SF Conservatory at Kennedy

As part of its Conservatory Project, the Kennedy Center has been showcasing young artists this week at the Millennium Stage, and tonight’s performers are students at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. So of course I went to support my fellow Bay Area folk. The two-part program featured clarinetist Edward Abrams (who happens to hail from Palo Alto, home of my alma mater, as you know) and South Africa-born mezzo-soprano Elza van den Heever. Both performances were fantastic–such musical proficiency is always exciting to watch–but it was Ms. van den Heever who really had me under a spell. She sang Handel, Ravel, and Richard Strauss, all with such ease and exuberance, and handled the especially roller-coaster-like passages from Ariodante (“Con l’ali di costanza”) beautifully. Definitely one to watch for in the years to come.