On Friday, May 8 at 4 p.m., the Princeton Symphony Orchestra presents Music That Tells a Story, a free event for anyone who has ever dreamed of being an opera star.
Hosted by the Princeton Festival Guild, this workshop will give attendees the chance to experience singing in the operatic style. Princeton University voice professor Dr. Rochelle Ellis and soprano Emily Margevich, a company artist with OperaDelaware, will cover the difference between singing for Broadway and opera.
Singers of all ages and ability levels are welcome to come to watch and participate. Participants will be eligible to enter to win two free tickets to Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, June 12 and 14 at the Princeton Festival, and an upcoming Westrick Music Academy Concert this season.
The Music That Tells a Story series, founded in 2015, became a PSO Bravo! education program in 2025, and honors the legacy of long-time Princeton Festival supporter Takako Lento.
Music That Tells a Story was created to expand audience appreciation of and interest in operas presented during the Princeton Symphony Orchestra’s annual Princeton Festival by offering free public workshops, lectures, and similar events. Presentations ranged from “Opera 101” introductions to the genre to “Opera Bootcamp,” a five-hour immersion combining vocal instruction with in-depth opera discussions, plus back-stage tour and observation of a rehearsal.
In December 2025, the Park Lento Charitable Fund established the “Takako Lento Music That Tells a Story Fund” with a foundational gift of $200,000 to endow the program in perpetuity. Together with an additional major gift from Thomas V. Lento, the fund will generate ongoing operational funding for these activities and will allow the PSO to expand the scope of the program to explore other genres of music beyond Opera.
The presentation will take place at Westrick Music Academy, 231 Clarksville Road, Suite 8.
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On May 9 and 10, Serbian-born cellist Maja Bogdanović makes her long-awaited Richardson Auditorium debut with Camille Saint-Saëns’ melodic first cello concerto. Aaron Copland’s Letter from Home is a wartime offering in Copland’s unmistakable voice. Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 completes the program with a powerful message of hope and optimism.
Bogdanović’s sound is “…gloriously honeyed, fiery, eloquent and fervent,” says publication The Strad.
This concert is made possible through the significant support of the Edward T. Cone Foundation with a generous gift from Len and Laura Berlik.
Performances are Saturday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 10 at 4 p.m. in the Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall, on the campus of Princeton University.
Sunday’s performance includes a 3pm pre-concert talk hosted by Rossen Milanov in the concert hall; free to ticket holders.
