Query Posts is a widget that allows you to display posts and pages in any way you want. It is a revolution in how users interact with their site, allowing them to have the power of more-advanced developers at the tip of their fingertips.

WordPress is a wonderful CMS to work with, but for end users, it can sometimes be a daunting task trying to make things work just they want. Query Posts makes WordPress a more robust, yet intuitive, platform for users to work from.

What does the widget do?

Basically, it is a wrapper for the query_posts() funtion in WordPress. This is a fairly standard function used, but it requires that end users dive into code to use it. This plugin provides an interface so that the average user can interact with this function without having to learn the intricacies of the query_posts() template tag and making it work with The Loop.

Query Posts is a widget that allows you to select from several options on what posts you’d like to display. The plugin handles the rest, even the output of your selected data.

Widget Settings

There are several settings for the widget. You need to know how the query_posts() function works to use them. You need at least a very basic understanding of its parameters to even use this widget.

Since the widget has numerous settings, I’ve broken them down into groups to better understand what each does.

Miscellaneous Settings

Several of the settings are not a part of the query_posts() function. These are additional settings you may select within the widget controls to choose how your posts display.

• Title
  The title of the widget.
• Display
  Choose to show posts in full-post form, excerpt form, in an unordered list, or an ordered list.
• wp_reset_query
  If selected, the page query will be reset to the original after the widget is displayed.
• get_the_image
  If the Get the Image is activated or your theme uses the get_the_image() function, you can select this to show a thumbnail.

Ordering and Sorting Settings

The WordPress Codex splits these parameters into four sections: order, orderby, pagination and offset. But, I like to group them together because each setting can drastically change how the others work.

• showposts
  The number of posts to display.
• order
  Order posts in ascending or descending order.
• orderby
  What the posts should be ordered by.
• offset
  How many posts to skip over.
• posts_per_page
  How many posts per page.
• paged
  Show posts from a particular page (i.e. page 1, 2, 3, etc.).

Post and Page Settings

The post and page parameters deal directly with the type of content you’d like to display. Support for attachments should come in the next major version and custom content/post types in the future.

• post_status
  The published status of the post.
• post_type
  Whether the content to display is a post, page, or anything.
• p
  Post ID.
• name
  Post slug.
• post_parent
  Id of the post parent.
• page_id
  Page ID.
• pagename
  Page path.
• post__in
  Comma-separated array of post IDs to include.
• post__not_in
  Comma-separated array of post IDs to exclude.

Sticky Post Settings

There’s only one sticky post parameter right now. It allows you to exclude or include sticky posts in your query.

• caller_get_posts
  True or false (true excludes stickies).

Category Settings

The category parameters allow you to display posts according to what categories it is in.

• cat
  Comma-separated list of category IDs.
• category_name
  Category name/slug.
• category__and
  Comma-separated list category IDs. Posts listed will be in all categories.
• category__in
  Comma-separated list of category IDs. Posts listed can be in any of the categories.
• category__not_in
  Comma-separated list of category IDs. Posts listed will not be in any of the categories.

Tag Parameters

The tag parameters allow you to display posts according to what it has been tagged with.

• tag
  Comma-separated list of ag slugs.
• tag__and
  Comma-separated list tag IDs. Posts listed will be in all tags.
• tag__in
  Comma-separated list of tag IDs. Posts listed can be in any of the tags.
• tag_slug__and
  Comma-separated list of tag slugs. Posts listed will be in all of the tags.
• tag_slug__in
  Comma-separated list of tag slugs. Posts listed can be in any of the tags.

Taxonomy Settings

If you’ve created custom taxonomies or have additional taxonomies through plugins for your posts, you’ll be able to show posts from a specific taxonomy provided its query_var has not been set to false (not likely).

• $taxonomy
  Select the term for one specific taxonomy that you’d like to display posts from.

Author Settings

If you run a multi-author site, it’s sometimes useful to show posts written by a particular author. You can use the author parameters to select those by posts by user ID or user nicename.

• author_name
  User nicename.
• author
  User ID.

Time Settings

To grab posts from a certain period of time, select one or more of the time parameters.

• year
  Show posts from a specific year. Input must be four digits.
• monthnum
  Show posts from a specific month.
• w
  Show posts from a specific w.
• day
  Show posts from a specific day.
• hour
  Show posts from a specific hour.
• minute
  Show posts from a specific minute.
• second
  Show posts from a specific second.

Custom Field Settings

If you use custom fields with your posts, you might like the custom field parameters, which allow you to pull posts by custom field key and value.

