SAN ANGELO, Texas — San Angelo’s own homegrown opera singer, Joshua Diaz, will collaborate with acclaimed conductor and pianist Adam A. Torres to present a recital at the Elta Joyce Murphey Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 1, at the Elta Joyce Murphey Auditorium at City Hall, 72 W. College Ave.
According to a San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts press release, Josh and Adam have been lifelong friends and contributors to the musical landscape in San Angelo. For many years they have teamed up with their comrade-in-arms, baritone Marco Melendez to present an annual Christmas concert.
The concert will feature beloved Neapolitan songs, pieces from the height of French Romanticism, two Ukrainian solo pieces for piano performed as a show of solidarity for the current geopolitical unrest, and a set of music from Mexico arranged by Diaz as part of his doctoral dissertation.
Diaz's musical return to his hometown comes right on the tails of his recent success on the concert stage at the Arts Club of Washington in the former home of President James Monroe.
“That concert sort of marked my return to the concert stage after the start of the pandemic,” Diaz said. “Things have been in limbo and on hold for the arts for such a long time throughout this pandemic. It is so great to be getting back to the stage and to be able to share my music in person again.”
Diaz attended Lake View High School where he was a four-year member of the Texas All-State Choir. He received his bachelor’s from the University of Notre Dame before moving on to studies at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, where he received his Master of Music in Voice in 2013, and the Graduate Performance Diploma in Opera in 2015.
Currently, Diaz lives in Chicago, where he is finishing his dissertation for the Doctorate of Musical Arts in Voice from the University of Minnesota. He has performed in some of the country’s great music halls and with major orchestras and ensembles including the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra, the St. Cloud Symphony Orchestra, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, the Concert Artists of Baltimore, and the Mississippi Valley orchestra among numerous others.
Adam A. Torres attended Central High School and made his professional debut as a piano soloist with the San Angelo Symphony Orchestra at the age of 11. Today he serves as senior instructor of Music at Colorado State University and as a faculty member at Colorado State University. Adam has served as the principal conductor for the Loveland Opera and as a soloist with major orchestras including the Colorado Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony and the Virginia Symphony.
This recital is presented by the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts as an extension of their Chamber Music Series. The program is sponsored by Mark McLaughlin and admission for the recital is free. Masks are preferred, but optional.
For more information, please visit samfa.org or call 325-653-3333.
