Join us for a night of local oysters and opera at Terry Kahn & Lesley Silvester’s home!

Tuesday, August 17, 6pm

Enjoy local oysters and other hor d’oeuvres, beverages and the music of the NY Opera Society. This is a fundraiser for Truro Center for the Arts and vaccinations are required!

The New York Opera Society (NYOS) develops new audiences for opera by commissioning, creating, and funding exemplary productions. To that end, NYOS serves as a conduit to the public by disseminating important messages, musical inspiration, and seminal artistic performances via partnerships with major performance venues, corporations, nonprofits and governments to present the work of our artists. In its most recent season, NYOS commissioned and co-presented the world premiere of Upon this Handful of Earth with Sacred Music in a Sacred Space in NYC and a highly lauded excerpted world premiered staged reading of Letters from Ruth at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; both works by Gisle Kverndokk and Aksel-Otto Bull. NYOS has also commissioned the first operatic version of Tres Sombreros de Copa by Ricardo Llorca which premiered in Brazil and will have its Spanish premiere at Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid in November 2019. Previously, NYOS has produced the Lincoln Center and United States premiere of its contemporary Spanish opera, Las Horas Vacias, by Guggenheim fellow and Juilliard faculty member Ricardo Llorca; three tours and world premieres of NYOS’ commissions from Gisle Kverndokk’s and Wiik’s Max & Moritz: A Cartoon Opera in Seven Pranks and Supersize Girl. Other notable NYOS evenings have taken place at the National Gallery of Art, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Embassy of Italy, New York’s World Financial Center, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and the United Nations. Audiences have included the Royal Couple of Norway, the Undersecretary of Defense in Washington, D.C., Queen Sofia of Spain (at a gala in her honor), Barbara Walters, Stanley Tucci/Martin Scorsese (at a gala in their honor), and nearly every European and South American Consulate. NYOS has been favorably featured in The Washington Post, on PBS, in a feature article in The Wall Street Journal, and Opera News. NYOS is led by Executive Director Jennifer Cho and a dedicated Board of Directors chaired by philanthropist, Lesley Silvester.

Described as “vocally resplendent,” “powerful,” and possessing “impeccable coloratura” (San Francisco Chronicle), soprano Alisa Jordheim sings the role of Gilda in Rigoletto with Central City Opera and makes her role debut as Despina in Così fan tutte with San Diego Opera in the 2021-2022 season. Engagements in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons were to include Norina in Don Pasquale with Boston Midsummer Opera, Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the La Jolla Symphony, and Gilda in Rigoletto with Virginia Opera, but all were canceled due to COVID-19. 

Ms. Jordheim’s recent engagements include: Gilda in Rigoletto with San Diego Opera; Cunégonde in Candide with Palm Beach Opera; Erster Knappe in Parsifal with Opéra national de Paris; Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Boston Midsummer Opera; Ninetta in La gazza ladra with Teatro Nuovo; Clotilde in Maria, regina d’Inghilterra with Odyssey Opera; Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow with the New Philharmonic; Belinda in Dido & Aeneas, Venus in Venus & Adonis, and Lola in the world premiere and recording of Sister Carrie with Florentine Opera; Constance in Dialogues des Carmélites at Caramoor; Satirino in La Calisto with Cincinnati Opera; Mozart’s Requiem with Ensemble Pygmalion at Versailles and the Baltimore Symphony; Torke’s Book of Proverbs with the Grant Park Music Festival; Ein deutsches Requiem with the Las Vegas Philharmonic; Exsultate, jubilate and Messiah with the Milwaukee Symphony; and works by Gershwin and Rachmaninoff with the Bochumer Symphoniker. Ms. Jordheim is the winner of the Rose Bampton Award and a Career Development Grant from The Sullivan Foundation, the Irwin Scherzer Encouragement Award from the George London Foundation, two-time winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions, the Kaleidoscope International Vocal Competition, 2nd prize in the Classical Singer Competition, and the Edith Newfield Scholarship in the Musicians Club of Women Music Scholarship Competition. She is an alumna of the Merola Opera Program, Central City Opera Young Artist Program, Florentine Opera Studio, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. 

