Karen Kanakis to give faculty recital May 2

Karen Kanakis, Luther College assistant professor of music, will present a faculty recital Saturday, May 2 at 8 p.m. in the Noble Recital Hall.

The performance is open to the public with no charge for admission.

The recital will feature the music of Bach, Enrique Granados, Miguel Sandoval, Pauline Viardot, Giuseppe Verdi and Alexander Zemlinsky. 

Luther music faculty members Eric Kutz, Jubal Fulks, Kathryn Reed-Maxfield, Spencer Martin, Richard Tirk and Jessica Paul, and Luther senior Erik Malmquist will perform on the recital.

Kanakis has performed many major roles in her wide-ranging repertoire, including the title roles in “Lucia di Lammermoor” and “La Traviata.”

Active in concert and oratorio, Kanakis has been a featured soloist with symphony organizations performing Mendelssohn’s “Elijah,” Handel’s “Messiah,” Mozart’s “Exsultate jubilate,” Haydn’s “Die Schöpfung,” Brahm’s “Ein Deutches Requiem,” Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” and the Verdi “Requiem.” In June 2008 she made her Carnegie Hall debut in the Weill Recital Hall in a program of performing duos from the Luther music faculty. 

A regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Kanakis has performed as an Apprentice Artist with both the Des Moines Metro Opera and the Utah Festival Opera Company.

She holds the bachelor of music cum laude from Missouri State University and the master of music from Stephen F. Austin State University.  A Rotary International Graduate Scholar, Kanakis also studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Westfalen-Lippe in Detmold, Germany. She went on to the University of North Texas, winning the Concerto/Aria competition, and earned the doctor of musical arts degree in voice and opera.

Prior to joining the Luther faculty, Kanakis taught on the faculties of Missouri Southern State University and Texas Women’s University.  She also held teaching fellowships at Stephen F. Austin State University and the University of North Texas. In 2008 she was named one of six “Young Leaders” across the country by the National Association of Singers of Teaching.