Bravo Nights: Holiday Edition
A recital by tenor Mark Daniels, pianist Rob Goodling and guest soprano Amanda Varrone
Wednesday, December 14, 2022 at 7:00pm
First Unitarian Church, 220 Winton Rd South, Rochester
Purchase today while tickets still remain.
Mark Daniels, tenor
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Mark Daniels is a versatile tenor who hails from Kennebunk, Maine. His early studies were with David Goulet in Portland, Maine, where he made his professional debut as Charlie Dalrymple in Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon. Mr. Daniels continued his studies at the Eastman School of Music in the studio of Rita Shane, where he made his Eastman Opera Theatre operatic debut as Sam in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah. He performed the role of Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte in Urbania, Italy with Benton Hess’s Oberlin in Italy program and again in Buffalo, NY with Buffalo Opera Unlimited.
Other roles have included Danilo in Lehar’s The Merry Widow with Buffalo Opera Unlimited, Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore with the Genessee Valley Orchestra and Chorus, and Bingley in the world premier performance and recording of Amanda Jacobs and Lindsay Warren Baker’s Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Daniels was also the tenor soloist in J.S Bach’s Magnificat with the Finger Lakes Chorale under the direction of John Walker.
Great Lakes Productions created a show around Mark Daniels called “A Tenor,” which he performed for two years throughout upstate New York with “The Tuscan Trio and Two Sopranos.” Recently he was featured as a tenor soloist in performances of Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Lord Nelson’s Mass as well as in a highly acclaimed Opera Under the Stars evening at Highland Park.
Rob Goodling, pianist
Although his professional career began as a violinist in the Elmira Symphony and Corning Philharmonic orchestras, where he was also the first conductor of the Corning Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, the larger part of Rob Goodling’s musical life has been coaching, accompanying and training singers. Having taught music history courses at the Hochstein School of Music and Dance for twenty years, Mr. Goodling was also the vocal music and choral director at Churchville-Chili High School for twenty-eight years, where many of his students went on to outstanding music careers.
His choirs consistently won state and national honors that resulted in their representation of New York State in international performance tours to Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy (where they sang for his holiness The Pope), Morocco and Spain.
Earlier listed in “Who’s Who Among America’s College and University Students,” his name has continued to appear in subsequent editions of “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.” M.I.T., SUNY College at Fredonia, and the Wenger Corporation have presented Mr. Goodling with Outstanding Music Educator citations; the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra named him their 1996 Outstanding Choral Director; and he was the first recipient of the Roberts Wesleyan College Outstanding Music Educator award.
Mr. Goodling was named an affiliate Professor of Music Education at the Eastman School of Music, where he later served as editor of the opera department’s FEO Newsletter and performed the role of Gad Beck in the Eastman Opera Theatre’s world premier staging of Jake Heggie’s two-person opera, For a Look or a Touch.
In 2017, Mark Daniels and collaborative pianist Rob Goodling began a partnership that has resulted in continuing recitals together in New York State, Florida, and Maine. One reviewer stated: “Having heard many concerts, what immediately grabbed my attention was Mark and Rob’s intimacy with their flawless sense of each other, AND conveying that to their audience. One was caught, drawn in, gathered up and surrounded by the passion of the music…and it is their genius and duality that is the magic.”
In January 2020, Mr. Daniels and Mr. Goodling released their first CD recording, The Lyric Tenor in Recital, and that December they filmed a Holiday Bravo Nights recital for the Rochester Opera Guild’s YouTube site. In 2021, they were featured in Rochester’s 585 Magazine and during the Rochester Fringe Festival, they performed in a ROC Opera’s “Opera Is Mad” film, with Mr. Daniels singing the role of the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto. In 2022 they filmed a world-premiere performance of Stephen Shewan’s “A song of you and me,” and presented multiple Rochester sold-out performances. In 2023 they returned to Florida for an Encore Ilse Newell Forgotten Coast recital, which received three standing ovations.
Amanda Varrone, soprano
Rochester native,Amanda Varrone received her Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, and has studied in Italy and Austria during summers of her undergraduate and graduate years. While a student at Churchville-Chili Senior High School, she studied with Rob Goodling and is pleased to be working with him once again.
Amanda is a very busy mother of two daughters and a professional vocalist—singing throughout Rochester for various events, such as weddings, funerals and masses. She is thrilled to be part of today’s Broadway on Broadway show and looks forward to performing with Mark and Rob again this December in the Opera Guild of Rochester’s Holiday Bravo Nights recital. Amanda would like to thank her family and friends for all their support and encouragement!