• meta_key
  The name of the custom field key.
• meta_value
  The value of the custom field.
• meta_compare
  Operator to test the meta_value.

Creating a completely widgetized page template

This is not required but could be fun to do.

To truly understand how powerful this plugin is, you might want a widgetized page template, or several. My Hybrid theme has one of these. I’ll give you a quick tutorial here. For more information on page templates, read this tutorial on page templates.

The first thing you want to do is create a new widget section. So, open your theme’s functions.php file and add this code:

<?php
register_sidebar( array(
	'name' => 'Widgets Template',
	'id' => 'widgets-template',
	'before' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s widget-%2$s">',
	'after' => '</div>',
	'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
	'after_title', => '</h3>'
) );
?>

Save your functions.php file.

Then, you need to create a new file in your theme’s root folder named page-widgets.php. The best method is to copy your theme’s page.php file and mold this code into it. Here is an example:

<?php
/*
Template Name: Widgets
*/

get_header(); ?>

	<div class="content">

		<?php dynamic_sidebar( 'widgets-template' ); ?>

	</div>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Plugin Support

I run a WordPress community called Theme Hybrid, which is where I fully support all of my WordPress projects, including plugins. You can sign up for an account to get plugin support for a small yearly fee ($25 USD at the time of writing).

I know. I know. You might not want to pay for support, but just consider it a donation to the project. To continue making cool, GPL-licensed plugins and having the time to support them, I must pay the bills.

Copyright & License

Query Posts is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPL).

This plugin is copyrighted to Justin Tadlock.

2009 © Justin Tadlock

Watch for it early next December.

For more about this year’s Revels, see my review on ConcertoNet.com.

Below: slideshow of scenes from this year’s Revels.

Ms. Sevier in The Threepenny Opera, 2004.

Susan Sevier

She appeared as Amneris in Verdi’s Aïda in Bourgas, Bulgaria, where she made her European stage debut as Olga in the Bourgas Philharmonic and Opera Society’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. She also appeared as Dritte Dame in the Bourgas production of Die Zauberflöte.

Other roles include Maurya in Ralph Vaughn-Williams’s Riders to the Sea, Florence Pike in Britten’s Albert Herring, with the Peabody Opera, and Frau Peachum in the Brecht/Weill Threepenny Opera at the Theatre Project in Baltimore, for which Baltimore’s City Paper review cited her “excellent performance.” She appeared at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore as Rossweisse in a performance of Act III of Die Walküre, featuring James Morris as Wotan and Christine Brewer as Brunhilde.

Ms. Sevier in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Gondoliers.

Her CD of winter holiday art songs, Weihnachtsfreude, with pianist Cheryl Branham, is available online.

Extensive list of opera and concert performances

The late singer off-stage.

 
By Antonio Giuliano

I celebrate Mario Lanza’s legacy because of his service to our country as a member of fhe U.S. Army during World War II. Mario spent most of his nearly three years of service in his Army uniform, entertaining the troops while touring with the Army Air Force all-soldier musical revue “On the Beam” and as a member of the “Winged Victory” company.

Mario served his country with his God-given voice to inspire, through music, the men who laid down their lives so that you and I may be able to have the freedoms we so dearly cherish today.

Early years

Mario Lanza was born in South Philadelphia as Alfredo Arnold Cocozza on January 31,1921. Antonio Cocozza, Mario’s father, was born in Filignano, Italy and emigrated to the U.S. when he was just 16 years old. He later served in the U.S. Army Infantry and was severely wounded in the battle of the Meuse-Argonne Forest.

Mario’s mother, Maria Lanza, emigrated to America at the tender age of 6 months from a town not far from Filignano called Tocco da Casauria, in the Abruzzi region. This is how Mario decided on his name Mario Lanza — by taking the masculine form of his mother’s maiden name.

Maria and Tony met in South Philadelphia in 1919 and were married after a brief courtship. They moved into the Lanza family home at 636 Christian Street, South Philadelphia, where two years later “Freddie” was born.

The family later moved to 2040 Mercy Street, also in South Philadelphia, where Mario received his first piano (which still sits in his son Damon’s home), a surprise gift from his mother and father. Mario attended several schools but was best known at Southern High School. His teachers claimed he would much rather sing than study.

