Buffalo, NY – Nickel City Opera (nickelcityopera.org) is proud to present Season 18 with a night of a thousand candles at A Candle Opera Concert, Saturday, June 13th, 7:00pm at Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center, 705 Renaissance Drive, Buffalo, NY. Hosted by Founder and Artistic Director, Valerian Ruminski, he will be joined by NCO alumni Tenor Eric Fennell with NYC Soprano Kristin Sampson, LA Soprano Shirley (XiaoLing) Wang with a full orchestra conducted by Maestro Jason Tramm.
In a rare fusion of scale and intimacy, A Candle Opera Concert will feature a 15 piece orchestra and international opera soloists, all set within a sea of over a thousand flickering candles. As candlelight concerts have grown in popularity worldwide with many featuring smaller string quartets, this production elevates the experience to new heights. Under the baton of Maestro Jason Tramm, the Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center provides a cinematic backdrop journeying through opera’s most beloved moments, including Puccini’s Nessun Dorma from TURANDOT, Una Furtiva Lagrima from THE ELIXIR OF LOVE, The Consecration Scene from AIDA and Symphonic interludes by Mascagni and Rossini.
“I am thrilled to be returning to Buffalo for a new engagement and looking forward to seeing all of our old friends..”, says NCO Founder and Artistic Director Valerian Ruminski. “We thought it was time for Nickel City Opera to emerge with a very intimate and special concert so we decided to have it lit solely by more than 1000 candles for a lovely and romantic ambient evening of opera. This is candlelight like you’ve never heard it before combining the whispered intimacy of a candlelit room with the raw, hair-raising power of a full orchestra and live opera; not just a concert but a sensory immersion. Since our last successful show, The Falling and the Rising with the US Army, I have been singing and traveling; the role of Benoit for the first time with Opera de Montreal in La Boheme, 18 performances of Le Nozze di Figaro in Biel Switzerland and appeared as the art dealer Eduardo di Valfierno in the musical Mona Lisa Missing in Hollywood CA. In Palm Springs, CA, I participated in concerts at The Plaza Theatre and Revolution Stage Company as well as Rigoletto at the McCallum Theatre and appearances with Coachella Valley Classical Voices. It’s always good to be home though and I look forward to seeing everyone at the candle concert.”
Opened in August 2023, the new Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center, a $7M, 13,500 sq ft, 250 seat state-of-the-art, energy efficient venue for the arts has become a cultural hot spot. With raised stage, sloping floors, fan shaped seating with no straight walls or conventional corners, the theatre will be transformed by the warm glow of flameless LED candles, chosen to preserve the architectural integrity of the site while creating a visual ocean of light.
ARTIST BIOS
Valerian Ruminski – Bass
Valerian Ruminski is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and of SUNY-Buffalo. A true basso cantante, his bold and powerful vocal lyricism and remarkable coloratura have garnered him many accolades. An excellent musician and creative interpreter, he has performed with many of the great opera companies in the US and abroad including The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Dallas Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Miami Opera, Minnesota Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Ireland, Opera de Montreal, Opera de Monte Carlo, Birmingham Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Opera de Quebec, Vancouver Opera, The Canadian Opera Company, The Green Mountain Festival (VT) and Festival de Belle-ile en Mer (Fr). He can be heard on the Naxos label release of ‘Night at the Opera’ with other singers who have debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as well as on the Victor Herbert Collection on New World Records. Mr. Ruminski has performed the roles of Figaro & Bartolo (Le Nozze di Figaro), Ferrando (Il Trovatore), Sparafucile (Rigoletto), Colline (La Boheme), Commendatore (Don Giovanni), Feniscio (Ermione), Sarastro (Magic Flute), Sam (Ballo in Maschera), Ramphis & King (Aida), Zuniga (Carmen), Dr.Grenvil (Traviata), Prince Gremin (Onegin), Inspector Budd (Albert Herring), Lt. Ratcliffe (Billy Budd), Frank (Die Fledermaus), First Soldier (Salome), Daland (The Flying Dutchman), Don Magnifico (La Cenerentola), Dulcamara (The Elixir of Love), Garibaldo (Rodelinda), Il Re (Ariodante), Ligniere (Cyrano), Don Pasquale (Don Pasquale) and Basilio (Barber of Seville) among many others. Mr. Ruminski is the recipient of many prestigious grants and awards including the Lincoln Center Martin Segal Award, a Richard Tucker Grant, a William Mattheus Sullivan Foundation Grant, a Gerda Lissner Foundation Grant, the 2000 MacAllister Award, winner of the NJ Verismo Competition, the NYSTA Coloratura Competition and the Marcella Sembrich Vocal Competition sponsored by the Koscziuszko Foundation. In Dallas TX in 2018 Mr. Ruminski received a service award from Opera America for 10 years of excellent stewardship.
