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Posts Tagged ‘Metropolitan Opera’

SONY Affirm Film Subject, Aimée Marcoux-Spurlock, Makes Metropolitan Room debut…..on February 3rd….arriving in full Soprano Star Mode.

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by BWW News Desk
Classical singer/musical actress, Aimée Marcoux-Spurlock, whose true-life story will come to the big screen in 2017, will make her Metropolitan Room debut on February 3rd with Women of Bilbao, a collection of Kurt Weill’s compositions from his 12-tone Weimar period to his more lush Broadway compositions. Marcoux-Spurlock has performed over fifty operatic, musical theater and oratorio roles with leading orchestras and opera companies across the globe. The Women of Bilbao repertoire will include “Surabaya Johnny” from Happy End, “Moon of Alabama,” from The Rise and Fall of the City ofMahagonny and “That’s Him” from One Touch of Venus. The singer will be joined by Doug Martin as Pianist/ Conductor (Baz Luhrmann’s La Bohème on Broadway).

Michael Feingold, noted arts critic (Village Voice), is the Creative Consultant. Metropolitan Room is at 34 West 22nd Street in the Flatiron District of Manhattan. Showtime on February 3rd is 9:00 p.m.. Call: 212.206.0440 for reservations and information. Tickets can be purchased online at : metropolitanroom.com  A $24 cover charge and $25 minimum per person apply.

The true story of Aimée Marcoux-Spurlock, and her husband, Michael Spurlock, will be told in the upcoming Sony Affirm pictures release “All Saints,” scheduled for 2017 release. The film recounts the story of professional-turned-pastor Michael Spurlock (actor John Corbett), Aimée-Marcoux-Spurlock (actress Cara Buono) and a group of refugees from Southeast Asia, who risk everything to save their tiny church in Tennessee and transform their future.
Marcoux-Spurlock is a musical actress known for her depth of character, interpretation and musical sensitivity. She has appeared in productions with the Florida Grand Opera, New World Symphony Orchestra, Symphony of the Americas, Florentine Opera, Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, The Bulgarian National Orchestra, Opera Frankfurt, Paraguay Symphony Orchestra and The Hungarian State Opera. Her role in Marin Alsop’s revival of Gershwin’s rare Blue Monday with Colorado Symphony Orchestra was described as “sumptuous” by the Denver Post. In 2013, Marcoux-Spurlock premiered The Yellow Wallpaper a one-woman opera written for her by composer and Duke University Professor, Michael Trinastic.

In a departure from her musical career, Marcoux-Spurlock worked as a reporter and producer for several years with Reuters Television, Showtime, the BBC, NBC and Fox affiliates throughout the United States. She was an original reporter/producer for Entertainment Drive, one of the first online new outlets. Marcoux-Spurlock has been spotted at The Emmys, The Tony Awards and the Academy Awards interviewing such celebrities as Sir Anthony Hopkins, Salma Hayek, Tony Bennett, and Mariah Carey. At the United Nations, she interviewed Kofi Annan, Senator Bill Richardson, President Bill Clinton and HRH Prince Phillip. In addition, Marcoux-Spurlock spent fourteen seasons covering New York’s Fashion Week for fashion and entertainment news outlets.

Her spur of the moment coverage of the events of September 11, 2001 was featured in the 2002 HBO documentary, “IN MEMORIAM – New York City, 9/11/01.” In addition, Marcoux-Spurlock was lauded by The Royal Television Society as “an invisible giant of TV news” for her coverage at Ground Zero and received and award of recognition.

We love Aimee here at Old Fashioned Mom….and so excited about her performance!!!

 

Philanthropist and Tycoon Leonard A. Lauder recently made international headlines when he  announced his enormous pledge of $1.1 billion dollars of Cubist Art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Lauder donated 78 works by great artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris and Fernand Leger to one of New York’s most famous museums.  Moreover, he pledged to continue donating additional acquisitions of Cubist Art.  His objective was to fill the gap in the Museum’s own collection. Lauder wanted his gift to be “transformative ” and  was quoted as saying “it will catapult them into the 21st century.” He recognized the need to share his works of art with the rest of the world.  This billion dollar pledge of  art  had followed earlier gifts for the endowment to the Museum for the creation of a research center for modern art.  Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection went on exhibit at the Met Museum on October 20, 2014 and will remain on view until February 16, 2015.  Represented at the Met are 34 works by Picasso, 17 by Braque and 15 each for Leger and Braque.

Lauder, a long time patron of the arts, has never been a  stranger to the world of charitable giving, especially when it comes to art institutions. The Whitney Museum of Art has  been the recipient of both his  art and resources.  In 2008,  Leonard donated over $100 million to the Whitney to assure it’s long term sustainability. To date, this is the single largest gift ever received by the museum.

Leonard has also pledged his beloved collection of 120,000 postcards to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. A longtime collector of postcards, his passion for them had caused his late wife, Evelyn, to refer to the collection as his “mistress”.

Lauder  has  shown his philanthropic nature in other areas besides art.  He is the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and a member of the President’s Council of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital. Lauder and his late wife, Evelyn, were actively involved in the creation of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Evelyn Lauder is the founder of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Leonard Lauder, New Yorker extraordinaire, was born in 1933.  He serves as chairman emeritus of The Estee Lauder Companies. Throughout his life he has also been involved in the world of  politics and education.  Lauder is often seen around New York at various charity galas including those for NY City Ballet and Metropolitan Opera.