Freddie becomes Mario

Mario, then known as Freddie, was raised in an atmosphere of opera. His family played Caruso recordings on a daily basis. He began to sing along with the records, and the more he listened, the more he sang. His father and mother took him to a voice teacher, Antonio Scarduzzo, a baritone, who helped Mario nurture his voice. After studying with Scarduzzo for a year and a half, Mario studied with Irene Williams. Mario’s mother worked at two jobs to pay for the lessons, because Antonio’s war injury to his right hand prevented him from working.

William K. Huff, concert manager at the Philadelphia Academy of Music, later arranged for an audition for Mario with the famed Serge Koussevitsky. Koussevitsky was so impressed that he immediately invited Mario to Tanglewood in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, where he had a music school for promising singers and musicians. As Mario later reflected in an interview, “I didn’t even know what the Berkshires were, or even where they were.” This is where Mario sang his first role in student opera, Fenton in Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Mario received great reviews from the Metropolitan Opera people as well as music critics. When he was drafted by the Army, he was not sent overseas because of a bad eye. He auditioned for a troupe led by Peter Lind Hayes, which gave concerts at Army bases. He joined the cast of Winged Victory, a musical put on by Moss Hart, which ran until May 1944.

In January 1945, Mario received a medical release from a hospital in Walla Walla, Washington. He returned to California and his sweetheart, Betty Lyhan (not Hicks, as many believe) and they were married in Beverly Hills, California, barely 3 months later. Mario and Betty then moved to New York so Mario could further his studies.

On his way

It was while studying with Polly Robinson that Mario met his soon-to-be manager Sam Weiler, (whom he later sued for misappropriation of his money). Weiler funded the Lanzas’ living expenses and Mario’s voice studies with the understanding that he would receive a percentage of Mario’s future earnings. Through Weiler, Mario began to study with the famed Enrico Rosati who had earlier coached the famous Gigli. It has been said that upon hearing Mario’s voice, Rosati looked up to the heavens and exclaimed, “I have been waiting for this voice to come along for many, many years.” Mario studied with Rosati for about a year and a half and then joined Agnes Davis for a tour of Canada. After this tour Mario was slated to start a tour with the Bel Canto Trio with soprano Francis Yeend and baritone George London, which would take them to Canada, Mexico, Newfoundland and, of course, America.

While performing with Francis Yeend at the Hollywood Bowl on August 28, 1947, Mario impressed Louis B. Mayer, head of the MGM motion picture studio, who was in the audience with Kathryn Grayson. Mario would later make his first two films with Ms. Grayson. Mario sang to a thunderous ovation. The best was yet to come.

An MGM screen test was set up for Mario at once so that all the producers, directors and sound engineers could see and hear Mr. Mayer’s newest find. After singing several arias and duets with Ms. Grayson, they signed him to a six-month contract with a $10,000 bonus and $750 weekly salary, until his first movie could be arranged. The other six months of the year Mario was free to pursue other interests such as concerts, radio etc.

Mario arrives

Mario made his first movie, That Midnight Kiss, in 1949, with Ms. Grayson, an already well-established star. Soon thereafter, he made his professional New Orleans opera debut as Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly with soprano Tomiko Kanazawa. Astounded by Mario’s voice, the critics wrote such things as, “Rarely have we seen a more superbly romantic tenor,” and “His exceptionally beautiful voice helps immeasurably.” Mario sang two performances of this opera but, sadly, this was to be the last full opera Mario would ever sing.

He went on to make several more movies, namely Toast of New Orleans in 1950, The Great Caruso (Mario’s favorite) in 1951, Because You’re Mine in1952, The Student Prince (featuring his singing only, due to a dispute with MGM) in 1954, Serenade in 1956, Seven Hills of Rome in 1958 and his last picture, For the First Time in 1959.

In Mario’s short but productive career, he managed to do many concerts and radio shows such as Life With Luigi, Great Moments in Music, (replacing Jan Peerce in 1945), the famous Coca-Cola Shows in 1951-52 and several more. The one elusive concert that no book has ever mentioned, due to lack of knowledge about it, was the one in San Rafael, California, in 1948 with the famed opera diva, Rise Stevens.

Violinist and composer Ann Fontanella is one of the last protégés of the Old Russian School style of violin play and pedagogy passed down by great virtuosos for more than 150 years. Instrumentalists in the Old Russian style, notably the great Jascha Heifetz, achieve a warm, rich romantic tone with exacting precision that allows you to hear each note clearly even when they play at tremendous speed. (Article about Heifetz.)

