The Gala concert "Tenor Petr Nekoranec In Recital" is the opening event of the Year of Czech Music abroad. The concert will feature songs by Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček and Bohuslav Martinů. The program offers the extraordinary performance of Janáček's almost complete cycle "The Diary of One Who Disappeared".
Tenor Petr Nekoranec In Recital
The evening will also feature pianist Valeria Polunina.
Introductory remarks by Prof. Michael Beckerman (Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Music and Collegiate Professor at New York University)
Registration here.
The event is being organized by Czech Center New York in partnership with the Dvořák American Heritage Association, with the support of the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York.
Tenor Petr Nekoranec is one of the most outstanding talents of the young Czech singing generation. In the 2023/24 season, he assumes the roles of Nemorino in the new production of L’elisir d’amore, and Vít in the new production of Smetana’s The Secret, both at the National Theatre in Prague. In December 2023, he will create Ramiro in the concert version of Rossini’s La cenerentola in Prague’s Smetana Hall. Abroad he will guest as Arbace (Idomeneo) at the Opéra nationale du Capitol in Toulouse, and David (David et Jonathas) at the Théâtre de Caen, in Nancy, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg and Teatro Real Madrid.
Petr is a laureate of a number of prestigious European competitions. In October 2021, he won the 2nd prize in the Vincerò World Singing Competition in Naples, in January 2017 he became the absolute winner of the Francesco Viñas International Competition, held at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, where he also received the Plácido Domingo Award. Petr Nekoranec studied singing at the Pardubice Conservatoire with Jarmila Chaloupková and collaborates with the Italian operatic tenor and tutor Antonio Carangelo.
Valeria Polunina
Russian-American pianist and vocal coach Valeria Polunina currently performs as an accompanist in collaboration with prominent artists throughout the United States, Europe, and Russia. A participant at the Solti Peretti Répétiteurs course in Italy, Mrs. Polunina has been engaged by and held positions at some of the world’s leading organizations: from 2017 she has been a member of the faculty at the Bolshoi Theater Opera's Young Artist Program; guest vocal coach at the Mariinsky Theater Opera’s Atkins Young Artist Program; from 2018 until 2020 Head of Music Staff for Luzerner Theater in Switzerland; from 2020 Staff Pianist for Oper Köln in Germany.
Valeria has performed in recital at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition First Prize Winners’ Recital at Carnegie Hall hosted by Valeriy Gergiev and Marilyn Horne Song Celebration Concert at Carnegie Hall. Mrs. Polunina received her Master of Music in Collaborative Piano at the Juilliard School and she is a graduate of The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.
