For more information, contact James Jolly, director of marketing and communications, at 843.383.8018

Hartsville, S.C. — The Hartsville-Coker Concert Association presents counter-tenor Steven Serpa on Thursday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hannah Lide Coker Recital Hall at Coker College. Performing an array of music spanning centuries, Serpa will be accompanied by pianist Naoko Sugiyama with a guest appearance by soprano Serena Hill.

Admission is $20 for adults, $7 for children under 18 and students, or free with Coker College ID. Tickets are on sale in advance at the Greater Hartsville Chamber of Commerce or at the door. The recital hall is located in the Margaret Coker Lawton Music Building.

Serpa’s performance will include songs by John Dowland (1563-1626), George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), John Cage (1912-1992), Ernest Chausson (1855-1899), and Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924). He will also sing from his own work, “Songs from the Japanese, Vol. 1.”

A recent graduate of Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass., where he received a master’s degree in historically informed performance, Serpa has been heard as alto soloist in Bach’s “St. John Passion” with The Vox Consort, il Pastore (“Tosca”) with the Boston Academy of Music, counter-tenor soloist in Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms,” and as a featured soloist in Hildegard von Bingen’s “Ordo Virtutum.” Serpa has been heard as soloist in performances of Monteverdi’s “Orfeo” with Harvard University, Purcell’s “Dido & Aeneas,” Handel’s “Messiah” and a number of Bach’s cantatas.

Pianist Naoko Sugiyama is active as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Japan and the Boston area. She won second place in the 2005 Krenek Competition at the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition. Sugiyama has appeared with the Boston Chamber Music Society and Bargemusic. She has been heard at Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, the Goethe Institute, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and on WGBH-FM Boston. Sugiyama holds a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Longy School of Music, and a Master of Music degree and Graduate Diploma with Distinction in performance from the New England Conservatory.

An active stage performer, soprano Serena Hill holds a Master of Music degree in vocal performance from the University of South Carolina. An award-winning operatic artist, Hill was a 2003 finalist in the Southeast Regional Metropolitan Opera Auditions, a 2003 finalist of the Orpheus National Young Artist Vocal Competition and, most recently, the 2006 Artist of the Year with FBN Productions. Hill has most recently been featured as Micaela (“Carmen”), Lady with the Cake Box (“Postcard from Morocco”), Fiordiligi (“Cosi fan tutte”), Countess (“Le Nozze di Figaro”), and Pamina (“Die Zauberflöte”). She is also active as an oratorio soloist, including recent performances of Handel’s “Messiah” with the South Carolina Philharmonic and Haydn’s “Creation” with the Masterworks Choir of Florence. Hill is a voice instructor at Coker College.

The Hartsville-Coker Concert Association (HCCA) is a new venture stemming from the Coker College Performing Arts Series and the Hartsville Community Concerts Association. HCCA hosts performing arts events at the Center Theater in downtown Hartsville and at Coker College. For more information, call 843-383-8018 or visit www.hartsvillecokerconcerts.org.

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March12, 2007