Internationally known performers Rodrigo Garciarroyo, tenor, and Richard Dowling, pianist will perform at 7 p.m., Monday, Oct. 30, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

This event is free of charge and is open to the public.

Since 1990, the Piatigorsky Foundation has presented more than 3,775 performances, introducing the joy of live classical music in communities throughout the country. Piatigorsky artists play for audiences including seniors, schoolchildren, the economically disadvantaged, and those living in geographically remote areas.

The Piatigorsky Foundation differs from traditional arts organizations in that its performers present music in nontraditional venues and in a highly communicative format that is geared to each particular audience.

Piatigorsky Foundation musicians are chosen for their artistry and ability to engage audiences through lively discussion. Artists share anecdotes and insights into the works they will perform. Concerts take place in informal settings including retirement communities, schools, churches, synagogues, hospitals, workplaces, libraries, and community centers.

Rodrigo Garciarroyo, Tenor

Since he was finalist in Carlo Morelli National Vocal Competition in 2007, tenor Rodrigo Garciarroyo has performed continuously throughout Mexico’s most important theatres. He has performed leading roles and has sung dozens of concerts and operas in diverse venues and theatres in the United States and Latin America. He has been described as “an experienced, secure and refined professional, combining a rich timbre and a smooth legato with secure and heroic high notes; simply first class singing” by J. Bills, ProOpera Magazine. Larry Kellum, of the Town Times, Connecticut, wrote “There has been a glut of stellar tenors coming out of Mexico lately, and Rodrigo Garciarroyo is the newest kid in the Pantheon.”

He has been awarded the Olga Forrai Foundation and the Martina Arroyo Foundation scholarships to study in New York City; the International Vocal Arts Institute scholarship to study in Puerto Rico and Israel; and the Placido Domingo voice scholarship given by Sociedad Internacional de Valores de Arte Mexicano, Mexico’s most renowned young artist program. He was also awarded an artistic residence by the Mexican Cultural Ministry to study abroad. In 2009, Garciarroyo made his debut at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York singing Verdi’s Requiem, and in 2011 he sang Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana, for his leading role debut at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. In 2012, he founded the opera company Ópera Insurgente, and in 2013, was named one of the top leaders of opera in Mexico by Lideres Mexicanos Magazine.

Richard Dowling, Pianist

Hailed by The New York Times as “an especially impressive fine pianist,” Richard Dowling appears regularly across the United States in solo recitals, at chamber music and jazz/ragtime festivals, and as a guest soloist in concerto performances with orchestras. Career highlights include a sold-out New York orchestral debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, a solo recital at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in New York, and a special award from the National Federation of Music Clubs recognizing his outstanding performances of American music. In the United States, he has received nationwide attention for recitals seen on the PBS television program Debut, and heard on the NPR radio program Performance Today.

Dowling is also a recording artist with over a dozen CDs of classical, chamber, ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1998, Dowling celebrated the centennial of the birth of George Gershwin by performing his complete solo and orchestral works for piano, including Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F, and the rarely heard Second Rhapsody and Variations on “I Got Rhythm.” Dowling just released a three-CD set of the complete solo piano works (54 rags, waltzes, and marches) of Scott Joplin, the renowned American ragtime composer, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the composer's death in 2017. Dowling is the first pianist in history to perform the complete cycle of Joplin's piano works in public. He will perform all-Joplin recitals nationwide throughout 2017.

A native Texan, Richard Dowling began his piano studies at age five in Houston and his talent quickly became evident. He gave his first recital at six and won prizes in many piano competitions throughout childhood. He made his orchestral debut in a Beethoven concerto performance with the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra at age 18. He received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the University of Houston and a master’s degree at Yale University. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Texas at Austin.

For more information regarding this presentation, contact Chris Smith, Manager of Adult Programming for the library, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.