Performer

As a versatile artist, soprano Liana Valente has performed on stage and in concert throughout the United States, in Canada, and in Austria. In addition to singing traditional soubrette and lyric operatic repertoire, Valente specializes in the performance of contemporary music, commissioning and premiering a number of works every year, including song cycles by Dr. John Valerio, Judy Ross, Dr. Timothy Brown, Dr. Jason Lovelace, and Dr. Marty Regan. Her most recent commission was I Love Red Poppies, a song cycle by Joel Weiss set to poetry of Canadian poet Virna Sheard. The premiere, held in Arlington in April 2015 was a mulit-media event, featuring paintings by Maryland artist Terry Pellmar; each song served as inspiration for a digital photograph and all of the works were presented in a gallery showing at the premiere. Subsequent performances of I Love Red Poppies will include a PowerPoint slideshow that chronicles the creation of the song cycle and the paintings. Christine Aren's Collage of Clicking Clichés, a charming and humorous work chronicling a doomed relationship by two people who meet at a bar, was commissioned in 2009 and has been performed by Valente throughout the United States and in Canada. Current projects include a song setting of Walt Whitman's poem, "That Music Always Round Me," set by Washington, DC composer David Rubinstein, and the premiere and recording of works by British composer F L Dunkin Wedd.