Tickets ON SALE NOW at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-dakota-boys-piano-duo-tickets-927557979887
The seventh feature in Matthew J. Lorenz’s YEAR of Cabaret! at Davenport’s Cabaret Bar. Come and join Chicago’s newest piano duo, The DAKOTA BOYS as they rip up the stage and celebrate hits from the classical piano duo repertoire and operatic romps on the new YAMAHA C3X. They’re bringing together art for high brows and low, from Bizet and Mozart to Vincent Youmans and Dakota-Native PDQ Bach.
American pianist Dana Brown is recognized for his commitment to the power of music, old and new. As a pianist, he has been heard many times on 98.7 WFMT Radio as a collaborator and soloist, in addition to performances at the Ravinia Festival, the Tanglewood Festival, Light Opera Works, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Chicago Humanities Festival and The Grant Park Music Festival. A Spotify artist, his 2021 recording Were I With Thee with Michelle Areyzaga, soprano, garnered excellent reviews. His other recordings include Haydn’s Schottische and Walisische Lieder with Stephen C Edwards, tenor (Lexicon Classics) and Human to Human with Fourth Coast Ensemble, as well as Lifescapes with soprano Rae-Myra Hilliard.
He supports young singers through his work at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where he is Associate Professor of Opera and Vocal Coaching. He has musically directed over fifty operas at Roosevelt University, most recently King Arthur/Henry Purcell, Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters/Ned Rorem, and Riders to the Sea/Ralph Vaughan Williams. He is also on the artist faculty at Chicago’s New Music School.
Brown is the Chair of the Board of Directors of Chicago’s Fourth Coast Ensemble, Chicago’s professional vocal quartet, with whom he performs regularly. With the quartet, he premiered Wayland Rogers’ song cycle I-Thou and Andrea Clearfield’s peace cantata A Brush With Our Time. Both works were recorded for the CD: “Human to Human”).
For seven summers, he was the Co-Artistic Director of a mind-body-voice program for emerging young talent, the UpNorth Vocal Institute (UNVI) in Boyne, Michigan. A nationally prominent vocal coach, he has coached at the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he also played lessons and masterclasses of Marilyn Horne, Renata Scotto, Renée Fleming and Sir Andrew Davis. He has also coached at Northwestern University, the Intermezzo Young Artists Program, the Opera and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy, and the Taos Opera Institute. He was the coach for the 2008-2011 seasons of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Wisconsin District Support Our Singers Program. He has given masterclasses at Arizona State University, the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program, the University of North Texas, Northwestern University, Saint Xavier University, the University of Chicago, North Park University, and UpNorth Vocal Institute.
A graduate of the University of Michigan, he studied with renowned pianist Martin Katz. He also studied with Mary Sauer, the former principal pianist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and is in the process of writing a book about her teaching.
Matthew Lorenz is a growing artistic presence in the American Midwest and the international stage at large. Matthew’s performance experience as a pianist extends from Bismarck, ND to Santa Rosa, NM, then Paris; and beyond, now currently active in Chicago. Besides his regular performing schedule Matthew is on the Piano Faculty at the New Music School, the Gold Coast’s premier music academy. Read more about Matthew at his website, mlorenzmusic.squarespace.com!
Matthew has become a regular performer at Davenport’s since playing his first cabaret there in Spring of ‘22 (he prepared for character by watching Liza Manelli’s 1972 classic Cabaret! three or four times). Now he chases cabaret’s electric atmosphere, and is on a mission to present a new cabaret at Davenport’s every month of 2024: the YEAR of Cabaret!