Adrienne Danrich
By; joanna maltos
Her life and music
- February 2011 and Ms. Danrich recently won a Midwest Emmy® for Outstanding Achievement for On Camera Talent as a Performer and Narrator. PBS Cincinnati (WCET) filmed a newly envisioned original televised version of the show, which will air in the Cincinnati area in March 2011.
- Ms. Danrich received her second commission from Indiana University of Pennsylvania-Lively Arts Concert Series in 2010. The new show, An Evening in the Harlem Renaissance, had its debut in February 2011 and was extraordinarily well received. She has since performed An Evening in the Harlem Renaissance at the National Underground Railroad Freedom .
“Opera speaks of passion, of love,” says Danrich. “You can be transported to an entirely different reality.” She allows her art to shape her life.
Danrich once landed a contract with San Francisco Opera, covering two roles and singing the season opener: arias and duets from Gershwin’s “Porgy & Bess,” partnered with great bass-baritone Sir Willard White. Singing “Bess You is My Woman Now” with White, a definitive Porgy (knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004), was transformative for Danrich. “He was so gracious. He brought out the artist in me,” she says.
Understandably, Danrich excels in the roles of Mozart’s passionate women: Pamina at Kentucky Opera, Fiordiligi with Lyric Opera of San Antonio, Donna Anna with Dayton Opera, and Countess at Sarasota Opera, Opera Pacific and Dayton Opera-plus Mozart’s “Mass in G” at Carnegie Hall with the New England Symphonic Ensemble.
She has a special affiliation with living composer Drew Hemenger. “He gets it,” says Danrich. “He’s a classically trained musician who gets all the flavors of America: Black, white, et cetera.” With the assistance of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, she commissioned songs from him that uniquely drape the poems of Langston Hughes around her voice