Artist Recital Series Presents Mezzo-Soprano Denyce Graves Wednesday, May 7
	Back to the main story		J.J. PENNA BIO May 2003 Pianist J.J. Penna has already performed in recital with such notable singers as Kathleen Battle, Harolyn Blackwell, David Daniels, Denyce Graves, Kevin McMillan, Florence Quivar, Roberta Peters, Sharon Sweet, Indra Thomas, and Ying Huang. Mr. Penna has been performed at the Kennedy Center, Weill Recital Hall in New York City, Wigmore Hall, Seizi Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, and in venues on concert tours throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, the Far East, South America, and the former Soviet Union. Devoted to the performance and study of contemporary music, he has premiered song cycles by William Bolcom, Ricky Ian Gordon, Richard Hundley and Lowell Lieberman. He performs regularly with a variety of young artists under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, Concert Artists Guild and Young Concert Artists. He recently participated in the Marilyn Horne Annual Birthday Concert at the Juilliard Theatre. Mr. Penna has performed and held fellowships at prestigious festivals such as Tanglewood Music Center, Chautauqua Institution, Banff Centre for the Arts, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West, and San Francisco Opera Center's Merola Program, where he earned the Otto Guth Award. Mr. Penna has worked on over twenty operatic productions at Tanglewood, Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Festival of New Jersey, University of Michigan, San Francisco Opera Center, and Tri-Cities Opera. Mr. Penna holds a doctoral degree from the University of Michigan where he studied with Martin Katz. Mr. Penna devotes much of his time to the teaching of art song literature, and is currently on the faculties of the Yale University School of Music and Westminster Choir College. He is the artistic director of an annual song festival in Princeton, New Jersey, and maintains a coaching studio in New York City. He will spend the summer of 2003 as the director of the vocal program at the Bowdoin Festival, then will be in residence as a Young Artist at the Stean's Institute of the Ravinia Festival in Chicago.
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