The Kentucky Symphony Opens in 35th Anniversary Season with the 3 Kentucky Tenors

Recalling the 1990s global concerts of the 3 Tenors (Domingo, Carreras & Pavarotti), the KSO and the 3 KY Tenors provide the high notes and hijinks.

NEWPORT, KY, UNITED STATES, September 29, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra opens its 35th Anniversary season with its own spin on the 1990s global concerts of The Three Tenors (Domingo, Carreras, Pavarotti). The 3 Kentucky Tenors from Ft. Mitchell, Lexington and Louisville will sing popular arias and songs from opera, Napoli, Broadway and film.

KY Tenors Daniel Weeks, Matthew Pearce, and Jesse Donner will wow you with show-stopping arias (“Ah mes amis”, “Vesti la giubba” and “Nesun dorma”) great Neapolitan tunes, (“Torna di Surriento”, “Finiculi finicula”, “O Sole Mio”) and memorable songs (“Granada”, “Maria”, “Be My Love”) and others accompanied by and featuring the KSO. (See tenor bios and entire playlist below).

Enjoying music of Verdi, Donizetti, Puccini, Bellini, Rossini makes you wonder — Who’s bringing the cannoli?
Don’t miss the chance to hear and celebrate great melodies and singing, together at the KSO’s 35th season opener — 7:30 p.m. Saturday. October 3 at Greaves Concert Hall, NKU, Highland Heights, KY. For additional info and tickets — kyso.org or call (859) 431-6216.

I Vespri Siciliani Overture Verdi
“La donna mobile” from Rigoletto Verdi
“E lucevan’ le stelle” from Tosca Puccini
“Una Furtiva Lagrima from ’Elisir d’Amore Donizetti
Intermezzo from L’amico Fritz Donizetti
"Amor ti vieta" from Fedora Giordano
“Ah mes amis” from Daughter of the Regiment Donizetti
“Vesti la giubba” from Pagliacci Leoncavallo
“Finiculi, finicula” Denza

I Capuleti e i Montecchi Overture Bellini
“Core'ngrato” Cardillo
“La Danza” Rossini
“Torna a Surriento” DeCurtis
“Dein ist mein ganzes Herz” from Das Land des Lächelns Lehar
“Maria” from West Side Story Bernstein
“Granada” Lara
“Nessun dorma” from Turandot Puccini
“O sole mio” Di Capua
“Be My Love” Brodszky/Cahn

Jesse Donner
A graduate of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, tenor Jesse Donner has distinguished himself on the operatic and concert stage. Donner has performed roles in Metropolitan Opera in productions of Aida, Boris Godunov and Die Meistersinger. Jesse has sung the role of Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) with Lubbock Symphony, and a Kentucky Opera production of All is Calm. Recent seasons included returns to Union Avenue Opera as Rodolfo (La Boheme), and Danilo (The Merry Widow) with St. Petersburg Opera. Mr. Donner joined the Louisville Orchestra as the soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah. A native of Des Moines, IA, Mr. Donner completed graduate and post-graduate studies at the University of Michigan and received a Bachelor of Music degree from Iowa State University. He now lives in Louisville.

Matthew Pearce
Hailing from Lexington.KY, tenor Matthew Pearce is praised for his "confidence, brightness and high level of control" (Operawire). He has performed the role of Don José in Carmen at The Glimmerglass Festival, Portland Opera, Washington National Opera, the Chautauqua Institution and the West Virgina and Kentucky Symphony Orchestras. Recent roles include Lennie in Carlise Floyd’s Of Mice and Men with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto with Pacific Opera. Matthew has been a soloist in Franz Schmidt’s Das Buch mit Sieben Siegel with the Dallas Symphony, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Chattanooga Symphony. Matthew received training from institutions including the Washington National Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Chautauqua Voice Program, and holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Kentucky and a Master of Music in Voice from the Juilliard School.

Daniel Weeks
A member of the voice faculty at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music since 2015, tenor, Daniel Weeks has garnered acclaim for his Italianate voice and adroit musicianship. Having sung with the symphonies of Houston, Dallas, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Columbus, Memphis, Dayton, San Jose, Rochester, Louisville, and the National Orchestras of Mexico and Costa Rica, Mr. Weeks is equally adept on the operatic stage, where he has performed with the Florentine Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Kentucky Opera, Nevada Opera, Mercury Opera, and San Francisco Opera’s Western Opera Theater. In 1999, he was a National Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 2000, the Marilyn Horne Foundation presented he and Donna Loewy in a New York recital, followed by three years of concerts across the U.S. Recent engagements include Luigi Nono’s, Intolleranza 1960 with the National Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Puccini’s Turandot with the Kentucky Symphony, Verdi’s Requiem with the Las Cruces Symphony, the Evangelist roles in J.S. Bach’s Passions of St. Matthew and St. John, in Cincinnati and with the Dayton Bach Society.

More on the KSO:

Since 1992, the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of founder James R. Cassidy, has forged a unique brand of cultural entertainment via thematic programming, while offering fresh presentations of classics, premieres and forays into jazz, film, pop, semi-staged operas and musicals, long before they became common place with orchestras today. Serving as a farm team to major and regional orchestras across the nation, the KSO offers professional musicians and audiences opportunities to perform and hear great and varied music. Subscription series concerts represent the orchestra’s only ticketed events, while providing schools and the community with 11-12 free education and summer performances each year.

James R. Cassidy
Kentucky Symphony Orchestra
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