The East Village Opera Company (EVOC) is a rock group co-founded by vocalist Tyley Ross and arranger/multi-instrumentalist Peter Kiesewalter, both Canadians. Vocalist AnnMarie Milazzo was then recruited to provide female vocals. EVOC includes eight other members: two guitarists, a bassist, a percussionist, and a string quartet. EVOC could be described as a cover band

Cover band

A cover band , is a band that plays mostly or exclusively cover songs. New or unknown bands often find the cover band format marketable for smaller gigs, and these bands may be known as a wedding band, party band and function band. A band whose covers consist mainly of songs that were chart hits is...

 whose niche is traditional opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

tic pieces that are then arranged to reflect more modern musical stylings.

La Donna

In 2004, EVOC released their first album, La Donna, under the Canal Records label. On this album, Ross and Kiesewalter fuse classic Italian arias and Neapolitan folk songs

Music of Naples

Naples has played an important and vibrant role over the centuries not just in the music of Italy, but in the general history of western European musical traditions. This influence extends from the early music conservatories in the 16th century through the music of Alessandro Scarlatti during the...

 with "unabashed 70's arena rock

Arena rock

Arena rock is a term used to describe rock music that utilised large arena venues, particularly sports venues, for concerts or series of concerts linked in tours...

, sultry bossa nova

Bossa nova

Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...

, four-on-the-floor disco, and celtic and bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

-tinged ambience." It was arranged and produced by Peter Kiesewalter, vocal arrangements by Tyley Ross, mixed by Wayne Bartlett at Bartmart Audio, Ottawa, and mastered by Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound, New York. Behind the duo are over twenty musicians, including guitarist Vernon Reid

Vernon Reid

Vernon Reid is an English-born American guitarist, songwriter, composer, and bandleader. Best known as the founder and primary songwriter of the heavy metal band Living Colour, Reid was named #66 on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.Critic Steve Huey writes, "[Reid's]...

 (Living Colour

Living Colour

Living Colour is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 1984. Stylistically, the band's music is a creative fusion influenced by free jazz, funk, neo-psychedelia, hard rock, and heavy metal...

), banjo master Tony Trishka, Blue Man Group

Blue Man Group

Blue Man Group is an organization founded by Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton. The organization produces theatrical shows and concerts featuring popular music, comedy and multimedia; recorded music and scores for film and television; television appearances for shows such as The Tonight...

 music director Byron Estep, and a string ensemble from the National Arts Centre Orchestra

National Arts Centre Orchestra

The National Arts Centre Orchestra is an orchestra in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's capital. It is a classically-sized ensemble currently conducted by Pinchas Zukerman.-Description:Since 1998, Pinchas Zukerman has been the Music Director. Mario Bernardi C.C...

 of Canada.

La Donna found its launching point as the soundtrack for Derek Diorio

Derek Diorio

Derek Diorio is a Canadian writer, director, producer and actor. He was a member of the comedy group Skit Row during the 80's.-Writer:* You Can't Do That on Television * The Raccoons * The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin...

's 2001 film, The Kiss of Debt. The comedic film stars Ernest Borgnine

Ernest Borgnine

Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...

 as the godfather and self-proclaimed opera aficionado, and Tyley Ross, as Tino Moriano, the talented young tenor aspiring to sing with The Continental Opera Company. Ross performs "Panis Angelicus

Panis Angelicus

Panis angelicus is the penultimate strophe of the hymn Sacris solemniis written by Saint Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Corpus Christi as part of a complete liturgy of the Feast including prayers for the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours....

" and "Ave Maria

Ellens dritter Gesang

Ellens dritter Gesang , in English: "Ellen's Third Song", was composed by Franz Schubert in 1825 as part of his Opus 52, a setting of seven songs from Walter Scott's popular epic poem The Lady of the Lake, loosely translated into German.It has become one of Schubert's most popular works under the...

", from La Donna, and the rest of the tracks are background music to the fanciful storyline.

