First Friday in Grand Center: Artwork and Arias

Start the first Friday of the month with art, music, and culture in the Grand Center Arts District.

Spend an evening experiencing connections between opera and the visual arts with the program series “Artwork and Arias,” presented by CAM and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, this special selection of arias is curated by mezzo-soprano Michelle Mariposa and pianist Marika Yasuda and highlights AAPI voices in opera as well as connections with Paul Chan: Breathers.

The performance will begin at 8:00 pm.

Reserve a ticket for the free performance here.

Musical Program

“Ako’y Nangangarap” by Antonino Buenaventura

“Die Mainacht” by Johannes Brahms

“La vie antérieure” by Henri Duparc

“Six Gupta Songs: III. A Vision” by Cynthia Lee Wong

“Ang Maya” by Jose Estrella

Michelle Mariposa, mezzo-soprano

Marika Yasuda, piano

About the Artists

Marika Yasuda is a versatile young artist and sought-after collaborator who has performed throughout the United States in a wide array of solo, collaborative, chamber music, and orchestral concerts. A native of Williamsburg, Virginia, she joined San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellowship Program in 2022 as Pianist/ Vocal Coach, and is a Doctoral candidate in Collaborative Piano at Indiana University under the guidance of Kevin Murphy and Anne Epperson.

Michelle Mariposa is a Filipino-Chinese mezzo-soprano whose mission as an artist is to communicate truth and beauty through music, poetry, and rhetoric. She is a winner of the 2023 Sullivan Award from the Sullivan Foundation. An enthusiast for new and underperformed music, Michelle is a young artist with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis this year, as well as with the Chicago Opera Theater and the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.