The Warren C. Crandell Annual Recital for Donors
Each year we invite our donors to an Opera Guild recital as a thank-you for making our work possible. We have chosen to rename this event in honor of a loyal donor,
Warren C. Crandell, whose recent generous bequest in his will has enabled us to continue our grants to opera companies in the region, including Finger Lakes Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, and Rochester Oratorio Society, in addition to supporting events by our own organization.
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Not a donor?
Simply click the donate button, complete your gift, and your name will be on the invitation list.​​
Our 2025 Annual Recital for Donors stars soprano Ellen Robertson, accompanied by Dane Noble-Rosema. They are planning to perform cherished arias from Mozart, Puccini, Gluck and more. This promises to be an exciting event. Refreshments follow after the recital, which lasts approximately 70 minutes.
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When: Saturday, June 7, 2025 at 2pm
Where: Asbury First United Methodist Church, 1050 East Ave. Rochester. Free and ample parking.
2025 Performers
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ELLEN ROBERTSON
Soprano Ellen Robertson is originally from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Last month, she graduated from Yale University with a Master of Musical Arts in Early Music Voice, where she was a member of the Voxtet ensemble at the Institute of Sacred Music, specializing in song, oratorio, and vocal chamber music. Last year, she toured with Yale Schola Cantorum as a soloist in J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor, performing throughout England and Scotland. This past fall, she made her professional debut as an orchestral soloist, singing Dvorák’s Te Deum with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra. She also made her Carnegie Hall debut, singing music of Charles Ives at Weill Recital Hall. Ms. Robertson has participated in young artist programs at Finger Lakes Opera and Sarasota Opera. Operatic roles include Mimì (La bohème), Diana (Jake Heggie’s If I Were You), and Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice).
Ellen holds previous degrees in voice from the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University and the Eastman School of Music. While at Eastman, she was a recipient of the Renée Fleming Award, and she was awarded the Edwin Stanley Seder Scholarship from Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music for the 2023-2024 academic year. This May, she was recognized with the important Simon Carrington Price in Concert Voice. “Named in honor of the founding director of the Yale School Cantorum, goes to a singer who, through their excellence both as a soloist and an ensemble member, best demonstrates the artistry and professionalism required to have a successful career as a concert singer.”
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Ellen's travel and accommodations graciously underwritten by ​
Drs. Margaret and Arnold Matlin.
DANE NOBLE-ROSEMA, Accompanist
Dane holds a bachelor’s degree in Composition for Film, TV and Games from Berklee College of Music in Boston and a diploma in piano performance from the Associated Board of the Royals Schools of Music. He has been immersed in music his whole life. As a young boy he attended the Drakensberg Boys’s Choir School in South Africa where he is originally from, and he has since lived and worked in Cairo, Egypt, Boston, MA, and Rochester, NY. He is currently an adjunct professor at Rochester Institute of Technology in the School of Performing Arts teaching piano, and is collaborative pianist for RIT singers, musical theatre classes and instrumental studios. He is heavily involved in musical theatre in the area and recently directed a successful production of “A Chorus Line” at RIT. He has collaborated with the Young Artists Program for the Finger Lakes Opera, and was a rehearsal pianist for their production of Verdi’s “Aida”. During that season, Dane met and collaborated with Ellen Robertson for the first time, but as soloist and Finger Lakers Opera Young Artist. The two have worked together subsequently and he is thrilled to be working with Ellen again.