great time kicking off our 2021-22 Season of Healing at the PAC with this fun concert of Gilbert & Sullivan tunes, Broadway, and Opera’s greatest hits performed by some of our local STARS. People brought lawn chairs or blankets and basked in beautiful music performed by Kyle Gantz, baritone, Katie Strock, mezzo soprano, Christine Keene, soprano, Jeremy Sivitz, tenor and Judy Berry, soprano with Janet Carr-Campbell, accompanist on the FIRST Friday of our beautiful Alaskan Summer!

If you missed the concert you can still watch excerpts from the show & the live stream video at the links below!

Jeremy Sivitz brought a smile to the hundreds of people who came to our Opera on the Lawn with his playful rendition of “You’d be Surprised” by Irving Berlin on a beautiful summer evening in Anchorage. Jeremy is slated to make his debut with Anchorage Opera as “Spoletto” in Tosca by Puccini (Apr 22, 23 & 24, 2022) at the PAC! WATCH VIDEO>>>


Judy Berry sang to the moon and the rapt audience of hundreds assembled in front of the Anchorage Museum on a beautiful, breezy summer evening in Anchorage! “Song to the Moon” from Rusalka by Dvořák
WATCH VIDEO>>>

Katie Strock‘s haunting rendition of “Pirate Jenny” by Kurt Weill from Three Penny Opera evoked “the black freighter”! Next, Katie will delight as “Kate” in The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan (Oct 22, 23 &24, 2021) at the PAC!
WATCH VIDEO>>>

Kyle Gantz as “Figaro” (with Christine Keene as his adorable “Cherubino”) raised everyone’s spirits with their ‘spirited’ rendition of the famous aria “Non pui andrai” from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart! Don’t miss Kyle as the “Sergeant of Police” in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance (Oct 22, 23 & 24, 2021) and as “Angelotti” in Tosca by Puccini (Apr 22, 23 & 24, 2022) at the PAC!
WATCH VIDEO>>>

If you missed the concert you can still watch the YouTube Live Stream video>>>
Please note: this video was assembled from a Facebook live stream so the video quality is not all that we had hoped for, but we hope you’ll agree that the audio is worth sharing!
Here’s the program (CLICK on each time stamp to jump to the selection of your choice or enjoy the entire video from star to finish!)
Credits from Credits until time stamp
0:03:19
Reed Smith, General Director, remarks and Concert begins at
0:03:20
“For I am a Pirate King” from The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan – Kyle Gantz at
0:05:00
“When Frederic was a Little Lad” from The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan – Katie Strock at
0:08:26
“You’d be Surprised” by Irving Berlin – Jeremy Sivitz at
0:11:24
Reed Smith, General Director, introductions at
0:15:37
“Italian Street Song” from Naughty Marietta by Victor Herbert – Christine Keene at
0:15:56
“Song to the Moon” from Rusalka by A. Dvořák – Judy Berry at
0:19:10
Reed Smith, General Director, introductions at
0:25:10
“Non più andrai” from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart – Kyle Gantz at
0:25:48
“Pirate Jenny” from Three Penny Opera by Kurt Weill – Katie Strock at
0:31:06
“Quando m’en vo” from La Boheme by Puccini – Judy Berry at
0:35:40
“Il mio tesoro” from Don Giovanni by Mozart – Jeremy Sivitz at
0:39:12
Reed Smith, General Director, final remarks at
0:43:47
“Poor Wandering One” from The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan – Christine Keene at
0:44:15
Many thanks to the Anchorage Museum, Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, Anchorage Downtown Partnership, Ltd., & AKIMI for making the Anchorage Summer Arts in the Park (ASAP) series possible!
 

Anchorage Summer Arts in the Park (ASAP) brought local Alaskan artists to the Anchorage Museum and Town Square Park for a FREE outdoor public event series. ASAP was a six-weekend festival of performing arts that featured regional and local Alaskan soloists, bands, dancers and theatre performers to enliven downtown Anchorage on select Fridays/Saturdays during June and July. Patrons were invited to begin their evening at the Museum at 5:30 pm and travel to Town Square Park and the PAC for additional programming at 7:00 pm. Supporting local vendors and restaurants as they traveled between events!

