Soprano Amy Owens, baritone Vasil Garvanliev and pianist Kendra Bigley will perform a Lancaster Art Song Society concert 7:30 p.m. May 1, 2025, at the Trust Performing Arts Center, 37 N. Market Street in Lancaster.
Tickets are on sale now at lancastertrust.com and lbc.edu/events. Titled “Journeys,” the concert will include pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Strauss, Franz Liszt, Peter Cornelius, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein.
Soprano Amy Owens
Award-winning soprano Amy Owens is known for her “high-flying vocals” and “scene-stealing” charisma on operatic and symphonic stages, as well as her multi-disciplinary pursuits as a music educator, producer and conductor (Opera News). She is known on concert stages for her interpretation of Carmina Burana, including multiple performances with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center and Wolf Trap, as well as with MidAmerica productions for her Carnegie Hall debut. Career highlights include performances with the Santa Fe Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Utah Opera, Virginia Opera, National Symphony, San Diego Symphony, New York Festival of Song, Brooklyn Art Song Society and Virginia Arts Festival. Her operatic and musical theatre roles include Cunegonde in “Candide,” Johanna in “Sweeney Todd,” Chrisann Brennan in “The Revolution of Steve Jobs,” Mabel in “The Pirates of Penzance,” Emily in “Our Town,” Phoebe in “Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” and the title role in Santa Fe Opera’s world premiere of “Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun.” In addition to performing, she serves as the director of the Young Voices of Santa Fe Opera.
Baritone Vasil Garvanliev
Macedonian born and raised singer-songwriter Vasil Garvanliev has been in the music business professionally since the age of 7. Having lived over two decades in Chicago, Milano, Toronto and London, he’s returned to Chicago to focus on his first solo crossover album, where pop, classical and Balkan folk unite. His 30-year international professional music journey is diverse: from child pop star to over 50 roles as a leading baritone opera singer. He was also the Macedonian representative at the Eurovision Song Contest with his original song “Here I Stand” in 2021 and “YOU” in 2020. He’s performed as a soloist at many festivals as well as on the concert stage, and has been a soloist for Faure & Brahms Requiem, Mahler Rückert Lieder, Handel’s Messiah with Victoria Symphony, Regina Symphony, Montreal Symphony and University of Toronto Symphony. A few of his opera role highlights are Don Giovanni, Leporello, Figaro and Don Alfonso.
Pianist Kendra Bigley
Kendra Bigley is a versatile artist who has performed frequently at The Trust and collaborated with artists at Penn Square Music, the Pennsylvania Philharmonic, the Lancaster Art Song Society, Temple Opera, Boyer College of Music and Dance, Lebanon Valley College, Messiah University and Millersville University, as well as Franklin & Marshall College and Lancaster Bible College, where she is on faculty. In the musical theatre genre, Bigley has worked as a music director, conductor, vocal coach and accompanist at the Fulton Theatre, Prima Theatre, Florida International University, Servant Stage Company, Lancaster Bible College, The Ransom-Everglades School and Popovsky Performing Arts School. Her favorite shows as music-director/conductor include “Cinderella,” “Working,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” “Little Women,” “My Fair Lady,” “The Music Man” and “Titanic: The Musical,” for which she won the Regional Broadway Music Award for Best Music Director.
The Lancaster Art Song Society has a mission to provide vocal training to developing vocalists, to offer performing opportunities for the classically trained professional artist, and to present concerts and events for audiences of all ages to enjoy.
In 1912, the Lancaster Trust Company finished its new headquarters — a Beaux Arts masterpiece from the imagination of Lancaster’s leading architect, C. Emlen Urban. A century later, Lancaster Bible College reimagined it into The Trust Performing Arts Center — a stunning venue for arts and culture in the heart of Lancaster. The Trust has a mission to honor God by encouraging excellence in the work of student and professional artists and by enriching the community through inspiring, challenging and redemptive experiences.