She started playing the violin very early. After working with Philadelphia Orchestra violinist Robert DePasquale, she began studying at age 7 with Sherry Kloss, who had been Heifetz’s teaching assistant. She debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra at 10 and began formal study of composition at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. For five years she was the protégé and final student of Erick Friedman of the Yale School of Music. Friedman had been Heifetz’s own protégé and the only violinist with whom Heifetz played on equal footing in recordings.

She was touched and gratified by Friedman’s remark about her: “Having the same natural ability as Heifetz … Very few people in the world play the violin as well as she.”

At the age of 14, Ms. Fontanella was one of the youngest artists ever accepted to Yale University’s School of Music. She appeared later that year, to critical acclaim, on From the Top, NPR’s showcase of young musicians. (Her dazzling performance of Henri Vieuxtemps’ “Variations on Yankee Doodle” can be heard at 35 minutes, 50 seconds into this recording of the show.) She released her debut album, Bach, Schubert, Bruch, in 2005.

The performer’s London debut concert at Wigmore Hall in December 2005 was acclaimed as one of the “top five concerts” of the season by the London Independent.

Ms. Fontanella also has been recognized as a composer, winning four of the prestigious Morton Gould Awards from ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, between 1999 and 2005. Here’s an MP3 of Ms. Fontanella performing her song “Rondo.”

She plays a 320-year-old Grancino violin. Now in her 20s, Ms. Fontanella is studying musicology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and is writing a new album.

Her performances are supported by Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour (PennPAT), which recently has subsidized her booking fees by 40 percent.

Interview with Ms. Fontanella is the University of Pennsylvania Gazette, November 2009.

Ms. Fontanella started early as spokeswoman for Pirastro strings

Elena Ulyanova

Ms. Ulyanova is a dazzling young pianist with breathtaking technique and all the strength she needs to perform her repertoire led by the works of Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and Chopin.

Her performance of Debussy’s “Ondine” in a Bargemusic recital in 2008 “wove a diaphanous web for her aquatic sprite . . . and kept her listeners afloat and a bit enchantingly lost in the fog,” wrote Fred Kirshnit in the New York Sun. “This was very lovely music-making.”

Pianist and Howard University piano faculty member Dr. Raymond T. Jackson describes Ms. Ulyanova’s playing as  ”fantastic and inspired” on DVD from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota. “I had to stop everything to just sit and listen,” he said. “Elena’s performance was absolutely wonderful and riveting from beginning to end!”

She began to study the piano at age 5 wit her mother, Larisa Ulyanova, in Saki, Crimea. After winning several first prizes in Ukrainian and Russian competitions, she was awarded full scholarships for study in Moscow at Gnessin College of Music, Gnessin Academy of Music, and Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

Further success in competitions led to tours of Russia, Eastern Europe and Austria, postgraduate study with Victor Merzhanov and many performances with the Moscow Philharmonic Concern Association (Moskonzert). She also took master classes with Emanual Krasovsky, Victor Derevianko, Jerome Rose, Oxana Yablonskaya, John O’Connor, Howard Shelley and Leslie Howard. In 2004, she emigrated to the United States and settled in Washington, D.C., and studied with Rachmaninoff expert Howard Shelley.

The Rhapsody and Piano Concerto no. 2 are featured on her CD with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and released in July, 2006 by Bel Air Music . Elena’s music has been heard on radio stations WFMT in Chicago, CKWR in Canada, and WQED in Pittsburgh.

Elena Ulyanova

Elena performed orchestra, chamber, and solo concerts throughout Russia, Ukraine, Great Britain, Ukraine, Austria, Korea, Netherlands, China, Poland, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, and Romania. Her performances with orchestras include the Vienna Musikverein Orchestra conducted by Martin Turnovsky, the Moscow Radio Symphony (now the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra) with Alexander Vedernikov, the Crimea State Symphony Orchestra in Yalta, State Russian Orchestra “Boyan” with Anatoly Poletayev, and the Omsk Philharmonic with Evgenyi Shestakov. With the Rachmaninoff White Lilacs Festival orchestra in 2001, Elena masterfully performed the Rachmaninoff second concerto on only four hours notice!

Since emigrating to the United States, she has performed with the Scottsdale Symphony Orchestra, Landon Symphonette, City of Fairfax Band, American Balalaika Symphony, Chamber Music Society of Greater Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Dame Myra Hess Series and Fazioli Salon Series in Chicago, the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s Connoisseur Series, Concerts Grand in San Francisco, New York’s Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Yamaha Pianos Concert Series and Bargemusic, and venues in Orlando, Florida, and Washington, D.C.

