Outside Voices at Waterloo Park
Join us on September 17th for Outside Voices at Waterloo Park featuring two incredible Austin-based artists, Icy Monroe and Luciano Laurentiu! This concert of operatic selections and more will delight audience members of all ages.
Bar opens at 1:30, concert starts at 2 pm
This event is free, open to the public, and appropriate for all ages. The venue is the Meredith Tree Deck of the Family Pavilion just South of the Moody Amphitheater in Waterloo Park. Floor space and chairs will be available. Pillows, blankets, and picnics are highly encouraged. Complimentary beverages will be available thanks to our amazing sponsor, Tito's Vodka! Big thanks to our media sponsor for these events, KMFA 89.5 Classical Austin, and to the support of Waterloo Greenway!
Icy Monroe
Icy Monroe has been hailed as a passionate singer whose love for music flows through everyone who hears her. Ms. Monroe’s grace and talent have been conveyed through many roles including Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Despina in Così fan Tutte, and Catherine in A View from the Bridge. By 2011, Ms. Monroe had won multiple awards, including the winner of the State and Regional National Association of Teachers of Singing Competitions (NATs), District Metropolitan Opera Auditions, and the People’s Choice Award in the Dallas Opera Guild Competition, among numerous other awards. In January 2009, Icy was invited to participate in a Master class with Maestro James Levine via the Marilyn Horne Foundation and made her professional solo debut with the Marshall Symphony Orchestra in January 2011.
Since then, Icy has appeared as a solo artist with the South Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, the Shreveport Summer Music Festival, the Colour of Music Festival in South Carolina, and the Alleluia Conference at Baylor University. She recently made her debut as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in February 2020. In 2022 alone, she made her return as a soprano soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, three concerts celebrating Juneteenth in Arizona, and a double recital/workshop in Colorado Springs.
Fully funded by the University of Texas-Austin, her double-billed CD titled "I, too" was distributed through the largest classical music label, Naxos. Icy is also featured in the award-winning documentary When I Rise, the story of Barbara Smith Conrad.
With two previous degrees behind her (BM-Vocal Performance 2007 and MM-Opera 2009), Mrs. Monroe had the privilege of being one of the first to graduate with an Artist Diploma (2011) from the University of Texas-Austin, thus adding a third Degree/Post-Master's Diploma to her name. Icy continues to perform extensively and has expanded her work to include her business, The Voice Clinic, specializing in voice rehabilitation/ preventative techniques. Her site is www.thevoiceclinicaustin.com.
Luciano Laurentiu
Born in Timisoara, Romania where he trained at the Ion Vidu Music Academy, Mr. Laurentiu’s piano instruction continued under William Phemister at Wheaton College and under Rebecca Penneys at The Eastman School of Music. His organ training has included Jean Ellsworth, Brent Weiland, and Richard Hoskins.
Based in Chicago IL until July 2019, He made his piano solo debut on WFMT (Chicago’s premier classical music station) in April 2010 and his Orchestra Hall debut at Symphony Center in November 2015. In Chicago, Luciano Laurentiu was Organist and Choirmaster at St. Thomas The Apostle Church in Hyde Park, staff accompanist and vocal coach at DePaul University’s School of Music, and Chorus Master of the Paderewski Symphony Chorus.
His performances in the Chicago area include playing orchestral piano with the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra, performing with the American Opera Group, Candid Concert Opera, Chicago Summer Opera, South Shore Opera, Paderewski Symphony Orchestra, Aestas Consort, The Chicago Bach Ensemble, William Ferris Chorale and The Apollo Chorus of Chicago. Concert and recital appearances include Alliance Française, The Chicago Cultural Center, St. James Cathedral, Holy Name Cathedral, Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center, Pianoforte Chicago, Harold Washington Library’s Pritzker Auditorium, The Woodstock Opera House, and Fullerton Hall at The Art Institute of Chicago. Internationally, Mr. Laurentiu has performed in Germany, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, Italy, Romania and Mexico.
Upon receiving the position of Principal Organist at St. Louis King of France Catholic Church in July 2019, Luciano Laurentiu relocated to Austin TX where he served as organist, pianist, and schola singer at the parish. More recently he has served as principal organist for the Diocese of Austin, organist at the University Catholic Center on the UT Campus, and in September 2021 was appointed Music Director and Organist at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in Taylor, TX. He is a regular organist substitute throughout the Diocese at various parishes including St. Mary Cathedral, St. John Neuman, St. William, St. Vincent, St. John Vianney, St. Albert the Great as well as St. Richard and St. Michael Episcopal Churches. In June of 2018, he joined the faculty of Greve Opera Academy in Greve in Chianti, Toscana, Italy as festival pianist, vocal coach, orchestral harpsichordist, conductor of the Scola Antiqua and organist for the final concert at Chiesa di Santa Croce in Greve.
Mr. Laurentiu accompanies extensively in the Austin area, having performed with Austin Opera and Austin Polyphony, and playing rehearsals for Austin’s Gilbert & Sullivan, Austin Cantorum, and a series of accompanying for individual instrumentalists and choirs all over Central Texas.