Free Recital Features Sari I. Gian, Soprano and Valerie Trujillo, Piano

Release Date: 11/15/2000. Expired: 12/4/2000

The Recitals in the Rotunda Series continues with Sari I. Gian, soprano, accompanied by Valerie Trujillo on Monday, December 4, 2000 at 7 p.m. These recitals are free and open to the public.

Sari I. Gian is currently completing a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance at MTSU in the studio of Mr. Stephen Smith. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Florida, Gainesville, in 1997.

She began her musical education at a very early age studying violin and piano. She studied dance for many years as well which helped her to be cast in several musicals in the 1980s such as “Camelot,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Guys and Dolls,” and “Gypsy.”

Operatic roles include Suor Angelica in “Suor Angelica” (2000), Madame Silverklang in “The Impresario” (2000), Sophie in “Der Rosenkavalier” (1998), Cleopatra in “Giulio Cesare” (1997), Gilda in “Rigoletto” (1997), Abigail in “The Crucible” (1997), Lucy in “The Telephone” (1997), Violetta in “La Traviata” (1997). Sari was also a geisha in “Madama Butterfly” and a townsperson in “Suzanna,” both Nashville Opera productions this past season (1999).

Gian is the co-founder and co-owner of the Academy of Music and Drama, LLC., in Murfreesboro, TN, where she teaches voice, violin, viola, piano, piano readiness and conducts the middle school choir. She is the music teacher at Providence Christian Academy’s upper and lower schools.

Last year she was a graduate teaching assistant at MTSU and was assistant to the director of the Opera Workshop. She has been a paid soloist and organist at churches in Pennsylvania, Florida, and here in Tennessee. Sari has also been employed as a recording artist for the New Cumberland Singers (Nashville) and other groups.

Sari is married to Dr. Victor Gian and mother of three children.

Valerie M. Trujillo, a native of Santa Fe, New Mexico, received the BM degree in piano performance/pedagogy, the BME degree in choral education from Eastern New Mexico University, and the MM degree in accompanying under the guidance of Mr. John Wustman from the University of Illinois.

She enjoys an active performing schedule, which has taken her throughout the U.S., Greece, Spain, Italy, Pakistan and Costa Rica. During the summers of 1994 and ’95, Trujillo was a Fellow in Vocal Coaching at the Tanglewood Music Center and has worked with several regional opera companies including Opera in the Ozarks, Connecticut Opera, Mississippi Opera, Opera Theatre of Connecticut, Ohio Light Opera and Augusta Opera.

This summer, she will return as a staff member of the Lake Placid vocal Institute. Trujillo has served on the music faculty at Florida State University, The Hartt School and New Jersey City University, as well as the music staff at Yale University and Central Connecticut State University. She joined the music faculty at Middle Tennessee State University in 1999.

These accomplished musicians will perform pieces by Wolfgang Mozart, Franz Schubert, Maurice Ravel, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Gaetano Donizetti, Francis Poulenc, Richard Hundley, Dominick Argento, John Duke and Lee Hoiby.

Free and open to the public, Recitals in the Rotunda Series takes place every other Monday at 7 p.m. For more information, call (615)740-5600.