The CD contains the following tracks:

1. "Vesti la giubba
   Vesti la giubba
   "Vesti la giubba" is a famous tenor aria from Ruggero Leoncavallo's 1892 opera Pagliacci. "Vesti la giubba" is the conclusion of the first act, when Canio discovers his wife's infidelity, but must nevertheless prepare for his performance as Pagliaccio the clown because "the show must go on".The...
   
   " – Ruggero Leoncavallo
   Ruggero Leoncavallo
   Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer. His two-act work Pagliacci remains one of the most popular works in the repertory, appearing as number 20 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.-Biography:...
   
   
2. "Una furtiva lagrima
   Una furtiva lagrima
   Una furtiva lagrima is the romanza taken from Act II, Scene VIII of the Italian opera, L'elisir d'amore by Gaetano Donizetti. It is sung by Nemorino when he finds that the love potion he bought to win his dream lady’s heart, Adina, works.Nemorino is in love with Adina, but she isn't interested in...
   
   " – Gaetano Donizetti
   Gaetano Donizetti
   Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
   
   
3. "La Danza
   La Danza
   "La danza" is a patter song by Gioachino Rossini, in Tarantella napoletana time, the eighth song of the collection Les soirées musicales . The lyrics are by Count Carlo Pepoli, librettist of Vincenzo Bellini's opera I puritani. "La danza" is a stand-alone chamber vocal piece, rather than part of a...
   
   " – Gioachino Rossini
4. "M'apparì tutt'amor
   Martha (opera)
   Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond is a 'romantic comic' opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow, set to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese and based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges....
   
   " – Friedrich von Flotow
   Friedrich von Flotow
   Friedrich Adolf Ferdinand, Freiherr von Flotow was a German composer. He is chiefly remembered for his opera Martha, which was popular in the 19th century....
   
   
5. "Maria, Mari" – Eduardo di Capua
   Eduardo di Capua
   Eduardo di Capua was an Italian singer and songwriter.-Biography:He was born in Naples in 1865. Together with the poet Giovanni Capurro, di Capua wrote the song "'O Sole Mio", which has since been recorded by many singers, both classical and popular...
   
   
6. "La Paloma
   La Paloma
   This article is about the song. For the American city, see La Paloma, Texas."La Paloma" is a popular song, having been produced and reinterpreted in diverse cultures, settings, arrangements, and recordings over the last 140 years. The song was composed and written by Spanish composer Sebastián...
   
   " – Sebastián Yradier
7. "La donna è mobile
   La donna è mobile
   "La donna è mobile" is the cynical Duke of Mantua's canzone from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto . The inherent irony is that it is the callous playboy Duke himself who is mobile...
   
   " – Giuseppe Verdi
   Giuseppe Verdi
   Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
   
   
8. "Panis Angelicus
   Panis Angelicus
   Panis angelicus is the penultimate strophe of the hymn Sacris solemniis written by Saint Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Corpus Christi as part of a complete liturgy of the Feast including prayers for the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours....
   
   " – César Franck
   César Franck
   César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....
   
   
9. "Questa o quella" – Giuseppe Verdi
   Giuseppe Verdi
   Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
   
   
10. "La Serenata" – Paolo Tosti
11. "Ave Maria
    Ellens dritter Gesang
    Ellens dritter Gesang , in English: "Ellen's Third Song", was composed by Franz Schubert in 1825 as part of his Opus 52, a setting of seven songs from Walter Scott's popular epic poem The Lady of the Lake, loosely translated into German.It has become one of Schubert's most popular works under the...
    
    " – Franz Schubert
    Franz Schubert
    Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
    
    

The East Village Opera Company

EVOC's second, self-titled album was released September 27, 2005 on the Decca Records

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 label. The album was produced and recorded by Neil Dorfsman, a Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 winner who has worked with notable artists such as Sting and Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

, and group acts like Dire Straits

Dire Straits

Dire Straits were a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995, composed of Mark Knopfler , his younger brother David Knopfler , John Illsley , and Pick Withers .Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest...

