Hailey McAvoy, mezzo soprano and Bethany Pietroniro, piano offer achingly beautiful songs of Maurice Ravel, Alban Berg, and Errolyn Wallen, the exciting Belize born British composer who was recently appointed Master of the King’s Music by King Charles III.
This concert is made possible, in part, with the generous support of Beverley and Sabin Streeter.
Hailey McAvoy is a versatile performer of opera, song, and concert. McAvoy’s recent operatic performances include appearing as the leading role of Mem in the world premiere of Paola Prestini’s Sensorium Ex (Common Senses Festival, Omaha), as Zora in Svadba (Hogfish Regenerative Arts), and as Julia Child in Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appetit (Opera Praktikos). Concert highlights include performances with The Metropolitan Opera’s Opera Evolved, the Baton Rouge Symphony, Seattle Sound Salon, New Hampshire-based Spiral Songs, and with Jazz and Classic for Change at Camphill Copake, Triform & Ghent.
In addition to her opera and concert work, McAvoy is developing Wholly Unwinding, a concert of original songs which explore themes of disability, accessibility, and what it means to feel at home in one’s body. Wholly Unwinding has appeared in workshop at Hogfish Regenerative Arts and Spiral Songs and will be debuted as a whole at National Sawdust in Brooklyn in 2027.
As a performer with the neurological condition cerebral palsy, McAvoy is committed to amplifying the discussion around disability in the arts to make the performing arts more inclusive for all. She has published essays on accessibility in AGMAzine and Our Singing Bodies and has appeared as a panelist with such organizations as the National Endowment For the Arts, National Sawdust, Opera Ithaca and Opera NexGen.
Hudson Valley-based pianist Bethany Pietroniro brings thoughtful, honed musicianship and a vibrant collaborative spirit to repertoire spanning from Baroque masterworks to world premieres. Bethany has a passion for instrumental chamber music, and strives to champion the work of living and lesser-known composers. As a fellow of the 2022 Tanglewood Music Center, she performed in the world premiere of Bebop Riddle II, a new work for cello and piano by American composer Augusta Read Thomas. Other recent projects include a program of works by Fauré, Schumann, and Beethoven presented with cellist Glenna Curren at Third Presbyterian Fine Arts in Rochester, New York.
Additional notable performances include a presentation of Martin Bresnick's Caprichos Enfáticos for percussion quartet and piano with the Evolution Contemporary Music Series, and a virtual recital featuring Stephen Paulus’s Seven for the Flowers Near the River with Joelle Arnhold, viola, as part of the 2021 American Viola Society Festival. Bethany has frequently joined The Orchestra Now as a guest orchestral keyboardist in several performances, including one of Bohuslav Martinů’s Concerto for double string orchestra, piano, and timpani.
Also a devotee of song in many genres, Bethany enjoys frequent collaborations with classical vocalist colleagues including mezzo-soprano Hailey McAvoy, soprano Jardena Gertler-Jaffe, and tenor Eric Carey. Recent projects include a series of art song recitals presented in the Downtown Music at Grace concert series in White Plains, NY, and at Beattie-Powers Place in Catskill, NY, as well as other venues throughout New York.
Alongside her musical career, Bethany holds a degree in mathematics and a passion for problem solving, and is a freelance software engineer.