The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series Amber Wagner (soprano), Jamie Barton (mezzo-soprano), and Russell Thomas (tenor), accompanied by pianist Dan Saunders

An enchanting evening of favorite opera arias and duets featuring Metropolitan Opera stars.
Amber Wagner (soprano) is a winner of the Met’s 2007 National Council Auditions and was featured in the documentary about that competition, The Audition, which opened in movie theaters nationwide in 2009. She made her Met debut in the 2011–12 season as Anna in Nabucco and returned the following season as Amelia in a new production of Un Ballo in Maschera. She is a recent winner the Liederkranz Foundation Competition, Richard Tucker Career Grant
Award, and Kirsten Flagstad Award with the George London Foundation as well as being the recipient of a Sullivan Foundation Career Grant.
Jamie Barton (mezzo-soprano) was the winner of both the Main and the Song Prizes at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and a winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She made her Met debut in the 2009–10 season as the Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte and this past fall triumphed as Adalgisa in Norma. An avid recitalist, Barton has appeared with the Marilyn Horne Foundation at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall with tenor Russell Thomas as well as in a solo recital with the “On Wings of Song” series. She made her debut at Clayton State Uiniversity’s Spivey Hall singing Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, which was also broadcast on NPR.
Russell Thomas (tenor) is a graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. He is establishing himself as one of the most exciting talents on the international opera and concert scene, most recently as winner of the Viñas Competition in Barcelona (First Prize, Audience Favorite, and Best Tenor) and at the Competizione dell’Opera in Dresden. He made his Met debut in the 2004–05 season as the Herald in Don Carlo and has since sung principal roles in Fidelio, a new production of Macbeth, Die Zauberflöte, the Met premiere of Attila, Der Fliegende Holländer, Wozzeck, and La Clemenza di Tito.
Dan Saunders is increasingly well known to audiences around the world as an accomplished conductor and pianist. An assistant conductor to James Levine and Seiji Ozawa and a recitalist with many of the world’s finest soloists, he served as the associate conductor of the Virginia Opera from 2000 until 2006 and is currently an assistant conductor with the Met. This past season, he served on the music staff for Met productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Fledermaus, and Arabella. metopera.org/summer