. Symphonic portions were performed by the Czech Philharmonic.

The CD contains the following tracks:

1. Le nozze di Figaro Redux – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
   
   
2. "Nessun dorma
   Nessun dorma
   Nessun dorma is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, and is one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, il principe ignoto , who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot...
   
   " Redux – Giacomo Puccini
   Giacomo Puccini
   Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
   
   
3. "Flower Duet
   The Flower Duet
   The Flower Duet is a famous duet for sopranos from Léo Delibes' opera Lakmé, first performed in Paris in 1883. The duet takes place in Act 1 of the three act opera, between characters Lakmé, the daughter of a Brahmin priest, and her servant Mallika, as they go to gather flowers by a river...
   
   " Redux – Léo Delibes
   Léo Delibes
   Clément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...
   
   
4. "La donna è mobile" Redux – Giuseppe Verdi
   Giuseppe Verdi
   Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
   
   
5. "Un bel dì" Redux – Giacomo Puccini
6. "Au fond du temple saint" Redux – Georges Bizet
   Georges Bizet
   Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
   
   
7. "O mio babbino caro
   O mio babbino caro
   "O mio babbino caro" is a soprano aria from the opera Gianni Schicchi , by Giacomo Puccini, to a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is sung by Lauretta after tensions between her father Schicchi and the family of Rinuccio, the boy she loves, have reached a breaking point that threatens to...
   
   " Redux – Giacomo Puccini
8. "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana" Redux – Alfredo Catalani
   Alfredo Catalani
   Alfredo Catalani was an Italian operatic composer. He is best remembered for his operas Loreley and La Wally...
   
   
9. "Che gelida manina" Redux – Giacomo Puccini
10. "Habanera
    Habanera (aria)
    In the form of habanera, there is a famous aria from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. It is sometimes referred to as "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle." . Its score was adapted from the habanera "El Arreglito," originally composed by the Spanish musician Sebastián Yradier...
    
    " Redux – Georges Bizet
11. "When I Am Laid in Earth
    Dido's lament
    "Dido's Lament" is the commonly-used name for the noted aria, "When I am laid in earth", from the opera, Dido and Aeneas, by Henry Purcell ....
    
    " Redux – Henry Purcell
    Henry Purcell
    Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
    
    
12. "E lucevan le stelle
    E lucevan le stelle
    "E lucevan le stelle" is the romanza of Mario Cavaradossi , a painter in love with Tosca, in the third act of Puccini's opera Tosca, composed in 1900 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa...
    
    " Redux Giacomo Puccini

Olde School

EVOC's latest release, Olde School, debuted in August 2008. Produced, arranged and orchestrated by Peter Kiesewalter and mixed by Neil Dorfsman at Saint Claire Studios near Lexington, Kentucky, Olde School received a 2009 Grammy

51st Grammy Awards

The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA on February 8, 2009. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the biggest winners of the night, jointly winning five awards including Album of the Year and Record of the Year...

 nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album.

The CD contains the following tracks:

1. "The Ride from Die Walküre
   Die Walküre
   Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
   
   " – Richard Wagner
   Richard Wagner
   Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
   
   
2. "King^sic of the Night
   Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen
   "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" is the second aria sung by a coloratura soprano role Queen of the Night in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute .-The aria:...
   
   " from Die Zauberflöte – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
   
   
3. "Help Me (Jove, In Pity)" from Semele – George Frideric Handel
   George Frideric Handel
   George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
   
   
4. "Brindisi
   Libiamo ne' lieti calici
   Libiamo ne'lieti calici is the most famous duet from Verdi's La traviata, one of the most well known fragments of opera around the world, and an obligatory performance for any great tenor. The song is categorised as a Brindisi, which encourages alcoholic drinking...
   
