Bono and Rice in Concert at Emmanuel

Tenor Dallas Bono and baritone Samuel Patton Rice will present a concert at Emmanuel College, Thursday, Feb. 14, at 7:30 p.m. in EC’s Taylor Chapel.

The free event is open to the public and includes opera, Broadway, and sacred pieces and will also feature guest soprano Kendall Marie Kookogey, who has performed internationally in Salzburg and Urbania, Italy.

Bono has performed in a number of U.S. Opera companies, including New York Grand Opera, The Baltimore Opera, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis. He has also appeared in numerous leading tenor roles, including the operas, La Boheme, Tosca, Don Carlos, and Rigoletto. Bono has performed solo recitals in nearly 20 states and has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and Alice Tully Hall in New York City. Currently, Bono has a private voice studio, conducts the choir at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, and teaches voice and opera workshop at Emmanuel College. Recently, Bono performed King Kaspar in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors with the Athena Grand Opera Company. In addition, he will be making his directorial debut with Houston’s Opera in the Heights in March, where he will stage direct the company’s new production of Puccini’s Tosca. Bono and his wife, soprano Kendall Marie Kookogey, have a daughter.

Rice has performed in numerous symphony orchestras, and opera and theater companies in America, as well as abroad. Solo performances include appearances with the New Orleans Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Mississippi Opera. In addition, he has performed Escamillo opposite Denyce Graves’ Carmen and Polonius opposite Sherill Milnes’ Hamlet. Rice has also been featured frequently as a soloist on Mississippi Public Radio’s Mississippi Concert Hall. He is a member of TOP (Those Opera People) which is listed on the Mississippi Arts Commission Artists Roster. The Las Vegas Review-Journal heralded Rice for “exceptional dramatic power and complete command of his voice.”

Kookogey has held leading roles in The Marriage of Figaro, Die Fledermaus, and La Boheme, and she has performed the soprano soloist in the Verdi Requiem, Saint Saens Christmas Oratorio, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory, and a master’s degree from The University of Georgia.

For more information, call Dr. Emma Pettyjohn at (706)-245-7226 or e-mail epettyjohn@ec.edu.

Written By Communication Sophomore Lauren Peeples