Daily Sitka Sentinel And The Arrowhead Press

MADELAINE CHAMBERS
IN CONCERT WEDNESDAY

It is with a feeling of justified pride that the Alaska Music Trail will present Madelaine Chambers, the outstanding lyric-coloratura soprano of the New York City Center Opera, as the second event of the current concert season. The concert will take place in the SJJC Auditorium on Wednesday, Nov. 23, at 8 p. m.

The age-old tradition that an American artist must make a career in Europe before being recognized in one's own country has received a severe jolt these days, when young and talented American singers are performing in every major opera house in Europe and are occasionally finding it hard to accommodate the demands placed upon them for engagements in this country.

While listening to Lucine Amara at Glyndebourne or at the huge open-air opera performances in Rome -- when looking forward to Zara Nelsova's appearance at the opening concert of the San Francisco Symphony season, first in the roster of brilliant guest artists which includes Yi-Kwei Sze at a later date -- when standing before a poster in Rio de Janeiro announcing the Welcome-Home concert of Madame Olga Coelho - one remembers with a great deal of pleasure and pride that all those glamorous performers once played or sang their hearts out to our Alaska Music Trail audiences, and left Alaska and the North with only one desire: -- to return there as soon as possible, or rather as soon as four weeks could again be found -- which sounds quite impossible.

Madelaine Chambers, who will appear at the second AMT concert this season, has won every important American and European vocal contest, including the International Competition for Opera Singers in Lausanne, Switzerland, (the same prize which once launched Victoria de los Angeles on her world career), the Lyric Association Contest in Milan, Italy, and the Marian Anderson Award. In April of 1955, she was selected as winner of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air.

A native New Yorker, of Austrian and Polish descent, and a graduate of New York University, Miss Chambers was granted a Fulbright Fellowship to Italy, and while there she made her debut in "La Boheme" at Teatro Nuova in Milan. Upon return to U. S. A. she was immediately engaged by the New York City Center - Opera and assigned leading roles in Carmen, Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, Falstaff, Marriage of Figaro and Merry Wives of Windsor. Her performance in Richard Strauss Ariadne at Central City in the summer of 1954 was acclaimed as the highlight of the Colorado Opera Festival.

Both her audiences and her press have been lavish with their praise: "A voice of extraordinary sweetness and touching expressiveness" (New York Times): "A voice of elegance, purity and immense charm" (Denver Post); "The best singing of the evening" (Chicago Daily Tribune): "This young and beautiful singer is a revelation!" (Corriere della Sera, Milan).

To make this event one of distinction, the Alaska Music Trail is happy to announce
that it has succeeded in enlisting the services of one of the United States' greatest accompanists - Ralph Linsley. A graduate of Yale University, with Phi Beta Kappa, Mr. Linsley perfected his music studies in Paris and London. He has been permanent accompanist to Nan Merriman for ten years, and has also been making concert tours with Leonard Warren, Tito Schipa, Brian Sullivan, Nicola Moscona, Joseph Schuster and others.