Guest artist Jesse, SFA pianist Petti to perform recital

The Friends of Music Concert Series will present guest artist Dennis Jesse performing a voice recital at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 9, in Cole Concert Hall on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus. Jesse will be accompanied by Dr. Ron Petti, professor and director of collaborative piano for the SFA School of Music.

Jesse, who is now associate professor of voice at Louisiana State University, and Petti were classmates in the opera program at Bowling Green State University in the early 1990s. Jesse sang the well-known aria “Largo al factotum” from Gioachino Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” on Petti’s master’s degree recital.

Jesse and Petti will perform a recital of treasured songs and arias by Johannes Brahms, Henri Duparc, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Georges Bizet, Samuel Barber and Giuseppe Verdi.

A baritone, Jesse has performed in a wide range of styles, including grand opera, operetta and musical theater. He has appeared in numerous productions with New Orleans Opera, Amarillo Opera, El Paso Opera, National Opera Company and other companies across the nation. His operatic credits include the roles of Rigoletto, Scarpia, Amonasro, Don Giovanni and Gianni Schicchi, as well as lead roles in “The Barber of Seville “The Marriage of Figaro,” “La Bohème, ” “Carmen,” “Romèo et Juliette” and many others.

He had a Carnegie Hall performance of Franz Schubert’s Mass in G and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Te Deum and the Regina Coeli prayer.

Jesse’s singing awards include being the national winner of the Music Teachers National Association vocal recital competition and a two-time winner of the Friedrich Schorr vocal competition.

He is a member of the faculty of La Musica Lirica, an intensive opera program in Novafeltria, Italy, and is also the artistic and general director of Operafestival di Roma.