Directed by CSU faculty member Jose Gotera and student Henry Foraker

Cleveland State University graduate and undergraduate voice students will perform fully staged and costumed excerpts from opera and American musical theater pieces.  

Directed by faculty member Jose Gotera and music student Henry Foraker, the program for the evening includes “The Old Maid and the Thief” by Gian Carlo Menotti and “Songs for a New World” by Jason Robert Brown. 

“The Old Maid and the Thief” is a one act, radio opera that premiered in 1939. Performed in English, the show follows two women who harbor and fall in love with an escaped convict who manipulates their morals and plays with their hearts. “Songs for a New World” is a work of musical theater that was originally performed Off-Broadway in 1995. The piece has been described as an abstract musical, where four performers explore the theme, “the moment of decision.”

The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Music and Communication Building, Drinko Recital Hall.

Foraker is a music education student at Cleveland State University. Outside of CSU he frequently performs in local theater productions. He is a private vocal coach and piano instructor at Harmonize studios in Akron and Lakewood Music Academy in Lakewood. Foraker has music directed, choreographed and directed for multiple of high schools and middle schools around the Cleveland Area.

Gotera is an applied faculty for voice. He attended the University of Toronto while pursuing degrees in Human Biology and Music History. He completed an MA in Early Music at Case Western Reserve University. In addition to teaching voice at Cleveland State University, Gotera is also a music instructor at Hiram College where he teaches voice, directs opera/musical theater workshops and the Hiram men’s chorus.

For more information about the Music Department calendar of events, visit csuohio.edu/class/music/musiccalendar.