Live Classical Music at the Library: Piatigorsky Foundation Concert Tour

Looking for a fresh and memorable way to experience live music? Whether you’re a lifelong classical fan or simply curious to try something new, this is your chance to enjoy an extraordinary concert right at your library. 

Join us on Sunday, May 3, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the Cheyenne Library for a stop on the spring Piatigorsky Foundation tour of Wyoming. This intimate performance features the rich, expressive voice of mezzo-soprano Katherine Calcamuggio Donner, accompanied by pianist Gabriel Evens. 

This program offers a unique take on classical music by blending Baroque Italian and English art songs and arias with modern jazz piano arrangements. The vocal works, originally composed 300 to 400 years ago, are reimagined through fresh arrangements by Evens, a composer and jazz pianist, created within the past few years. While musical styles continue to evolve through rhythm, harmony, and structure, the emotional core remains the same. Themes of love, heartbreak, judgment, and joy continue to resonate across centuries, connecting audiences through a shared human experience.

Since 1990, the Piatigorsky Foundation has introduced communities across the country to the joy of live classical music through free, accessible performances. Each concert is designed to be informative, engaging, and approachable, with musicians selected not only for their exceptional talent but also for their ability to connect with audiences through storytelling and conversation.

Performances are typically about an hour long and thoughtfully tailored to the audience, creating a shared experience that feels both personal and inviting. Rather than a formal concert hall setting, these performances take place in familiar community spaces like libraries, making classical music more accessible and enjoyable for all.

The Wyoming concerts are presented by the Wyoming Arts Council and made possible by the generous support of the Muriel & Seymour Thickman Charitable Trust.

This isn’t a traditional concert hall experience. It is close, personal, and full of energy, where world-class musicians transform a familiar community space into something magical.

Join us for an afternoon of music that is both unique and inspiring.

Learn more about the Piatigorsky Foundation.

About Katherine Calcamuggio Donner 

Katherine Calcamuggio Donner is an award-winning mezzo-soprano. Calcamuggio has been featured in important role and company debuts across the United States, eliciting kudos for her “soaring, rich voice” (The Miami Herald), her “polished musical and dramatic characterizations” (Kurt Weill Newsletter), her “fine coloratura technique” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and that she is “endearingly funny” (KDHX St. Louis).

Before the pandemic halted the musical world, Ms. Calcamuggio was to have returned to the operatic stage with Kentucky Opera in a role debut as the Witch in Hansel and Gretel. As a recitalist, she would have been appearing at Virginia Tech as a guest clinician in their guest artist series as well as a guest clinician. Additionally, she would have been introducing audiences to songs of the women’s suffrage movement performed at the symposium, “Suffragism and Music at the Centennial.”

During the 2019-2020 season, Ms. Calcamuggio returned as the mezzo-soprano soloist with the Louisville Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah, with Heidelberg University Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah and with the University of Louisville’s Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Mass in C. As a recitalist, she performed her ”Choose Your Own Adventure Recital” with co-creator Genevieve Thiers as a guest recitalist for the Musician’s Club of Women in Chicago, Illinois, and continued her work with the Piatigorsky Foundation performing recitals with Douglas Kinney Frost in venues across the states of Georgia and Kessa Mefford in Arizona. After an international debut in Europe in the summer of 2019, the United States debut of “The Shape of Things to Come” will be welcomed at the University of Louisville, in which Ms. Calcamuggio debuts in her first movie as the voice of the narrator.

Previous seasons included role debuts with Union Avenue Opera as Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore, Kentucky Opera as Giovanna in Rigoletto, Julia Child in Hoiby’s Bon Appetit with Opera on the James, the Mezzo-Soprano soloist for Handel’s Messiah with Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra (company debut) and the Louisville Orchestra, the Mezzo-Soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with Green Bay Civic Symphony, Chicago Community Chorus and University of Michigan, the Mezzo-Soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Toledo Symphony, Midland Symphony, and the University of Chicago, and the Soprano soloist in John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man with the Oakland Symphony and University of Michigan . As an active recitalist, she performed with the Piatigorsky Foundation across the states of Minnesota, Washington, Montana, Florida, Oklahoma, and gave recitals in Chicago with the American Opera Society and the Chicago Lyric Opera Lake Geneva Chapter.

Auspicious operatic and symphonic debuts from recent seasons include roles as Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, a world premiere of Vivian Fung’s Yushan Songs, Stephano in Roméo et Juliette with Syracuse Opera (for which Calcamuggio was named “Artist of the Year” in 2009); a much touted Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Un Musico in Manon Lescaut with Florida Grand Opera; the Young Nun in the world premiere of Stephen Hartke’s The Greater Good (available on the Naxos label); Aglaonice in Philip Glass’ critically-acclaimed Orphée with Glimmerglass Opera; and Inez in a concert performance of Verdi’s Il Trovatore under the baton of Maestro Eduardo Müller with the Miami Concert Association. Calcamuggio has also performed as a featured soloist in a recital of Rossini’s songs titled Sins of My Old Age with Opera Omaha and in Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Park Ridge Symphony.

The mezzo-soprano has received top prizes in the American Opera Society, Palm Beach Opera, Bel Canto and Shreveport Singer of the Year competitions; and has awards from the Chicago Women’s Musician’s Club and the Anna Sosenko Trust. She is a former participant in young artists’ programs at Florida Grand Opera,

Glimmerglass Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, as well as the Aspen and Brevard Music Festivals.

Ms. Calcamuggio holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from University of Michigan, a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Music degree from Bowling Green State University. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Voice at University of Louisville. Ms. Calcamuggio is gaining rapid recognition as a teacher with her students earning roles in equity shows and top prizes in competitions.

About Gabe Evens

Pianist Gabriel Evens is the Associate Professor of Jazz Piano, Composition and Arranging at the University of Louisville, Jazz Studies Program. He has performed throughout the United States and in Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, and France and has played with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, the Miami City Ballet Orchestra, the University of North Texas Symphony and Concert Orchestras, the UNT One O’Clock Lab Band, and the University of Miami Concert Jazz Band.

As an arranger and composer, Evens has released eight albums of original music, written commissions for Sheena Easton and Kate McGarry with the Cape Symphony Orchestra, and for Nneena Freelon with the John Brown Big Band. He has had numerous compositions performed by chamber and large ensembles including the Louisville Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfónica de Loja, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, the UofL Symphonic Orchestra, the UofL Faculty Jazz Ensemble, and the legendary UNT One O’Clock Lab Band.

Evens is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, holds an MA in Jazz Piano Performance from the University of Miami, and a DMA in Performance, major in Jazz studies (composition emphasis) from the University of North Texas.