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Community Corner

Music at the Mansion

NiCori Studios and Productions in association with Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center announces a new installment of the monthly concert series, "Music at the Mansion", on Sunday, July 28, at 3pm.  Performers include Gerardo "Gerry" Mastrolia, Olivia Fortunato, Members of Opera Theatre of Montclair under the Direction of Mia Riker-Norrie, and Lisa Viggiano.  The featured performer in the "Young Musician Moment" will be Amber Smith.

Gerardo "Gerry" Mastrolia is so happy to be performing yet again for another year during his birthday month at "Music at The Mansion"!  Almost 19 years of age, he is currently working on his 1st New York City Cabaret show, "Me, Myself & Goldie", which will play on September 28th at 4pm at Don't Tell Mama NYC!  
Gerry was a finalist in the first installment of "New York's Next Top Drag Queen" at The Metropolitan Room.  Gerry was also recently on the CBS show "The Couch"  and on E! News for his work in the Off-Broadway show, "Totally Tubular Time Machine".

Olivia Fortunato began studying the harp at age 5, at the Hartford
Conservatory in Connecticut, and before college, placed in the
Connecticut Chapter of the American Harp Society Competition multiple
times.


Ms. Fortunato is in her senior year at the Berklee College of Music
in Boston, Massachusetts, where she studies with Felice Pomeranz. In
November 2011, Ms. Fortunato won the Berklee Concerto Competition and
performed the Gliere Concerto with the Berklee Contemporary Symphony
Orchestra in November 2012.

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Mia Riker-Norrie, soprano, is the General Director of Opera Theatre of Montclair. The New York Times:  "Mia Riker-Norrie played Musetta with sterling control and brassiness worthy of Ethel Merman."  Opera News:  “Mia Riker-Norrie's high-energy portrayal of Adele offered dazzling top notes.”  The Villager:  She “inspired confidence from the moment she took the stage and retained full vocal command throughout.  Her Violetta was exciting…with artfully spontaneous diminuendos and descending phrases that draped themselves with silken fluidity.”  The Sun:  As Gilda, she “consistently hit the high notes in the score (not something that happens on a regular basis uptown).”  Mia is also the Director of Montclair Voice Studio and lives in Montclair with her husband and three children.
Opera Theatre of Montclair was launched in January 2013.  OTM has been engaged in aggressive fundraising efforts with the hope of presenting full-length, fully-staged and costumed opera with orchestra in and around Montclair.  The planned opening production is Verdi's Nabucco.  
Mia will be joined by John Petrozino, Baritone and Sabrina Palladino, soprano.

Critics have hailed Lisa Viggiano as "a powerhouse! …beautiful, brilliant, touching and wonderful! …pitch-perfect musicality!" Viggiano began performing as a child, and has shared the stage and screen with Sarah Jessica Parker, Tom Hanks and Bonnie Raitt.
A native "Jersey Girl", Lisa has sung the national anthem for the NJ Devils, and the NY Mets. Coast to coast, Lisa has headlined at venues such as The Gardenia in LA, Don't Tell Mama in NYC, and The Palace of Fine Arts in SF. Recordings include her critically acclaimed live cabaret CD "One Private Moment" & the original cast recording of "Oh, Progeny!". As a lyricist, Lisa's work can be found on iTunes on her recording of Baby's Keepsake Lullabies, written with her longtime musical comrade, Christopher Marlowe. The lullabies were written for her two beautiful boys, David and Sammy.

"Music at the Mansion" is a 2013 MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs) award nominated series showcasing talented performers from NYC and NJ.  The series is hosted by NYC Cabaret singer and Bloomfield resident Corinna Sowers-Adler and features Deborah Martin on piano. This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and administered by the Essex County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs.  Series hostess, Corinna Sowers-Adler, has been nominated as "Best Host of a Variety Show" and "Best Female Vocalist" for the 2012 Broadway World Cabaret Awards.

Tickets are $10 per person and are available at the door.  Seating begins at 2:30pm.  Light refreshments will be served.  Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center is located at 240 Belleville Avenue, Bloomfield, NJ.  For more information, please contact info (at) corinnasings.com or call Oakeside at 973-429-0960.  Making beautiful music in a beautiful place with beautiful people...
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