In Review: Ava Pine performs with the Cliburn Festival to great acclaim!
“The musical team assembled for the festival has been full of consistent performers, but there was one particular standout on Saturday afternoon: soprano Ava Pine, with baritone Jonathan Beyer a strong partner. Pine was busy; she was involved in eight of the 11 numbers on the program. She impressed with the beauty of her voice, her ability to create a sense of the stage with minimal tools — simply a chair in one number — and her variety of musical personalities. High points were Summertime from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, I Hate Men from Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate (a masterpiece of comic performance) and Somewhere from Bernstein’s West Side Story.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“Composer Tom Cipullo’s Late Summer (performed by soprano Ava Pine and pianist Kate Stevens) is based on poems by William Heyen, Emily Dickinson, and Stanley Kunitz. While the piano score may be more palatable for Fort Worth audiences than the angular harmonies of Cipullo’s Glory Denied, the work’s charm came through largely thanks to the vocalists. Pine, whose operatic experience is extensive, lent a compelling theatrical element to her already gorgeous voice. An uneasy smile juxtaposed with an often mournful tone created a tense edge to the opening work, “Crickets.”. . . Pine opened with Aaron Copland’s “Simple Gifts,” with Stevens once again at the piano. The soprano didn’t oversell the iconic folk tune, allowing for the story to shine just as brightly as her voice. Her vocals took on a warmer, velvety hue for “The Little Horses.”” -Fort Worth Weekly