Posted on: 07/15/09 Jackie Sher email: news@spotlightnews.com
In Rotterdam, there’s one rising star who many might remember from Mohonasen High School musicals or a Sons of Italy event. Marco Cammarota, of Rotterdam, will be performing a summer concert Saturday, July 25, at the United Presbyterian Church in Schenectady.
A recent graduate of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, Cammarota will be attending the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music this fall to pursue a master’s degree in opera performance. The tenor and Rotterdam native aspires to be a professional opera singer.
Cammarota has been singing his whole life, but he said he really became interested when he was in high school and decided that he wanted a lead role in the school’s musical.
“It started junior year of high school. We were doing ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and I really, really wanted to get the lead,” said Cammarota.
He started taking singing lessons with Corine Salon, an adjunct music professor at Union College and private voice coach. She encouraged him to pursue a career in the field.
“Corine told me I was a natural and that I had to keep singing,” said Cammarota, who planned to study history at Potsdam because he thought it would offer him a more stable career in the long run.
“He said, ‘Oh, I’m going to be a history major,’ and I said, ‘Why are you going to do that?’” said Salon.
He told her it was because he needed to make money when he graduated.
“I said, ‘You’re not going to make any more money as a history major than a music major. You might as well use your talent,’” said Salon.
Cammarota said it took a while to get used to opera, but there are lots of parts about it that are “really incredible that a lot of people don’t necessarily understand because it is a foreign art, and it hasn’t always been the most accessible thing in the U.S.”
His favorite opera is “La Traviata” by Giuseppe Verdi.
“The tenor role is pretty cool. The whole opera is beautiful, but I always go by what the tenor does. That’s just the tenor way,” said Cammarota.
In college he was part of an opera ensemble for four years, performing in several performances in small parts at first, his roles getting larger and larger over the years. He applied to several music conservatories for this coming fall and was accepted at the Cincinnati Music Conservatory. He estimates that he was chosen as one of 15 students from a pool of more than 500 applicants.
Cammarota is able to sing in several languages, including German, French and, of course, English – as well as Italian, which he learned to speak fluently when he was living in Italy.
“We moved there when I was 4 and stayed there until I was 7 so I’m fairly fluent. I think singing in Italian opera helps because it keeps the brain going,” said Cammarota. “I never appreciated Italian until I went to college.”
His recital will be a “nice mix” of Italian songs – popular ones and arias – as well as a mixture of German and Russian arias and art songs.
“Opera is a dying art, and Marco is able to bring that culture much closer to home to the Rotterdam community,” said Joe Salamone, a former classmate and friend of Cammarota’s.
Tickets for the recital will be on sale until Friday, July 24. No tickets will be sold at the door. For information or to purchase tickets call 355-8474. Tickets are $10 per person. Refreshments will be served during intermission.
The church is located at 1068 Park Ave. in Schenectady, and the performance starts at 7 p.m.
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