LOVE ME, LOVE ME NOT: Songs of Passion and Love by Russian Composers

Program: 
About Esther Tona, Soprano
The San Francisco Chronicle praised Romanian-American soprano Esther Tonea for her “powerful, gleaming tone, effortless precision and expressive immediacy” in her rendition of Imogene’s mad scene from Bellini’s Il pirata, where she displayed the “sublime assurance of an established diva” (Joshua Kosman). Ms. Tonea is a 2022 winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, 2024 Finalist in the Elizabeth Connell Prize at Wigmore Hall, 2024 Giulio Gari Grant Award Winner, a Presser Scholar, and recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant. She is a recent graduate of San Francisco Opera’s Adler Program. Read more.

About Dashiell Waterbury
Dash is a stage director, a voice teacher, and a tenor with experience in opera and musical theater. Hailing from California, he has directed and performed all over the United States and in Italy. Companies he has worked with include San Francisco Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Orlando, Cincinnati Opera, Opera in the Heights and West Edge Opera. He recently served as Head of Opera for Stetson University.

Vera Danchenko-Stern, Piano
Pianist Vera Danchenko-Stern graduated with honors from Moscow's prestigious Gnessin Institute of Music in piano, solo performance, chamber music, vocal, and instrumental accompaniment.

Immigrating to Canada in 1979, she joined the faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, still continuing her pianist's career. She then moved to Washington, D.C. in 1990.

Her concert appearances include accompanying world-renowned artists, such as violinists Martin Beaver, Ilya Kaler, violist Ryvka Golani, sopranos Carmen Balthrop, Jennifer Casey-Cabot, mezzo-sopranos Susana Poretsky, Audrey Babcock, baritone Sergei Leiferkus and bass Nikita Storojev, to name only a few.  A most significant and enjoyable artistic collaboration was - and still is - to share the stage with her brother, world-famous violinist Victor Danchenko.

Ms. Danchenko-Stern served as the teacher of "Russian lyrics and diction" class at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. from 1992 till 2002.Since 1990, she has also been teaching the "Singing in Russian" class at the faculty of Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.  Four times, she has had an opportunity to present students of the Peabody Institute at the International Week of the Conservatories in St Petersburg, Russia, followed by concerts in Moscow.

Ms. Danchenko-Stern is the Russian diction coach of the Washington National Opera, collaborating with productions including Tsar's Bride, Boris Godunov, The Queen of Spades, and The Maiden of Orleans. She also coached the production of Evgeny Onegin at the Honolulu Opera and Ivan the Terrible with the Baltimore Symphony under the baton of Yuri Temirkanov.

Ms. Danchenko-Stern is very sought after as a jury member in international competitions and as a master teacher. Her recent master classes were conducted at Princeton University and at Michigan State University.
In 2005, Ms. Danchenko-Stern founded the Russian Chamber Art Society, which presents concert series dedicated to Russian vocal music rarely heard in America.In 2008, she was nominated for the Governor's Award for the Arts in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Ms. Danchenko-Stern is included in the Centennial Edition of "Who's Who in American Women" and is a National Associate Artist of SAI.

No tickets needed. General admission, free and open to the public. Please arrive early for the best seats.