About this Event
Vira + Friends presents its second annual celebration of music by American composers featuring soprano MaKayla McDonald, contralto Vira Slywotzky, tenor Omar Najmi and pianist David Sytkowski.
Questions? Email [email protected]
About the performers:
Soprano, MaKayla McDonald (she/her), is an active performer of contemporary classical music, early American music and opera. This season, she joined the Tanglewood Recital Series with The Boston Camerata for Free America! Early Songs of Resistance and Rebellion. Other season highlights include On Our Toes In The Hamptons: Building Our Heaven, with the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts, for “…an interdisciplinary performance exploring the spiritual and artistic evolution of Black classical music,” and a residency with American Opera Projects for the NYU/Tisch Opera Lab.
Last season MaKayla joined Tero Saarinen Company and Boston Camerata on international stages for Borrowed Light, a work that captures the ritualistic essence of dance and the profound strength of community. She also collaborated with City Lyric Opera for Jeremy Beck’s, Black Water, a monodrama for soprano, with dance.
GRAMMY-nominated artist Omar Najmi splits his time between composition and performance, maintaining a busy schedule as an operatic tenor. Recent credits include Darius Shah in the world-premiere of The Many Deaths of Laila Starr at Minnesota Opera, Jack Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest at Chicago Opera Theater, Ferdinand in the world-premiere of The Tempest at Teatro Grattacielo, Narraboth in Salome at Kentucky Opera, Pedrillo in The Abduction from the Sergalio at St. Pete Opera, Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw at the Spoleto Festival, Simon in the world-premiere of Adoration with Beth Morrison Prejcts and LA Odyssey Opera, Arbace in Idomeneo with Boston Baroque, Prince Kodanda in The Last Savage with Odyssey Opera, and Handel's Messiah with Boston Baroque and the Seattle Symphony. Najmi enjoys a close relationship with Boston Lyric Opera, where he began his career as an Emergin Artist, and where he has performed over 15 roles including Enoch Snow in Carousel, Valcour in The Anonymous Lover, and Vanya Kudrjas in Katya Kabanova.
As a composer, Najmi was a 2025 member of Washington National Opera's American Opera Inititiative, through which his and librettist Christine Evans' opera Mud Girl received its premiere at the Kennedy Cetner. He was a 2023 finalist in Atlanta Opera's 96-Hour Opera Project, culminating in the commission and premiere of his and librettist Catherine Yu's opera The Portrait. In 2020, Najmi served as Boston Lyric Opera's first ever Emerging Composer in Residence. He collaborated with Boston youth poet laureat Alondra Bobadilla on the song cycle my name is Alondra, which premiered in 2021. He has additionally had works commissioned by White Snake Projects, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Emmanuel Music, City Lyric Opera, and Catalyst New Music.
Contralto Vira Slywotzky has performed principal roles with Seattle Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Chelsea Opera, Center for Contemporary Opera, Sarasota Opera and Boston Midsummer Opera. She has sung concerts, recitals and cabarets in New York City venues from The Duplex to Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall and on tour all over the United States. Internationally Slywotzky has been heard in Canada, France, Hungary, Sweden and Wales.
A champion of new music, she has workshopped and premiered more than 30 works including songs, full scale opera and narration with orchestra.
Since February 2022 Slywotzky has been serving as a cultural ambassador and fundraising for Razom for Ukraine and other organizations providing aid to and supporting Ukraine. Her performances have collected over $275,000.
Participant in numerous competitions and winner of awards, most significantly Slywotzky was the sole representative of the USA at the 2009 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.
She runs the multiform concert series Vira + Friends and is Member Emeritus on the Board of the Berkshire Opera Festival.
“Vira Slywotzky is an immensely talented, charismatic performer who transforms herself, and captivates her audience with her songs and tales.” - The Village View
David Sytkowski is a sought-after pianist, vocal coach, and music director in opera, art song, cabaret and musical theater. He has appeared at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub and Feinstein’s San Francisco, among others. He often collaborates with legendary cabaret artist Justin Vivian Bond.
As Artist in Residence at Bard College, he is Music Director for Opera Workshop, leads the Musical Theater Performance Workshop and coaches singers and pianists.
He is co-creator of VOWEL MOVEMENTS, a subversive classical/cabaret/drag project with Pretty Lamé, made possible by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. It premiered at Hudson Hall in June 2023 and remounted at ICA Miami in February 2024.
Other recent 2025 projects include the production premiere of Steven Schoenberg’s and Richard Michelson’s Dear Edvard at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse; Woo Girl Miracles! with Justin Vivian Bond (Joe’s Pub); Giulio Cesare with director RB Schlather (Hudson Hall); Assassins (Fisher Center at Bard); recitals with contralto Vira Slywotzky (NYC, Boston and New Hampshire).
Vira Slywotzky founded Vira + Friends in May 2018 with the intent of bringing people together to enjoy the live performance of music written for voice and piano. Since that time Vira + Friends has become a multiform concert series with the expanded missions of developing audiences for classical music and providing a platform for composers traditionally neglected by the Western canon. Vira + Friends is a nonprofit corporation under the auspices of the Ukrainian American Educational Center of Boston, a 501(c)(3).
Event venue & nearby stays
First Church in Cambridge, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, United States
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