Tickets are now on sale for the next finalist-conducted Salina Symphony concert.
The Salina Symphony will present a program that celebrates
resilience and brings hope on Nov. 7 at 4 p.m.
at the Stiefel Theatre.
The concert will be conducted by Mélisse Brunet, one of five talented finalists vying for the title of music director and conductor.
The program will feature soprano Janie Brokenicky, of Manhattan, on Charles Gounod’s Ah! Je veux vivre from Romeo and Juliet. Brokenicky will also be featured, along with narration by the Reverend Allen Smith, of Salina, on Dolores White’s inspiring tone poem, Give Birth to the Dream, based on Maya Angelou’s On the Pulse of Morning. The symphony will also perform Camille Saint-Saen’s lively Danse macabre and Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Women, No. 1. The concert will conclude with Beethoven’s thrilling Symphony No. 7.
Music director finalist
French conductor Brunet is quickly gaining attention on both sides of the Atlantic as a “skilled and polished conductor with panache” (ClevelandClassical.com). She is the music director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, an orchestra of freelance musicians from the NYC and Philadelphia areas.
Brunet was recently selected as a finalist in the La Maestra International Competition for Women Conductors (Paris), earning a prestigious spot after a preliminary round of 202 applicants. A protégée of Pierre Boulez, she was one of the six conductors selected for the 2018 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, chosen for their “experience, talent, leadership potential, and commitment to a career in service to American orchestras.” In 2017, she was one of the six women conductors chosen for the international Hart Institute for Women Conductors at the Dallas Opera.
As a dynamic advocate of contemporary music, Brunet has collaborated with composers such as J.T. Cole, Steven Stucky, Michael Daugherty and Jennifer Higdon, among others. In 2014, she was a selected conductor at the prestigious Cabrillo Festival for new music in California.
As an opera and music-theatre conductor, Brunet has conducted Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi at the Power Center in Ann Arbor; four staged performances of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte; and Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, and Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus in Boone, NC.
Brunet recently won the position of director of orchestral activities at the University of Iowa School of Music, where she conducts the orchestras in symphonic concerts, operas and musical theater as well as teach orchestral conducting to master and doctorate students. From 2016-2021, she held the same position at the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University and received the prestigious 2019 Outstanding Teaching Excellence Award.
A native of Paris, Brunet began her studies on the cello and also learned to play the trumpet, French horn and piano. She holds diplomas from the Paris Conservatory and the Université la Sorbonne as well as a professional studies diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a doctorate in conducting from the University of Michigan.
Guest artist
Soprano Brokenicky, whose voice has been described as “rich and versatile,” has been a featured soloist at the Meyerson Symphony Hall (Dallas), Kauffman Center and Folly Theater (Kansas City). Additionally, she has been a guest artist with the Wichita Chamber Chorale, Hays Symphony Orchestra, Flint Hills Masterworks Chorale, and served six summers as artist-in-residence for the Ad Astra Summer Music Festival. Brokenicky enjoyed several collaborations with the K-State symphony while on the vocal faculty, and in 2017 took on the infamous role of The Queen of the Night in the KSU production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. In 2018, she collaborated with the Wichita Grand Opera as a guest soloist for both their Opera on the Lake production and Chris Mann: Home for Christmas, Part 2. This past summer, she performed in the world premiere of the opera Our Trudy, commissioned for the sesquicentennial Prairiesta celebration in Russell.
Brokenicky serves as the vocal music director at Rock Creek High School. She is also the executive director and co-founder of the Flint Hills Children’s Choirs, Manhattan.
Tickets on sale
Tickets may be purchased at the Stiefel Theatre Box Office, by calling 785-827-1998 or online at www.salinasymphony.org. Single admission is $29 or $39 and $20 for students.
Season tickets are available for the remainder of the season and may be ordered by phone at 785-823-8309 or in person at the Symphony Office, located on the second floor of the Stiefel Theatre.
Please visit the Salina Symphony website for information about the Stiefel Theatre’s COVID-19 policy.