Adia Evans, soprano and Michael Banwarth, piano

The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts | WFMT

Soprano Adia Evans and pianist Michael Banwarth perform works by Alfred Bachelet, Joseph Marx, Gian Carlo Menotti, H.T. Burleigh, Lori Laitman, Leslie Adams, and Ricky Ian Gordon, live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.

A second-year soprano with The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center from Baltimore, Adia Evans sang Theresa Alvarez/The Listeners, Girlfriend 2/Blue, and Countess Ceprano/Rigoletto in Lyric’s 2024/25 Season. The previous year she debuted at The Cliburn in Recital with Jake Heggie, the Dayton Philharmonic (Handel’s Messiah), and Annapolis Opera (First Lady/The Magic Flute). Other recent highlights include Mimì/La Bohème with the Borderland Arts Foundation and Beethoven’s 9th with the National Orchestral Institute and Marin Alsop. Evans has performed with Santa Fe Opera, Merola Opera Program, Fort Worth Opera, Dallas Opera Guild, Opera Columbus, Tulsa Opera, and Knoxville Opera, among others. Her numerous honors include the 2025 Lola Fletcher Award from the American Opera Society of Chicago, a 2024 Richard F. Gold Career Grant, an Encouragement Award from the 2024 London Foundation Competition, third place in the 2023 and 2024 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Midwest Region, and first place in the 2023 Dallas Opera Guild Lonestar Vocal Competition. After participating in the 2025 Britten Pears Young Artist Programme in Aldeburgh, England, Evans appears in Lyric’s 2025/26 Season production of El último sueño de Frida y Diego.

Michael Banwarth, the third-year pianist with The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, served on Lyric’s music staff for Blue (2024/25) and Champion (2023/24). He recently completed a Master of Music in collaborative piano at the New England Conservatory of Music. A recipient of the Dean’s Scholarship and Gunther Schuller medal at NEC, Banwarth served as teaching assistant for the Song Lab program, performed frequently in the Liederabend and Sonata Night concert series, and prepared productions of The Turn of the Screw and L’enfant et les sortilèges. This summer he is a pianist for the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie in Neumarkt, Germany, and he was invited to be a 2022 vocal piano fellow at Music Academy of the West. He has also held fellowships at the Bay View Music Festival and the Atlantic Music Festival, and served as assistant music director and harpsichordist for the Iowa State Opera Studio during his undergraduate studies.

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