   " / "Libera" (Pop the Cork) from La traviata
   La traviata
   La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
   
    – Giuseppe Verdi
   Giuseppe Verdi
   Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
   
   
5. "Gloria" from Griselda
   Griselda (Giovanni Bononcini)
   Griselda is a dramma per musica in three acts that was composed by Giovanni Battista Bononcini. The opera uses a revised version of the 1701 Italian libretto by Apostolo Zeno that was based on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron . The Italian poet Paolo Antonio Rolli was hired to revise the text...
   
    – Giovanni Battista Bononcini
   Giovanni Battista Bononcini
   Giovanni Battista Bononcini was an Italian Baroque composer and cellist, one of a family of string players and composers. His father, Giovanni Maria Bononcini , was a violinist and a composer.-Biography:...
   
   
6. "Walk" from Semele – George Frideric Handel
   George Frideric Handel
   George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
   
   
7. "As You Were Then" from Norma
   Norma (opera)
   Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
   
    – Vincenzo Bellini
   Vincenzo Bellini
   Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
   
   
8. "Soldiers" from Faust
   Faust (opera)
   Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
   
    – Charles Gounod
   Charles Gounod
   Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
   
   
9. "You're Not Alone" from "Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd, BWV 208" – Johann Sebastian Bach
   Johann Sebastian Bach
   Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
   
   
10. "Va Tosca" from Tosca
    Tosca
    Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
    
     – Giacomo Puccini
11. "Butterfly Duet" from Madama Butterfly
    Madama Butterfly
    Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
    
     – Giacomo Puccini

Comparisons

EVOC's music has drawn comparisons to other contemporary artists in pop culture including the Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Trans-Siberian Orchestra is an American progressive metal band founded in 1993 by producer, composer, and lyricist Paul O'Neill, who brought together Jon Oliva and Al Pitrelli and keyboardist and co-producer Robert Kinkel to form the core of the creative team. Since then, TSO sold nearly 8...

, Mannheim Steamroller

Mannheim Steamroller

Mannheim Steamroller is an American music group founded by Chip Davis and Jackson Berkey, known primarily for its modern recordings of Christmas music. The group has sold 28 million albums in the U.S. alone.-Beginnings:...

, or Metallica

Metallica

Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...

's S&M

S&M (album)

-Video release:Metallica also filmed and released the concert in DVD and VHS with direction by Wayne Isham. The VHS set has only the concert video, while the double DVD set has 5.1 sound , 41 minute documentary about the concert, and two "No Leaf Clover" music videos: "Slice & Dice" version and the...

 (Symphony and Metallica) album. Fans of EVOC generally reject these comparisons for various reasons.

Notable Performances

• Remember Me in collaboration with Parsons Dance Company
  Parsons Dance Company
  -External links:*** accessed 23 June 2007**...
  
   (on tour)
• Jockey Club del Perú, Lima, Peru, September 2008
• Royal Ontario Museum
  Royal Ontario Museum
  The Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With its main entrance facing Bloor Street in Downtown Toronto, the museum is situated north of Queen's Park and east of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto...
  
   Re-opening Gala, Toronto, Ontario, June 2007
• Vértice de la Cultura del Museo de La Nación, Lima, Peru, April 2007
• Miss USA 2006
  Miss USA 2006
  Miss USA 2006, the 55th Miss USA pageant, was held at the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore, Maryland on April 21, 2006. Fifty-one state titleholders competed for the title, which was won by Tara Conner of Kentucky...
  
  , in Baltimore, Maryland.
• New York City Opera
  New York City Opera
  The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
  
   Opening Night Gala, 2005 and 2006"In East Village Opera Company's hands, Puccini Rocks the House" , Lexington Herald-Leader
  Lexington Herald-Leader
  The Lexington Herald-Leader is a newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company and based in the U.S. city of Lexington, Kentucky. According to the 1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook, the Herald-Leaders paid circulation is the second largest in the Commonwealth of Kentucky...
  
