BAE Presents: Mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford with Pianists Kyle Walker & Gary Mitchell Jr.

Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano, will be singing art songs, newly written works by Black composers, spirituals, and gospel with Kyle Walker and Gary Mitchell, Jr. on piano. Presented free of charge at the beautiful Christ Church in Riverdale, Bronx.

Mezzo-soprano, LUCIA BRADFORD is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. Ms. Bradford has performed a number of operatic roles including Carmen in Bizet’s La Tragedie de Carmen, Zita in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, La Principessa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, The Mother  in Ravel’s L’Enfant des Sortileges, Mercedes in Bizet’s Carmen, Mrs. Quickly in Verdi’s Falstaff,  The Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Gertrude in Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, Hippolyta in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Miss Todd in Menotti’s Old Maid and the Thief, the Duchess of Plaza Toro in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers, Azelia Dessalines in the historic return of William Grant Still’s opera Troubled Island with New York City Opera at the Schomburg Center, Maria in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and the Mother of Paul Dunbar in the premiere of The Mask in the Mirror by Richard Thompson.

Ms. Bradford has had the privilege of singing and touring in Russia with the Krasnoyarsk Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and the Radio Orpheus Symphony Orchestra in Siberia, Dubna and Moscow presented by Opera Noire of New York City. She has also toured in parts of Spain, the Caribbean and throughout the United States.

In addition to opera,  she enjoys performing in concert and recital settings. Namely, performing works of Schubert, Rossini and Moses Hogan at the prestigious Kimmel Center in the Verizon Hall in Philadelphia with the renowned Maestro Christoph Eschenbach at the piano, the alto soloist in Undine Smith Moore’s The Scene for the Life of a Martyr in Minnesota, appearing with chamber orchestras including the Harlem Chamber Players performing for their annual Bach series and the St Luke’s orchestra. Ms. Bradford also enjoys singing new compositions. She appeared in  New York City Opera’s VOX concert series performing a new work called Crescent City by Anne LeBaron as Marie Leveau also in Yoav Gal’s work called Mosheh as Miriam.

Ms. Bradford also enjoys singing other genres such as gospel and jazz. She is a member of Opera Noire of New York City and the American Spirituals Ensemble under the direction of Doctor Everett McCorvey.

KYLE P. WALKER, a critically-acclaimed pianist with a passion for using music to address social issues, is on a mission to bridge traditional Western repertoire with the work of neglected composers from around the world. Many of his performances have been featured on media broadcasts including The Green Space at WNYC, WQXR’s Mcgraw-Hill Financial Young Artists Showcase, South Carolina Public Radio, Sunday Baroque, NPR’s Public Radio East, NPR’s 1A, CNN, and PBS. He has been featured in recitals at New York’s Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, and with orchestra in Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall. Highlights of past seasons include solo performances at The Apollo Theater, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Crocker Art Museum, The Frist Museum of Art, The Tantaloona Cave of Australia, the Lied Center of Kansas, Adelaide Town Hall, Berkeley Piano Club, and The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Walker is pianist of DARA + KYLE, innovative piano/cello duo and 2021 recipient of the Chamber Music America “Ensemble Forward” career grant. The award-winning duo is committed to bringing excellence and respect to all under-represented composers in the canon. Walker also performs with The Harlem Chamber Players, an ethnically diverse collective of professional musicians dedicated to bringing high-caliber, affordable and accessible live classical music to people in the Harlem community and beyond. As an advocate of social justice Walker is a founding member and chamber musician of The Dream Unfinished, an activist orchestra which supports NYC-based civil rights and community organizations through concerts and presentations. As a teaching artist and educator, he has co-presented at the Human Rights Center, New York Society for Ethical Culture, and the Brooklyn Public Library.
Walker has performed as soloist with the East Carolina Symphony Orchestra and Colour of Music Chamber Orchestra, and in addition he has presented performances at The Kennedy Center, Steinway Hall NYC, The Great Hall at Cooper Union, The House of the Redeemer, Birmingham Jefferson Concert Hall, Tishman Auditorium, National Opera America, Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera, and National Sawdust. He has performed at Caramoor Center for Music and Arts, Storm King Art Center, The Colour of Music Festival, Tibor Varga Music Festival in Switzerland, The Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, The Ferrara Chamber Music Festival, Enso Chamber Music Festival, the Beethoven Institute, and spent numerous summers at PianoFest in the Hamptons, NY. He is a frequent collaborator in new music performance projects with living composers such as Vijay Iyer, John Link, Courtney Bryan, Jeffery Scott, Evan Williams, Matthew Lyon Hazzard, Joan Szymko, Tania Leon, and Mary D. Watkins.
Walker is a member of the piano faculty at NYU Steinhardt Piano Studies. In addition he is also on faculty of the Lucy Moses School at Kaufman Music Center, and on the chamber music faculty of The Artist Program at Suzuki on the Island. He has presented recitals, residencies, and masterclasses at various institutions such as The University of Dayton, The University of Virginia, Belmont University, Allen University, The Harlem School of the Arts, and The Duke Ellington School of the Arts. He has also co-presented extensive workshops alongside The Dream Unfinished including the Carnegie Hall Music Educator Workshop, speaking about arts activism and building diverse curriculums for students, to include composers that reflect the communities in which they serve. Kyle Walker holds degrees from Mannes College, The New School for Music, East Carolina University, and from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. His principal teachers include Thomas Sauer, Benjamin Hochman, Keiko Sekino, Henry Doskey, and Clifton Matthews.
Walker resides in a suburb of New York City with his wife, violinist Katherine Dennis, and their daughter Khloe. He is currently touring with a solo performance project entitled Bach to BlackNotes, which features works of J.S. Bach juxtaposed with music of neglected composers who speak to issues of oppression and inequality. See and hear more of Kyle Walker’s musicianship on Instagram @klassicalkyle and at www.kylewalkerpiano.com.

GARY MITCHELL, JR., regularly collaborates with renowned singers, instrumentalists, artists, and ensembles, throughout the world.

Gary debuted as Noah “Horse” T. Simmons in The Full Monty at The Clink Theatre, Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia; portrayed Jasbo Brown in Porgy and Bess at The Royal Danish Opera House-Copenhagen; and has been featured in myriad performances in Japan, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland.

Mitchell has been featured at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Harlem Opera Festival, Teatro alla Scala, Dance Theater of Harlem, 54 Below, NAACP ACT-SO, Harlem Stage Theatre (Antigone in Ferguson), as Jimmy Powers in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, at Portland Stage Theatre, The Cape Playhouse, and he frequents Barrington Stage Theatre. He has also collaborated and performed with PBS, MTV, VH1, Steinway International, and Netflix, and in addition to working extensively with Rema Webb and Charl Brown, he was associate music director for the reading of Tituss Burgess’s The Preacher’s Wife.

Previously, Gary was a bass vocal artist at Houston Grand Opera and Artist-in-Residence at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Houston, and now serves as Director of Music and Arts Administration at First AME Church: Bethel-Harlem. He also conducts the mellifluous group he founded: Harlem Renaissance Chorale. He is  Artist-in-Residence at Union Theological Seminary, a member of the professoriate: Tougaloo College, Texas Southern University, and Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University.

Gary is member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America, Inc., PHA Aurora Lodge, Jackson State University National Alumni Association (Life Member), The National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM), The American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), and Actor’s Equity Association (AEA).

https://about.me/garymitchelljr