(MIDDLETOWN, NJ) -- The Middletown Arts Center will host A Benefit Concert for Ukraine featuring Soprano Malena Towers who will perform to the music of Vivaldi, Mozart, Puccini and Lloyd Webber. Experience an afternoon that will surely spark the love and power of music in your heart on Sunday, June 12 at 4:00pm. The proceeds of the concert will go to the Ukrainian children and refugees in America and Europe. There will be a reception to follow with a silent art auction.
Tickets are $20 for General Admission and are available for purchase online or by calling the Box Office at 732.706.4100. The Middletown Arts Center is located at 36 Church Street in Middletown, NJ (next to the Middletown train station). Free parking is available onsite with additional free parking available in the train station metered lot on weekday evenings after 6:00pm and weekends.
Soprano Malena Towers received with honors her Master’s in Music with a concentration in Voice Performance from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2016. She earned her Bachelor in Music in Voice Performance from the High Institute of Arts in Havana, Cuba in 2010.
Malena has performed Opera, Zarzuelas and Classical concerts, as well as and taught around the United States and overseas in Austria, Israel, Spain, Ecuador, Cuba, and Venezuela. She became the Finalist at the International Voice Competition in Jerusalem Opera Program, 2018. In 2016, she won the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award in Texas. In March 2015 she won the First Place and the McKinney’s award at the National Association of Teachers and Singers (NATS) Competition in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas Chapter.
She also became a semifinalist in the Orpheus Vocal Competition in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In this last competition, the panel acknowledged her with the following words “you exemplify the artistic characteristics vital to the success of a professional vocalist. For her performance at this event, she was awarded a summer scholarship to go to the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS), Graz, Austria, 2016. In addition, Malena sang at the Atlantic Music Festival in Waterville, Maine.
In Guayana, Venezuela, she founded the first Opera Company in the state of Bolivar. This company promoted operas scenes, workshops, and classical concert opportunities for youth and young adults. Malena had the opportunity to sing for an audience of 24,000 teachers and students at the Educational Convention in the Stadium of San Felix, Venezuela, 2012. The Guayana’s press review from Nueva Prensa and Primicia newspapers were “The melodious voice and the angelical face which captivated the hearts of the Guayana’s people. The Cuban Soprano Malena Towers has performed successfully in her country and ours, singing in several venues of the Bolivar and Valencia states, as well in TV shows and the Radio".
Most recent roles: Susanna (Le Nozze Di Figaro), Zerlina (Don Giovanni) Gilda (Rigoletto)(projected in Summer 2019, Israel) Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) Papagena (Die Zauberflöte) First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Fiordiligi (Cosi Fan Tutte), Aglae (Echo et Narcisse), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Fairy Godmother (Cinderella), Norina (Don Pasquale, Musetta (La Boheme) Venues: Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and National Opera Center in New York, Amphitheater of Natnanyia, Israel, Theater at Brooklyn Music School, National Theater of Havana, Cuba, Oratorio San Felipe Neri, Havana, Cuba, Club Italo Hall in Guayana, Venezuela, Atlantic Music Festival Opera production at Colby College Theater in Maine, Feinberg Messianic Center, Brooklyn, Reynolds Auditorium at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas, AIMS Festival in Austria. She performs annually her Classical Operatic Concert at Middletown Art Center, NJ for a charity cause.
She performs and teaches Voice at her studio “It’s Music.” She is fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian. She also plays piano and conducts choirs proficiently.
The Middletown Arts Center (MAC) is an award-winning, state-of-the-art facility in Middletown, NJ that offers performances, exhibitions, classes and camps centering on the arts. It is conveniently located across from the Middletown train station and its newly expanded MAC Annex is minutes away at the Middletown Reformed Church’s Education Building. The MAC is operated by a non-profit 501(c)(3), the Middletown Township Cultural and Arts Council, which is dedicated to bringing quality arts programming and events to Middletown and surrounding communities.