  , 6 June 2006. Retrieved on March 14, 2011.
• A&E
  A&E Network
  The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
  
  's Breakfast with the Arts, December 25, 2005
• Mod Club Theatre
  Mod Club Theatre
  Mod Club Theatre is a nightclub in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its address is 722 College Street, which is in Little Italy. The venue hosts live performance concerts and DJ nights, featuring genres like rock, pop, electronic music and hip hop.Mod Club Theatre has a capacity of about 600...
  
  , Toronto, Ontario, 2005

Quotes and press

• "The group's charisma is inescapable and infectious, they electrify the classics for a new generation" – Time Out, New York
• "Opera buffs are likely to find joy, because the tunes aren't bastardized, but electrified." – New York Post
  New York Post
  The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
  
  
• "East Village Opera dishes out classic favorites with a startling new twist", Chicago Tribune
  Chicago Tribune
  The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
  
  , 6 October 2006
• "In East Village Opera Company's Hands, Puccini Rocks the House", Lexington Herald-Leader
  Lexington Herald-Leader
  The Lexington Herald-Leader is a newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company and based in the U.S. city of Lexington, Kentucky. According to the 1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook, the Herald-Leaders paid circulation is the second largest in the Commonwealth of Kentucky...
  
   (Lexington, Ky.), 6 June 2006
• "Feature Artist – EVOC: Romantic Rock" – The Music Edge, 23 March 2006
• "Rocking the Classics" – Gay City News
  Gay City News
  Gay City News is an award-winning, free weekly newspaper based in New York City that focuses on local and national issues relating to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. It was founded in 1994 as Lesbian Gay New York, later LGNY, and was sold to Community Media LLC in 2002,...
  
  , 29 September 2005
• "Group takes riff on opera" – The Washington Times
  The Washington Times
  The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
  
  , 28 September 2005

Trivia

• EVOC made their debut performance in March 2004 at Joe's Pub
  Joe's Pub
  Joe's Pub at Public Theater is a nightclub that hosts live performances regularly. The venue, which is a non-profit operation, is located at 425 Lafayette Street near Astor Place in Manhattan, New York City...
  
   in Manhattan
• Even though Kiesewalter and Ross both grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, they knew each other only through friends, and had never before collaborated professionally until 2001, on the film The Kiss of Debt.
• Kiesewalter is the musical arranger and a solo instrumentalist in NYC's The Downtown Messiah, in which AnnMarie Milazzo also has performed. Incidentally, this is where Kiesewalter and Milazzo met.
• Kiesewalter isn't an opera buff per se. Kiesewalter was noted as saying "I've never been an opera fan. Yet the more I listened to opera, the more the melodies cried out. These arias, in essence, are pop tunes that have stood the test of time."
• Ross became a self-proclaimed fan of opera, during his three month immersion in the genre, in preparation for his work on The Kiss of Debt.
• After seeing Tyley Ross' performance as the lead in Peter Townshend's Tommy
  The Who's Tommy
  The Who's Tommy is a rock musical by Pete Townshend and Des McAnuff based on The Who's 1969 double album rock opera Tommy, also by Pete Townshend, with additional material by John Entwistle, Keith Moon and Sonny Boy Williamson.-Productions:...
  
  , CTV National
  CTV television network
  CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
  
   anchor Sandie Rinaldo
  Sandie Rinaldo
  Sandie Rinaldo is a Canadian television journalist and anchor for CTV News.-Youth and education:...
  
   loved the performance so much, she named her new dog "Tyley."
• Overture from Le nozze di Figaro incorporates the keyboard solo from The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again
  Won't Get Fooled Again
  "Won't Get Fooled Again" is a song by the rock band The Who which was written by Pete Townshend The original version of the song appears as the final track on the album Who's Next...
  
  ", and "Che gelida manina" from La bohème
  La bohème
  La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
  
   styles its guitar after U2
  U2
  U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
  
  .

External links

• Website
• MySpace
• Interview on NPR
  NPR
  NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...