In August 2008, Elena won two Grand Prizes for her DVD video performances in the Golden Trophy International Music Competition. The prizes were awarded for her Dame Myra Hess Concert DVD and the American Balalaika Symphony Concert DVD featuring Elena’s performance of the Kabalevsky Piano Concerto no. 3.

Piano Wereld Magazine – Amsterdam, August 2005
“You cannot deny the panache of the Russian piano player Elena Ulyanova. She intensifies showpieces such as the Mefisto Waltz and the Tarantella from a Liszt produced in Russia, with all the restlessness of a wild breathing and rumbling volcano, which rarely slows down.”

International Rachmaninoff Society – September 2006
“Elena Ulyanova gives an impressive performance of the [Rachmaninoff] Second Concerto, with much lyrical warmth, and an especially fine slow movement. The [Paganini Rhapsody’s] strong contrasts seem tailor made for her, and she rises to the challenge quite brilliantly in the outer sections, playing with remarkable flair and vitality.”

Professor Victor Merzhanov, Moscow Conservatory – March 2000
“Elena Ulyanova is one of the most gifted musicians of the Moscow Conservatory. She has great virtuosity, brilliant and artistic temperament, unique interpretive expression, and a rich sound palette.”

Roy Gillinson, Beethoven Society of America – November 2006
“A phenomenal gifted performer!! Her performance for the Beethoven Society was a rare treat!”

Seymour Bernstein – April 2007
“Fantastic! I finally heard Elena’s CD of Rachmaninoff’s Concerto in C minor and the Rhapsody. What can one say to such playing? It’s magnificent, both musically and technically. I send her my highest praise and admiration for such fantastic playing.”

He has become one of the world’s best-known interpreters of Gershwin’s Porgy and has performed major baritone roles in Le Nozze di Figaro, Madame Butterfly, La Bohème and other operas.

He debuted at Carnegie Hall as Joe in a concert production of Shoe Boat in 2008, and returned to the hall in January 2009 for a concert production of Porgy and Bess.

Mr. Powell has performed the male lead in Porgy and Bess more than 1,200 times, including the PBS Live at Lincoln Center broadcast of the New York City Opera.

“A triumph at La Scala, Alvy Powell is Porgy, a perfect interpreter,” exclaimed Il Giornale. The critic for Il Sole wrote that Mr. Powell’s Porgy was “was intense, human and vibrant.”

He has sung the role with the major companies in San Francisco, in Cape Town, South Africa, in Sydney, Australia, and in Houston, where, USA Today commented that his Porgy was “incredibly magnetic” and the production’s “center of gravity.” He is featured in the Nashville Symphony’s recording of Porgy and Bess released on the Decca label.

Mr. Powell made his film debut as Balthazar in the BBC production of Amahl and the Night Vistors.

In his work with the U.S. Army Chorus, he first came to national prominence singing “The Star Spangled Banner” at the inauguration of the President George Herbert Bush, and he was the featured performer for the 60th wedding anniversary of George and Barbara Bush at the White House.

President Gerald Ford’s family requested that he sing at the funeral of President Ford.

On the opera stage, he has appeared as Bartolo from Le Nozze di Figaro with The Virginia Opera; as Sharpless from Madame Butterfly with the Connecticut Opera, Coline in La Boheme with the Tulsa Opera, and Opera Pacific; and as Timur in Turandot with Opera Carolina, Opera Grand Rapids, and the Cleveland Opera.

Alvy Powell was bass soloist in the Verdi Requiem with the Rome Opera, in a Vatican-sponsored production marking the centennial of the death of Giuseppe Verdi.

In the Washington area, Mr. Powell made his debut with the Choral Arts Society of Washington, D.C., performing Porgy and Bess in 2007.

His oratorio repertoire includes Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Brahm’s Requiem.

John Day rehearses with Donna Darden for a production of Donizetti's Mary Stuart.

A graduate of the University of Colorado, Mr. Day has sung with many musical organizations in the Mid-Atlantic region, performing in opera, oratorio, musicals and recitals. In the D.C. area, he has performed with Prince Georges (Maryland) Civic Opera, Victorian Lyric Opera, and Opera Bel Canto of Washington.

Beyond the Washington area, Mr. Day has appeared with the Boulder (Colorado) Symphony, New Dominion Chorale, Hartford (Connecticut) Opera, Amici Opera and the Concert Opera of Philadelphia.

John Day

Click for Higher-resolution photo

The tenor performs in La Sonnambula with Opera Bel Canto, Washington.

