Pianist Brian Zeger and Vocalist Lacey Jo Benter Perform at Penn State

Brian Zeger and Lacey Jo Benter will perform on Feb. 10 at Esber Recital Hall

Acclaimed Julliard musicians Brian Zeger, pianist, and Lacey Jo Benter, vocalist, perform at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, during the Penn State School of Music Common Hour at Esber Recital Hall in Music Building I on University Park campus. The one-hour concert is free and open to the public.

Zeger and Benter will perform “Afraid Am I Afraid” from Menotti's The Medium, “Parto! ma tu ben mio” from Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, “Freudvoll und leitvoll” by Franz Liszt and “Fable” from Stephen Sondheim’s The Light in the Piazza.

The presentation is a component of the Center for the Performing Arts Classical Music Project. With support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the project provides opportunities to engage students, faculty and the community with classical music artists and programs.

Zeger has appeared in distinguished concert venues throughout the United States and Europe. He has collaborated with artists including Kiri Te Kanawa, Susan Graham, Marilyn Horne, Joyce DiDonato and Bryn Terfel.

In addition to being a piano soloist, Zeger enjoys a career as a chamber musician. He’s also artistic director of Vocal Arts Department at The Juilliard School in New York City and executive director of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Development Program.

Zeger’s writings have appeared in Opera News, The Yale Review and Chamber Music, and he has been heard on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts.

Mezzo-soprano Benter graduated from Juilliard in 2011 with a master’s degree in opera performance. She has appeared in numerous productions including The Tender Land, where she played the role of Ma Moss. The New York Times praised her performance, writing that “… with a rich, warm tone (Benter) sang the role affectionately and had the broadest emotional palette of any of the young singers here.”

Benter also appeared in Les Dialogues des Carmelites, Gianni Schicchi and Les Mamalles de Tiresias. She recently appeared in the American premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Kommilitonen! and on the Castleton Festival stages in L’enfant et les sortileges and Gianni Schicchi. This summer she is scheduled to be an apprentice artist with the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program at Central City Opera.

A question and answer session with the artists follows the public performance. A master class with graduate singers is slated for room 110 Music Building I from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Feb. 10. Both events are free and open to the public.