Eric Fennell – Tenor
American born tenor and resident of Berlin, Eric Fennell is thrilled to return to Buffalo for A Candle Opera Concert. He has performed twice with Nickel City Opera in productions of RIGOLETTO (2010) and SHOT! (2016). Eric has also appeared with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in BEETHOVEN’S 9TH SYMPHONY and in an Opera Gala at Artpark. His other opera credits include CARMEN (Don José) with Opéra de Toulon (France), Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Salzburg Landestheater, LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN (Hoffmann) with Teatro San Carlo (Napoli), Staatstheater Mainz, Hawaii Opera Theater and Deutsches National Theater Weimar, RIGOLETTO (Duca) with Deutsche Oper Berlin, Theater Bremen and Gärtnerplatztheater (Munich), WERTHER (Werther) with Staatstheater Braunschweig and Lyric Opera of Dublin, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (Mitch) with Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), MADAMA BUTTERFLY(Pinkerton) with Austin Lyric Opera, Opera Saratoga and Utah Opera, LA BOHÈME (Rodolfo) with New York City Opera, Opera Saratoga and Chattanooga Opera and SALOME (Narraboth) with Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence).
Shirley Wang – Soprano
Shirley (XiaoLing) Wang is an award-winning Taiwan-born Asian American operatic soprano, keynote speaker, three-time bestselling author and educator whose work lives between cultures. A Carnegie Hall soloist, Shirley has performed over 20 operatic roles and presented over 200 storytelling-based recitals across the United States. Her repertoire includes leading roles in MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Cio-Cio-San), AIDA (Aida), LE NOZZE DI FIGARO (Countess) and TOSCA (Tosca) along with appearances in concert, chamber and cross-cultural productions. She will appear as Cio-Cio-San in a series of concert performances of MADAMA BUTTERFLY in Las Vegas in May 2026 and speaker and performer at TEDxLasVegas 2026. Shirley offers keynote concerts integrating live performance with storytelling and hosts the podcast ALL AROUND CLASSICAL. As founder of Brillante Music Institute in Los Angeles, her work reshapes cultural understanding, empathy and connection through music.
Kristin Sampson – Soprano
Praised by The New York Times for her “bright, sizable and expressive voice,” Mexican-born American soprano Kristin Sampson continues to distinguish herself in both operatic and concert repertoire. Upcoming engagements include Verdi’s REQUIEM, DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE (First Lady), L’AMICO FRITZ (Suzel), DON GIOVANNI (Donna Anna), THE MEDIUM (Monica) and appearances with New York City Opera, Washington Opera Society, the Israel Sinfonietta Beer Sheva and the Kauno Filharmonija. Recent highlights include a return to MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Cio-Cio-San) with Opera Națională Română as well as concerts with Opera Carolina and the Taormina Opera Festival. Kristin made her Carnegie Hall debut as soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, has made appearances nationally with Santa Fe Opera and Opera Orchestra of New York and internationally at the Puccini Festival, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Teatro Municipal de Santiago. Her signature roles include in LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST (Minnie), TOSCA (Tosca), MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Cio-Cio-San), LA BOHÈME (Mimi) and TURANDOT (Liù).
Nickel City Opera, Inc. a Buffalo, NY, 501c3 non profit arts organization was founded in 2003 by Valerian Ruminski and has produced over 25 operas, concerts and events including the world premiere of SHOT! by Persis Vehar in 2016 at Shea’s Buffalo Theatre. Other productions include La Boheme, The Barber of Seville, Tosca, Don Pasquale, The Marriage of Figaro, Il Tabarro staged on the USS The Sullivans at the Buffalo Erie County Naval & Military Park and Echoes of Opera at Silo City. In 2024, NCO hosted a very special presentation of The Falling and the Rising, produced by the U.S. Army Field Band, free of charge to the WNY community. NCO’s mission is to bring high quality opera and events to Western New York making the arts accessible and unforgettable for modern audiences and looks forward to expanding the arts in Western New York and beyond.