On March 5, STANI DIMITROVA will perform RICHARD RUSSELL‘s Sonata for Violin and Piano at the SUNY Stony Brook Staller Center Recital Hall. This is an afternoon concert, starting at 3pm; admission is free. For directions, see http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/Music.nsf

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Mezzo soprano ANNA TONNA and pianist Daniel Daroca will present a recital of art songs by composers from Puerto Rico on Saturday March 7, 2009, 3 PM, at La Casa, 1230 Fifth Avenue, Suite 458 (between Fifth and Madison Avenue). Suggested Donation: $10.00. For more information contact (212)722-2600 or email lacasaprnyc@verizon.net

Dominican-American mezzo-soprano Anna Tonna and Cuban pianist Daniel Daroca will showcase songs by Puerto Rican composers from the past and present. Ms. Tonna and Mr. Daroca will highlight the various compositional styles of Puerto Rico’s most important classical composers in the genre of art song and their song settings of Puerto Rico’s national poets. This same concert will be presented at The Casals Festival of Puerto Rico by these artists on March 19, 2009. La Casa’s performance will constitute the New York premiere of several of the pieces to be performed, including the “Tres Canciones de Luis Palés Matos” by Luis Prado.

This concert demonstrates the rich repertoire and variety of Puerto Rico’s classical composers, with styles that show influences from folklore to romanticism, to more modern and contemporary idioms. Ms. Tonna and Mr. Daroca will interpret songs by Héctor Campos-Parsi, Awilda Villarini, Julio Mirón, Luis Antonio Ramírez, Jack Delano, Narciso Figueroa, Ernes to Cordero and Luis Prado.

The program will conclude with “Tres Canciones de Luis Palés Matos” by the young Puerto Rican composer Luis Prado. This cycle was first premiered by the mezzo Nancy Fabiola Herrera in Philadelphia. The cycle was first presented by Ms, Tonna and Mr. Daroca in Puerto Rico at the Festival Iberoamericano de las Artes in August of 2008, and was requested again for the March 2009 Casals Festival of Puerto Rico.

Mezzo-soprano Anna Tonna returned recently from Madrid where she served as U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Spain from 2007-2008. She completed an investigation of the Spanish composer Julio Gómez (1886-1973) at La Fundación Juan March, under the tutelage of the distinguished Spanish pianists Miguel Zanetti and Jorge Robaina of the Escuela Superior de Canto of Madrid. In the fields of recital and concerts, Anna Tonna has bowed with the following organizations: Música de Cámara, Los Amigos de la Zarzuela, Elysium Between Two Continents and Joy in Singing in Nueva York. The mezzo soprano has appeared in Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Center), Weil Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall) CAMI Hall, Merkin Hall and New York’s Town Hall.

Cuban born pianist Daniel Daroca has given recitals and master classes in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Mr. Daroca has worked as an accompanist at the Juilliard School and is currently on the faculty of Kean University. He has participated in the opera seasons of Opera de Colombia and Wexford Festival Opera, among others. The Alban Berg Stiftung, the Verein der Freunde der Musiklehranstalten (Vienna), the Folkwangschule Essen, the Rotary Foundation International, and the Manhattan School of Music have endorsed his accomplishments through honors and fellowships. Mr. Daroca is a vocal coach and a frequent collaborator in vocal recitals.