Concettina Gangemi is a soprano, primary school teacher and the founder of Nella Luce Studio. She aims to foster music creativity from the beginner’s level in her studio to organizing professional quality concerts/events. Her work as a concert organizer, performer and a teacher have been inspired by her Italian family upbringing, the Reggio Emilia Philosophy, Goju-Ryu, the late Reginald Byer, Glenys Fowles, Dallas Watts, John Charadia, Amanda McPaul Browne, Wanda Grein, Mauro Trombetta (Italy),Margaret Andrews Russell, Michael Watkins, OPERAworks, Woftam Productions and her own life experience. It is a pleasure once again to facilitate another musical project at Nella Luce Studio.
William Amer – Guest Tenor
William comes from a family of English musicians and singers, influenced by the coal mines, steel works and Nottingham lace mills of England. Music making was a serious past-time to his forebears and this is continued through William to his children. In 1993 he established his first professional performance company which now operates as OPERAworks. William is honoured to be part of this performance. He particularly enjoys ensemble singing and the capacity for acting with voice and movement. His first language is English, and does like the challenge of singing in Italian, French and German. Oratorio, opera, operetta and, believe it, dance music of the early/mid Twentieth century are his favourite genre. This is William’s first appearance in Nella Luce Studio’s concerts.
Paola Andrea Monroy – Soprano
Paola graduated from the University of Los Andes, Bogota with a Bachelor of Music degree. She performed in Dido and Aeneas at the Colon Theatre, directed by Ximena Bernal, participated in international workshops and master classes. She has performed roles of Pamina, Die Zauberflöte, Mozart; Amore, Orfeo ed Euridice, Gluck and Fairy, the Fairy Queen, Henry Purcell. She has also sung the Soprano solos in Handel’s Messiah and the “Te Deum” of M.A. Charpentier with vocal group Iuventus, as soprano soloist, under direction of Juan Carlos Mariño. Currently Paola is undertaking the Masters in Music at A.I.M with teacher Wendy Dixon. She has performed in recitals at St. Andrews cathedral, Art gallery, she put on the role of “Fairy” in the AIM production of ‘The fairy Queen” 2013. Presently, Paola performs at “the Cushion Concerts” series at Chime, “Divas on Demand” Opera company, “Operasphere” Opera company and Nella Luce Studio with whom she regularly performs since 2015.
Claire Howard Race is a graduate of the University of Newcastle, the Canberra School of Music, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music, London, where she studied with Malcolm Martineau and Iain Ledingham. Recent performances include song recitals with Deborah Humble (mezzo soprano) and Hyeseoung Kwon (soprano) at the 2017 Newcastle Music Festival. Also in 2017, Georgia Hall (soprano) and Claire were selected as finalists in the inaugural Sydney Song Prize. Claire performs regularly with the Sirius Chamber Ensemble and is the Assistant Chorus Master and Principal Rehearsal Pianist for the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.