A Fulbright Scholar and Fellow of the American Scandinavian Foundation, Ms. Jordheim studied Scandinavian song and diction at the University of Oslo in 2013-2014. She frequently performs recitals of songs by Scandinavian composers, and has published an article on Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish singing diction in the NATS Journal of Singing. She is also an advocate of new music for voice, having premiered works composed for her by Lori Laitman, Douglas Pew, Joanne Metcalf, Josh Deutsch, and Rodney Rogers. Jordheim has recorded Lori Laitman's song cycle, Five Lovers, on the Naxos label, and her recording of Laitman’s Fresh Patterns will be released in February 2022 by Acis Productions.

David Cohen is the Associate Principal Trumpet of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He joined the MSO in 2013 after playing Principal Trumpet with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra for three seasons. Outside of the MSO, Mr. Cohen has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony, and has played guest principal trumpet with orchestras all over the world, including the Fort Worth Symphony, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony, and the Malaysian Philharmonic.

Mr. Cohen received his Bachelor’s of Music from Northwestern University where he studied with Barbara Butler and Charles Geyer. He was appointed Principal Trumpet of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra during his senior year of college.  He spent one summer attending the National Orchestral Institute in College Park, Maryland and two summers as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts. Mr. Cohen has had additional studies with Thomas Rolfs and Christopher Martin. 

A seasoned performer and arts professional, Danielle DeSwert Hahn is currently the head of music programs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, where she curates a weekly concert series of approximately 50 performances. Formerly principal pianist of the Baltimore Opera Company and the Washington Concert Opera, she has also worked on the music staffs at the Ash Lawn Highland Opera Festival, New York Opera Society, and the Chautauqua, Indianapolis, Kentucky, North Carolina, Portland, Sarasota, and Washington National Opera Companies. 

Hahn regularly performs in chamber music and voice recitals, partnering with members of the National Symphony Orchestra, the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, and many singers. She maintains an active performance schedule in the Washington, DC area, as well as in North Carolina, where she currently makes her home. Hahn’s latest project, the Living Art Collective Ensemble (LACE), is a fluid group of musicians committed to bridging the gap between the visual and performing arts, and bringing issues of cultural relevance to light within the context of engaging performances. She recently completed the Association of Performing Arts Professionals 20-month Leadership Fellows Program.

Bass Nathan Anthony Resika has been praised for his “sonorous”and"resonant" voice by critics and colleagues alike as both a classic basso cantante and an interpreter of modern works.
His favorite repertoire includes the great bass roles of both Verdi and Mozart, of which he has sung almost all.
Whether the role is a leading or supporting role, Nathan has developed a reputation for meticulous preparation, attention to detail, and thoughtful interpretation.

Nathan has performed roles with Caramoor, OperaNorth, Opera Orchestra of New York, the Center for Contemporary Opera,New York Grand Opera,Hudson Opera Theatre,Cleveland Opera Circle, Connecticut Lyric Opera, Opera New Jersey, the New Britain Symphony,Opera in the Heights, and Utah Festival Opera, among others.

He has performed Concerts recently with the New York Opera Society and Dunch Arts, as well as concerts in Nursing Homes and Schools .

Nathan has been a resident artist at Caramoor(2008),Utah Festival Opera(2006),and Opera New Jersey(2004).

He has performed in concert in Hungary, Greece, throughout the United States, and has sung the national anthem at many sporting events.
Raised in New York City by a musical and artistic family, Nathan sang, acted, and played folk and rock guitar from an early age,studied classical guitar with Julio Prol and John Williams( Cordoba , Spain), and continued his studies at both New England Conservatory and the Longy School.

Also a great lover of gospel and spiritual music, he was a featured performer at the first Sam Cooke memorial tribute concert in Atlanta in 2002, where he sang for Sam Cooke's family.