LATROBE, PA—Saint Vincent College Concert Series will start the 2023 season with "The Art of the Spiritual," featuring soprano Charlene Canty and pianist and Carnegie Mellon University professor Thomas W. Douglas. The concert will feature spirituals such as “Great Day,” “Witness” and “My Soul's Been Anchored in the Lord.”

The concert will take place on Monday, Jan. 30, at 7:00 p.m. in the Robert S. Carey Performing Arts Center, located on the Saint Vincent College campus. The performance is free and open to the public.

ABOUT CHARLENE CANTY

Soprano Charlene Canty has been acclaimed for her “sumptuous voice” and “beautiful tone” as well as her musicality and ability to create “gorgeous interweaving vocal lines” that move from “nuanced soft passages” to “bright and powerful while never being forced or strident.” An accomplished performer of operatic and sacred works, she is also in demand as a concert soloist and recitalist. Her various operatic performances include roles in “Madama Butterfly,” “Porgy & Bess,” “Norma,” “The Ring Cycle,” “Don Giovanni,” “Le Nozze di Figaro,” “The Magic Flute” and “La Bohème” with such companies as Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Long Beach Opera, Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, Neighborhood Opera Company, Opera Western Reserve and Undercroft Opera. A regular performer of sacred music, Ms. Canty has been featured as a soloist in “Carmina Burana;” Vaughn Williams’s “Dona Nobis Pacem;” the requiems of Mozart, Brahms, Verdi, Faure and Rutter; and various oratorios such as Handel’s “Messiah” and J.S. Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” and “St. John Passion” with the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra, Beit Benedict Festival Orchestra, Youngstown Musica Sacra Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra.

An avid interpreter of contemporary music, Ms. Canty collaborated with Resonance Works, performing the World Premiere of “Gitanjai #35” for soprano and chamber ensemble by Jorge Sosa. Other notable premieres include the world premieres of “A Gathering of Sons” and “Just Above My Head” with Pittsburgh Festival Opera and Opera Theater Pittsburgh and Eli Tamar’s “Ave Maria” as well as the orchestral premiere of Eli Tamar’s “Canticum Fratris Solis” with the Edgewood Symphony Orchestra. Her collaborative recording, “Laudato Si: In the Spirit of St. Francis of Assisi,” was released by Navona Records. Ms. Canty has been featured in recital with oboist Scott Bell for Pittsburgh’s “Music in a Great Space” concert series, and she has collaborated as a soloist with various organizations such as the Pittsburgh Girls’ Choir, The Edgewood Symphony Orchestra, Resonance Works Pittsburgh Festival Opera and the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh. She also enjoys performing with the Pittsburgh Camerata as well the Pittsburgh Opera as a part of the chorus.

A recipient of numerous awards and honors, Ms. Canty was awarded the Homer Wickline and Conrad Seaman Memorial Fund award and twice received the Sylvia & Sydney Croan Memorial Fund for outstanding performers in the EPCASO summer program in Oderzo, Italy. She is also a previous winner of the Pittsburgh Concert Society Major Auditions and the Irma M. Cooper Vocal Competition. Ms. Canty graduated with honors from the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance. She holds a Master of Music degree with honors from Duquesne University.

ABOUT THOMAS W. DOUGLAS

Thomas W. Douglas is a compelling and passionate conductor, having performed more than 300 opera, oratorio, orchestral and musical theater productions. He is the former Music Director of the Newton Symphony in Kansas and is also the Artistic Director of the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh who is regularly receiving accolades for innovative, creative and dramatically provocative productions. Career highlights include conducting Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera” in Basel, Switzerland; Gershwin’s “Porgy & Bess;” the Pittsburgh premiere of the classic silent films “The Passion of Joan of Arc” with live orchestra and chorus; the U.S. premiere of David Chesky’s “The Agnostic;” the rousing “Carmina Burana Africana;” Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte;” “Don Giovanni” and “Ain’t Misbehavin’” in the U.S. and Malaysia. He works regularly as Musical Director at Music Theater Wichita where he has done many productions including “Smokey Joe’s Café,” “9 to 5,” and “Ragtime with Darcie Roberts,” “Hairspray,” “The Full Monty,” “Miss Saigon,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Little Mermaid” and Les Misérables among many others.

Mr. Douglas has worked with the Anchorage Opera, Pittsburgh’s City Theater, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Canton Symphony, Wichita Symphony, Dallas Symphony and the River City Brass Band. He has also conducted classical guitarist and Latin Grammy winner Berta Rojas and Tony winner Kelli O’Hara and concerts with the Des Moines Symphony, Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony with Leslie Odom Jr., Tony winner for his role in “Hamilton.” Mr. Douglas has enjoyed the stage roles of “Amonasro” in Elton John’s “Aida,” “Caiaphas” in “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Balthazar” in “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” He has been a vocal soloist with the River City Brass Band, Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh Symphony, Canton Symphony and the Children’s Festival Chorus and has sung frequently with jazz legend Joe Negri in his Mass of Hope. Mr. Douglas is the Director of Opera Studies and the Director of Choral Activities at Carnegie Mellon University. He has been the recipient of the Mary Jane Teall Award and the Robert Frankle awards for his contribution to theatre in Wichita, KS and Pittsburgh.