To view full schedule of events CLICK HERE

Meet the Artists

Born and raised in Anchorage, bass-baritone Kyle Gantz recently appeared as The Captain in a recording of Thomas Anderton’s Wreck of the Hesperus with Anchorage Festival of Music, and in Tubby the Tuba for the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra’s Family Concert. Next fall, he will return to Anchorage Opera to reprise his role as the Sergeant of Police in Pirates of Penzance, and then Angelotti in Tosca in the spring of 2022. Other notable roles include: Schaunard, Benoit and Alcindoro in La Boheme, Dick Deadeye in HMS Pinafore, Don Basilio in Barber of Seville, Guglielmo in Cosi Fan Tutte, Uberto in La Serva Padrona, Escamillo and Zuniga in Carmen, Tobias Mill in La Cambiale di Matrimonio, Sam in Trouble in Tahiti, Haly in L’Italiana in Algieri, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, The Imperial Commissioner and Prince Yamadori in Madame Butterfly, Count Monterone in Rigoletto, among others. He has performed with the Anchorage Concert Chorus, Alaska Chamber Singers, Anchorage Cabarets, Arctic Sirens Cabaret, Opera Fairbanks, and Eugene Opera. In the 2000-2001 season, Kyle was a founding member of Anchorage Opera’s Studio Theater Apprentice Program. Solo concert works include the title role of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Mozart’s Vesperae Solennes, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St. John Passion, Beethoven’s Scottish Songs, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, Michael Haydn and Mozart Requiems, and Schubert’s Mass in G. He has also served as an adjudicator for several local vocal competitions and is a percussionist in his spare time.

Originally from Greencastle PA, Katie Strock‘s road to Alaska has been an adventure! She is a graduate of Shenandoah University and Conservatory (Winchester VA) where she received a BFA in Musical Theatre and Vocal Performance Certificate. After college she took to the road on the National Tours of Show Boat and My Fair Lady. Katie has performed with numerous regional theatre and summer stock companies across the United States and locally with Perseverance Theatre and Cyrano’s Playhouse. Katie has performed in numerous productions with Anchorage Opera (Rigoletto, HMS Pinafore, Barber of Seville) and has served as the music director for the children’s chorus of Carmen and La Boheme She is also a member of AO’s Overture Council and serves as the head of its Education Committee.  She can be seen performing with some of Anchorage’s top jazz/blues musicians with her group Ginger & Ale. Katie works full time as a voice instructor and often works with Alaska Theatre of Youth as a music director for their summer conservatories and season productions.  She is very proud to be an educator and performer!

Jeremy Sivitz, tenor, is a burgeoning young artist with a particular propensity for comedy and character. A versatile actor, he is noted by directors and coaches as a “stage animal”, tenacious on and off the stage. Most recently he captivated audiences with his audacious and delightfully precocious Mozartian tenor—Pedrillo—in Opera in the Ozarks’ production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail. He will be singing the role of Spoletta in Anchorage Opera’s upcoming production of Tosca, and the role of Bardolpho in IU Opera’s Falstaff this fall. Jeremy has had the distinct privilege to sing the roles of Ali in Grétry’s Zémire et Azor, Dr. Blind in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Monostatos in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. He has been a featured soloist in such concerts as the Romantic Revelries Opera Gala with the world renown Westminster Symphonic Choir. A musician committed to community involvement, Jeremy is a familiar face at local companies, groups, and festivals: Princeton Opera Company both as a performer and a diction and music coach; Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice having sung in the choruses of such operas as: Carmen, La Boheme, Les Trois Mousquetaires, and Otello; and Alaska Chamber Singers as a featured soloist. He also teaches voice at Solstice Vocal Arts in Anchorage, AK. Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Jeremy received his BM in Vocal Performance from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and is currently pursuing his MM at IU Jacobs School of Music, and is a student of Prof. Timothy Noble.

