Casey Candebat performs in six concert series "A Musical Prelude to the Celebration of Easter" Thursdays During Lent, February 19 - March 26, 6 p.m.
A Musical Prelude to theCelebration of Easter take place on the Thursdays of Lent, beginning the day after Ash Wednesday, February 19th, at 6 p. m. Music ranges from opera and chamber selections to jazz, pop, and gospel music. The second concert, February 26, will feature a program of classical piano including some arrangements for four hands performed by well known surgeon and concert pianist Dr. E. Quinn Peeper with Michael Harold, attorney and legal recruiter, as well as a pianist. They each will play solo as well. Joining them will be tenor Casey Candebat, who placed in the recent Metropolitan Opera’s regional competition.
Casey Candebat, a native of New Orleans, has been hailed by the L.A. Times as having “the big, straightforward Italian sound” and by the San Francisco Chronicle as being one of the up and coming stars of opera. A recent two-time participant in the illustrious Merola Opera Program, Mr. Candebat performed the role of Il Podestà in Mozart's La Finta Giardinera, covered the role of Mr. Owen in Argento's Postcard from Morocco, and sang scenes from Werther and La Rondine to high acclaim on the Merola Grande Finale. He returned to Merola Opera in 2014 to perform the role of Mitch in Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire and a highly acclaimed scene from Mascagni's L’amico Fritz. Recently, Mr. Candebat has been heard as Georg in Der Vampyr with New Orleans Opera and Mitch in Streetcar with Opera Grand Rapids. He was also featured in New Orleans Opera's productions of Salome, Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto, Il Trittico, Manon Lescaut, La Bohème, and Turandot.
Mr. Candebat has been a young artist at Chautauqua Opera in their 2009 and 2010 seasons. He has also been a young artist at Opera North where he performed in Verdi's Falstaff, the role of Dr. Cajus. Equally at home in concert work and oratoria, Mr. Candebat recently performed Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the New West Symphony in Los Angeles. He has also performed the tenor solos in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, and Schubert’s Mass in E-flat, to name a few. Mr. Candebat has won several prestigious vocal competitions, including the Grand Prize in the Bel Canto Foundation Voice Competition, 2011, a four-time regional finalist at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and the Chautauqua Opera Guild's Encouragement Award, 2010. Mr. Candebat is a graduate of Northwestern University and Loyola University New Orleans.