Piatigorsky Concert with tenor Kelly W. Burns and pianist Nicholas Shaneyfelt

Two internationally renowned performers – tenor Kelly W. Burns and pianist Nicholas Shaneyfelt, will perform at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 24, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

This event is free of charge and is open to the public. There is no registration.

Tenor Kelly W. Burns is an active performer of opera, musical theater, recital and concert works throughout North America in vocal repertoire spanning more than 400 years. He has sung with opera companies and orchestras such as the Chautauqua Opera, Opera Roanoke, Memphis Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Little Orchestra Society of New York, the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Chamber Opera, Opera Project Columbus, and the Oxford Shakespeare Festival.

Among his stage credits are roles from Mozart's Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and The Magic Flute, Donizetti's The Elixir of Love, Sondheim's Sweeney Todd and A Little Night Music, and Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel. From the concert repertoire, Kelly has performed tenor solos in Handel's Messiah, Bach's Magnificat, Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. Kelly’s recital repertoire includes songs and chamber works in numerous languages from all over the world, and his interest in new music led to World and American Premiers of works by several living composers.

Burns lives in Fargo, North Dakota where he is a member of the faculty of the North Dakota State University Challey School of Music. He teaches voice and diction and is director of NDSU Opera. Kelly is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss).

Nicholas Shaneyfelt is Associate Professor of Music in Collaborative Piano at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where he coaches singers, provides musical direction for the opera program, and collaborates in recital regularly with faculty and students.  He completed doctoral studies in the Collaborative Piano studio of Martin Katz at the University of Michigan. Prior to Michigan, he served as Staff Accompanist for the Department of Music and Dance at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Dr. Shaneyfelt serves as associate director of the International Music Festival of the Adriatic, a summer festival for instrumentalists, singers, and composers in Duino, Italy. He was also a music director at Belvoir Terrace in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Dr. Shaneyfelt appears on saxophonist Jonathan Hulting-Cohen’s album “Second Flight,” released in 2021 on Innova Records.

Originally from Knightstown, Indiana, Dr. Shaneyfelt received bachelor’s degrees in Music and Computer Science from the University of Notre Dame, and a Master of Music degree from UMass with a dual focus in Solo and Collaborative Piano. His piano trio, “The Nora Trio,” was the first Notre Dame chamber ensemble to be selected as a finalist in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.