When Christine Keene, soprano, was a small girl she watched Katarina Witt figure skate in the 1988 Olympics. Katarina had a program choreographed to Bizet’s classic opera “Carmen”. She didn’t know anything about “Carmen” at the time, she just loved the passion and drama and story that Katarina so masterfully brought to life. It was the start of a long career in music, singing and acting! Christine is known for her brilliant acting, comedic timing, infectious positivity, and delightful stage presence. She has been praised for her “remarkable hall-filling voice” and “well-supported soprano…drawing just a little reverb from the beams and walls”. Christine has worked with Anchorage Opera (The Impresario, Pirates of Penzance, Tosca, Barber of Seville, The Turn of the Screw, Hot Spanish Nights), Opera Fairbanks (Don Giovanni as Zerlina), Juneau Lyric Opera and Opera to Go (Le Nozze di Figaro as Cherubino), and with the Amadeus Opernensemble in Salzburg, Austria as Despina (Cosí fan tutte) and Zaïde (Zaïde). She is also an accomplished Music Theatre performer and has been enjoying flexing her belting muscles with Sparkles Productions, Cyrano’s and her own projects. Christine is on the board of the Alaska Theatre of Youth and NATS Alaska. Her crowning achievement is Owner and Lead Instructor at her voice and piano studio, Solstice Vocal Arts. Catch her and her students performing around town by following “Solstice Vocal Arts” on Instagram and Facebook!

With a repertoire of over fifty roles in opera, operetta and musical theatre Judy Berry, soprano, has graced the stages of Mannheim, Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Nürnberg, Wiesbaden, Dortmund, Bremen, Münster, Regensburg, Osnabrück, Mainz, Coburg, Kiel, Flensburg, Jena, Eutin, Festival of Perth in Australia, Teatro de la Opera in Puerto Rico, Edmonton Opera in Canada, Baltimore Opera, Knoxville Opera, Mississippi Opera, the Virginia Opera Association, L’Opera Francais, Pittsburgh Opera Theater, Ithaca Opera Association, Berkshire Opera and Tri-Cities Opera. In the Peter Sellars World Premiere production of John Adams’ Nixon in China she sang with Houston Grand Opera and in Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, the Edinburgh Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Los Angeles Music Center, and the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Equally at home on the concert stage and in the realm of modern music, Judy has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and in Central Park. She garnered top honors in many major vocal competitions, including the coveted First Place awards in the Enrico Caruso Voice Competition, USA and the Baltimore Opera Vocal Competition. She has recorded on the WSW and Orfeo labels and is the recipient of a 2014 Heart of the Arts Award from the Broome County Arts Council and a 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation in honor of her artistic accomplishments. As an educator, she has served on the music faculty of Binghamton University and maintains a private voice studio. As a guest artist she has performed Masterclasses and workshops in the US and Europe. Judy is also Anchorage Opera’s Marketing & Development Director!

Janet Carr-Campbell, accompanist is the co-founder and Artistic Director of The Music Machine for 40 years, helps to enrich the lives of Anchorage’s youth through her gift of music. She is a producer, composer, arranger, teacher, pianist, organist, vocal coach and director. An Oberlin Conservatory of Music graduate, Janet moved to Anchorage in 1980 after winning the National Liberace Keyboard Entertainer Award.  Along with business partner, Darl Schaaff, they formed Jan Dar Productions and gave the Anchorage community 11 years of fun filled musical entertainment. Janet is a staff accompanist at UAA, the sole accompanist for the Anchorage Concert Chorus and enjoys playing for many talented singers and instrumentalists in Alaska.  She cues the surtitles for the Anchorage Opera, is the Organist and Children’s Music Director at First United Methodist Church, and is active in Anchorage’s “Artists in Schools” program.  Janet works with the Anchorage Concert Association, helping to select and train the local children who join the casts of touring Broadway shows (most recently The Sound of Music). In 1987, she was featured on “Jay Hammond’s Alaska” television show; she received the 2001 Chamber of Commerce Gold Pan Award, the Mayor’s Arts Award in 2003, and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority “Unsung Hero” award in 2003.  In 2011, Janet was honored as a BP-YWCA Woman of Achievement, and in 2017, her name was added to the Canastota, N.Y. High School Wall of Distinction. Janet’s work with children and music is her passion, and she inspires excellence in every project she works on. Whether teaching a class, accompanying a show or encouraging a child, what Janet does best is to empower young people to be all that they can be.