Soprano Katherine Jolly and violinist Amadi Azikiwe joining Randolph professor Emily Yap Chua for concert

Soprano Katherine Jolly and violinist Amadi Azikiwe are teaming up to perform with Randolph College professor Emily Yap Chua later this month.

The concert, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, in Wimberly Recital Hall. 

“I’m delighted that we are able to have both Katherine Jolly and Amadi Azikiwe at Randolph for this concert,” said Chua, Randolph’s Catherine Ehrman Thoresen ’23 and William Erness Thoresen Professor of Music and director of the Guest Artist Concert Series. “Their original appearance last season was canceled due to illness, and I’m pleased we were able to reschedule so our audience can hear both of these esteemed musicians. Katherine is a familiar presence on our stage, but I am happy to introduce our community to Amadi, who is music director of the Harlem Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as a soloist and orchestral musician around the country and the world.”

The program includes works by W. A. Mozart, Irene Britton Smith, Gwyneth Walker, and Donald Waxman, and a range of selections for each guest as a soloist and several for soprano, violin, and piano trio. 

Jolly is an associate professor of voice at Oberlin Conservatory and has appeared in leading roles with opera companies including New York City Opera, Opera Theatre Saint Louis, and Houston Grand Opera. She is a frequent collaborator of the esteemed baroque Kingsbury Ensemble and appears in recitals with arts organizations around the country. 

A winner of the 2006 Metropolitan Opera National Council Grand Finals, Jolly has also performed as part of Randolph’s Guest Artist Series several times and, in 2019, collaborated on a CD project, Preach Sister, Preach, with Chua. 

In addition to his duties as music director of the Harlem Symphony Orchestra, Azikiwe serves as community engagement director for the Harlem Chamber Players. 

He has performed in major cities throughout the United States, inducing an appearance in the United States Supreme Court, and abroad throughout Israel, Canada, South America, Central America, Nigeria, India, Japan, and Hong Kong. 

He has been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, along with performances with the New York Philharmonic, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony, the National Symphony of Ecuador, and more.