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Local singer tests pipes at Washington National Opera
Writer'S NOTEBOOK
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Watercolor by Sue Stevenson
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For the past week, Amy Gionfriddo, a 16-year-old from St. Leonard, has been rubbing elbows with some of the world's greatest baritones and mezzo-sopranos.
Gionfriddo, a rising senior at Calvert High School, was selected as one of 32 high school singers and accompanists from across the country to take part in this year's Washington National Opera Institute, a pre-professional program that specializes in individual coaching and mentoring with classes in drama, movement, yoga, music theory, chorus, opera history and Italian diction.
Notable faculty include mezzo sopranos Elizabeth Bishop and Susanne Marsee and baritone Gregory Rahming.
"She says there's a lot of work and a lot of written assignments and music theory, but she loves all of it," said Jeanette Gionfriddo, Amy's mother.
Her participation in the institute adds to an already extensive resume that includes Calvert High's chamber and concert choir, musical theater, all-state chorus, Maryland's All-State Solo and Ensemble Festival, National Honors Society, Foreign Language Honorarium and Tri-M Music Honors Society. Gionfriddo also plays soccer and swims at Calvert High.
"She would love to be an opera singer. Her goal was to sing as the Metropolitan Opera one day," Jeanette Gionfriddo said. "This is what she was born to do. She just loves it."
More than 100 teenagers from around the world auditioned for the 32 vacancies. About half of the students hail from outside the Washington, D.C., region, with representatives from California, Costa Rica and Belgium, among others. The institute offers financial aid to those students in need, according to a press release.
The institute, in its 11th year, began on June 22 and runs through July 11. The participants will give three performances that are free and open to the public: an Italian art song recital at American University's Katzen Arts Center in Washington, D.C., on July 3 at 4 p.m.; an opera scenes recital at the Katzen Arts Center on July 10 at 7 p.m.; and an opera scenes recital on the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage on July 11 at 6 p.m.
Home cookin'
A few locals have been selected to cook for Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) at the second annual Buy Local Challenge Week cookout on July 16. During the week, Marylanders are encouraged to eat at least one locally grown, made or harvested product each day.
Ken Korando, a chef at the Solomons Island Winery, will help prepare a salad of seared buffalo strips over field greens with caramelized onion, bleu cheese and vinaigrette. Edward Bowen, a Huntingtown High School student, will provide a main dish of barbeque pulled pork with cole slaw. Katie Burroughs and Dee Hardesty, two county farmers, will provide Bowen with ingredients.
Korando and Bowen's dishes were among the 16 selected for their creativity and local significance and ingredients. In all, 60 recipes were submitted by state chefs, farmers, watermen and producers. Each one, along with a few O'Malley family favorites, will be published online the day of the cookout.
July 4 closures
With July 4 falling on a Saturday this year, all county government offices will be closed Friday, July 3, in observance of Independence Day.
The Calvert Pines, Southern Pines and North Beach senior centers will be closed July 3 and reopen Monday, July 6. All Meals on Wheels deliveries will be made July 3.
The county's community centers and libraries will be closed both July 3 and 4. County bus service will stop on July 3 and pick up its regular schedule July 4.
County landfills and recycling centers will be open on July 3 but closed July 4. Those facilities normally open on Sundays will be open July 5.
Spaces open for Camp on Wheels
There is still space available for the University of Maryland Extension Calvert County 4-H Camp on Wheels.
Campers must be 8-12 years old on July 1 and will visit Port Discovery, Calvert Marine Museum, Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum, Chesapeake Beach Water Park, the Smithsonian Museums and, new to this year, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
The $150 camp will be held from July 27 to July 31 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Participants must be dropped off with a bag lunch and picked up each day from Room 105 of Community Resources Building on Duke Street in Prince Frederick.
The registration deadline is July 10. For more information, call the 4-H office at 410-535-3662 or 301-855-1150.
Artist to showcase watercolors
Creek Side Gallery, located at the Maryland Antiques Center in Leonardtown, will exhibit the watercolor paintings of Sue Stevenson, a local artist, from July 3 to July 31.
Stevenson's works focus on the local landscape and often depict tobacco barns, lighthouses and bayscapes.
A "meet the artist" reception will be held July 3 from 5 to 8 p.m. For more information, contact Stevenson at 410-326-3087 or watercolorsbysue@comcast.net.
