Sandra Walden, American soprano with Andrew Fernando, US-based Filipino baritone and the Philippine Madrigal Singers will close the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra season concert at 8 p.m. on April 11 at the CCP Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo. Maestro Eugene Castillo leads the PPO. A pre-concert chat will be held at the main theater lobby at 7 p.m.

Walden and Fernando will perform Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, written with liturgical text from Agnus Dei along with poems by Walt Whitman. The PPO performs Tchaikovsky’s last symphony, Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Pathtique, opus 74.

Walden is the director of the Lyric Theater and Instructor in Opera and Musical Theater at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). With an extensive background in operatic and musical theater performance, she began directing opera while pursuing her masters in music in vocal performance at the University of Minnesota. She served as the assistant director of the University of Minnesota Opera program for two years, directing Riders to the Sea, Bernstein’s Mass, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail, among others. While at UNI, Walden directed The Crucible, Gianni Schicchi, La Serva Padrona, The Tender Land, Die Fliedermaus, The Old Maid and the Thief, The Telephone, A Chorus Line, Sweeney Todd, Die Dreigroschenoper, and Fiddler on the Roof.

Walden’s singing career has encompassed both operatic and musical theatre roles in the following: the Mother (Hansel und Gretel), Nora (Riders to the Sea), Nella (Gianni Schicchi), Collette (Le Devin du Village), Marcellina (Le Nozze di Figaro), Dorabella (Cosí fan tutte), Bellina (The Prima Donna) Celie (Signor Deluso), Hildy (On the Town), Morales (A Chorus Line), and Sally Bowles (Cabaret).

She is the co-founder of an improvisational ensemble in New York, which creates new works combining music, theater and dance.

Fernando is a first-prize winner of the 2003 Loren L. Zachary National Vocal Competition in the US as well as the grand prize winner in the Pasadena Opera Guild Vocal Competition 2004. He is also a finalist in the Licia Albanese Puccini International Vocal Competition 2003. He is also a prizewinner in the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions in the Los Angeles district and in the Pacific Region. From 1999-2002, he was Opera Pacific’s resident baritone, as well as an alumnus of the world-renowned San Francisco Opera Merola program.

The UP Madrigal Singers or the Madz was founded in 1963 by National Artist for Music, Andrea O. Veneracion. The group is composed of students, faculty and alumni from the different colleges of the UP. The choir is one of the Asia’s most awarded, having consistently won the top prizes in most of the world’s choral competitions: Arezzo and Gorizia in Italy, Marktoberdorf in Germany, Spittal in Austria, Neuchatel in Switzerland, Tours in France, Varna in Bulgaria, Debrecen in Hungary, Cantonigros and Torrevieja in Spain. They now hold the distinction of being the only choir in the world to win the European Grand Prix of Choral Singing twice; first in 1997 and in August of 2007. Mark Anthony Carpio is the group’s choirmaster.

For tickets, call Lilia Casasola Januare at the CCP Marketing Department at 832 1125 loc. 1806 or visit www.ticketworld.com.ph.