Mr. Giuliano applies his amazing voice and discipline to a great range of vocal music — operatic, popular and patriotic — in international engagements, concert halls, colleges, and churches around the country and in Washington, and, because of his day job, a huge number of Washington’s high-ranking ceremonial occasions.

As senior vocalist with the U.S. Army Band and a member of the U.S. Army Chorus since 1988, Master Sergeant Giuliano has performed more often for presidents, legislators, ambassadors and other dignitaries than any dozen of most professional singers.

For prime ministers, kings and queens at state occasions as well as for fans in the opening of professional sports events such as the U.S. Open tennis championships, Mr. Giuliano regularly thrills the audience with “The Star Spangled Banner” and other anthems. For President Reagan’s funeral, he sang the President’s favorite hymn, “Amazing Grace” a cappella. He has performed for heads of state and royalty in many countries. Dan Rather interviewed Mr. Giuliano for a CBS News feature on an Army singer in 1999.

In December 2009 he was the featured tenor soloist in the Kennedy Center’s Messiah Sing-Along.

Mr. Giuliano is a specialist in the 19th century Italian belcanto roles.  For his 2010/2011 engagements he is offering a  selected and varied repertoire which includes the principal tenor roles in Bellini’s La sonnambula, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, La favorita, and Lucia di Lammermoor, Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Verdi’s La traviata, and Il trovatore, Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz, Menotti’s The Saint of Bleeker Street, Puccini’s La boheme, Johann Strauss, Jr.’s Die Fledermaus (Alfred), and Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier (The Italian tenor). The Washington Post praised his “fluid, clarion voice” in a production of La favorita by Opera Bel Canto of Washington.

Mr. Giuliano is also offering three recital programs: A classical tenor recital of songs and arias, an Evening of Neapolitan Songs and Italian Serenades, and a Tribute to Mario Lanza.  These programs are extremely popular with audiences, and showcase Mr. Giuliano’s splendid voice to its fullest.

His international operatic debuts include the Romanian National Opera, Bucharest where he sang Edgardo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in 2002. He sang the leading tenor role in La contessa dei vampiri by American composer David Clenny in its European premiere as well as at the Kennedy Center, and at Puerto Rico’s Conservatorio De Musica.  Later this season he will be making his New York Grand Opera debut in Menotti’s The Saint of Bleeker Street (Michele), and his debut with the Miami Lyric Opera in Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz (Fritz).

He has performed in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall as well as in the Brunswick Community College Recital Series in South Port, North Carolina, and with the Paul Madore Chorale and Orchestra in Salem, Massachusetts. He has an engagement in 2010 in the Gordon College Recital Series in Barnesville, Georgia, performing sacred and romantic songs with pianist Kathryn Lewis.

In the Washington/Baltimore area, he has performed at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery and Museum of American Art and has sung with the New Dominion Chorale in Northern Virginia, the National Symphony Orchestra, the National Cathedral Choral Society, the Fairfax Symphony, the McLean Symphony, the Alexandria Symphony, The National Lyric Opera, Opera Camerata of Washington,  and Opera Bel Canto of Washington.

Mr. Giuliano trained in music at Pensacola (Florida) Junior College and then the College of Music at Loyola University, New Orleans. On a singing tour of Italy, he was invited to study with the great post-war Italian tenor Franco Corelli in Milan.

At the popular-music end of his musical spectrum, he was proud to perform a tribute to the late American tenor Mario Lanza several years ago. Mr. Giuliano also wrote an article about Lanza’s impressive but prematurely ended career.

Ms. Abiyakiy and Antonio Giuliano rehearse for La Sonnambula.

Ms. Abiyakiy is a former principal artist of the Bolshoi Opera and leading guest artist throughout Europe and now the United States.  Her repertoire includes Gilda (Rigoletto), Lucia di Lammermoor, Rosina (Barbiere di Siviglia), Violetta (La traviata), Semiramide, Amina (La sonnambula), and her signature role of the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte), which she has also sung with the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg. 

She has won many distinguished vocal competitions, including the Marian Anderson Vocal Competition; the International Competition of Bilbao, Spain; the Francisco Vinyas Competition in Barcelona, Spain; and the Uzbekistan National Competition. 

Tatiyana Abiyakiy

 
Ms. Abiyakiy has given recitals for the U.S. Department of State, the Arts Club of Washington, the Friday Morning Music Club, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Phillips Collection. She has also appeared in a live broadcast recital on Radio WGMS-FM. This past season Ms. Abiyakiy was invited to perform a solo recital at the International Mozart Festival in Salzburg.