The 11-member East Village Opera Company is led by arranger Peter Kiesewalter and lead vocalist Tyley Ross. Visit the Photo Place

Group turns arias into classical rock

The East Village Opera Company, which melds power rock with a string quartet, will perform at the Birchmere on Tuesday.

Date published: 9/29/2005

By RYAN BROSMER

For THE FREE LANCE-STAR

Hailing from Ottawa, Canada, Tyley Ross and Peter Kiesewalter have come to the United States, and they've brought a bit of Italian culture with them.

After being commissioned to record the soundtrack for a film that was inevitably a flop, Ross and Kiesewalter took their series of Italian opera arias and continued, as Ross put it in a recent phone interview with the two musicians, "to do whatever we wanted to."

Ross and Kiesewalter are the core of the East Village Opera Company, an 11-member group consisting of a power rock band melded with a string quartet.

Ross provides lead vocals, and Kiesewalter is the arranger for the group that specializes in reinventing opera how they imagine it would have been done originally with today's musical innovations. The band will play Alexandria's Birchmere on Tuesday.

Ross and Kiesewalter both admit to having little to no background in opera before entering into this project--Ross has studied under opera singers and Kiesewalter's degree is in classical clarinet--which makes their ability to pay such homage to the classic arias they cover all the more astonishing.

Ross said opera was never an interest, but once he and Kiesewalter started up the East Village Opera Company, he contacted old teachers pleading for them to "turn me into an opera singer!" he recalled.

Kiesewalter had arranged an eclectic musical before, which he described as "experience in bridging the gap" between genres.

The East Village Opera Company just released its debut, self-titled album on Decca/Universal Records. Critics have been raving about the group since it first took the stage at Joe's Pub in New York just over a year ago.

Ross attributes their rising fame to "the right combination" of record industry people, press and fans that landed them a record deal soon after that initial performance.

The new album is perhaps best described by Ross as "a sonic landscape."

This effect was achieved with the help of legendary producer Neil Dorfsman (Sting, Dire Straits, Bjork and Paul McCartney), who was able to teach these seasoned veterans a thing or two.

WHAT: The East Village Opera Company will perform. WHERE: The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria WHEN: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. COST: $17.50 INFO: 703/549-7500 WEB: birchmere.com/ index.cfm TICKETS: Available by calling Ticketmaster at 800/551-SEAT or online at ticketmaster.com.

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Date published: 9/29/2005