The Friends of the Aiken County Museum invite you attend its “Opera Under the Stars” fundraising event on Sunday, May 3, 2026. This will be an elegant event held on the grounds of the Aiken County Historical Museum (433 Newberry Street SW, Aiken). The performers will be tenor Dominic Armstrong and soprano Ashley Emerson with accompanying pianist Clinton Smith. Tickets for the event are $100 person with all proceeds benefiting the mission of the museum, which provides for the interpretation and preservation of Aiken County’s history. The doors will open at 5:30 pm with patrons welcome to enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres and three drinks tickets for the bar. The performance will begin at 7 pm and will continue until 8:30 pm, with an intermission.
The performance will take place on the South Lawn of the museum, weather permitting. In case of rain, the event will be moved inside to the Ballroom of the museum. Due to limited parking, there will be two golf carts running along the side streets of the museum to pick up attendees and bring them to the museum grounds. The golf carts will also return guests to their cars after the event.
Peformers
Dominic Armstrong impresses audiences with his musicianship, characterization, and dynamism of repertoire. A Metropolitan Opera National Council Finalist and winner of the George London Competition, Mr. Armstrong has made important debuts with companies in the United States and internationally. Past performances have included productions of Tosca (Cavaradossi) with Maestro Emmanuel Plasson in a tour of southern France; a nationwide tour of the US with Mikael Eliasen and Milos Repicky for Curtis on Tour; as well as debuts with LA Opera (Edgar Allen Poe and Cecil Cheshire in Gordon Getty’s Scare Pair), Opera Omaha (Lurcanio in Handel’s Ariodante), Syracuse Opera (Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth), and the completion of Wagner’s Die Walküre portraying Siegmund with the Miami Music Festival. On the concert stage, Dominic has recently joined the Florida Symphony for Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, Kaohsiung Symphony in Taiwan for a New Year’s Concert, Milwaukee Symphony for Bach’s Magnificat, and the Orchestra of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Svetlanov) and several other Russian orchestras with Maestro Mark Mandarano on a tour celebrating Leonard Bernstein. In recital, Dominic has been heard with his consistent partners at The Brooklyn Art Song Society, performing most recently in an acclaimed performance of Janacek’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared with pianist Joel Harder and mezzo-soprano Kate Maroney….
Dominic has worked with many contemporary composers interpreting, creating, and workshopping operas, art songs, and oratorios by John Corigliano (Ghost of Versailles), André Previn (A Streetcar Named Desire), John Musto (The Inspector; Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt), Matthew Aucoin (The Crossing), Harold Meltzer (Beautiful Ohio), Jeremy Gill (A Whitman Portrait), Laurence Siegel (Kaddish), Frédéric Chaslin (Clarimonde), Steven Stucky (The Classical Style), Gordon Getty (Usher House; The Canterville Ghost), Missy Mazzoli (Breaking the Waves), and creating the role of Arthur Dimmesdale in Lori Laitman’s The Scarlet Letter.
To learn more about Dominic Armstrong, please visit his website – http://www.dominicarmstrong.com/
Described as “appealing and sassy” by the New York Times, soprano Ashley Emerson is sought after for her effervescent singing and storytelling in repertoire ranging from Vivaldi to Thomas Ades. In the 2025-2026 season, Ms. Emerson’s engagements include two exciting role debuts: Marzelline in Fidelio in a return to The Cleveland Orchestra, and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro for her debut with Amarillo Opera. Additional engagements include a Holiday concert with the Salisbury Symphony. She is a veteran of the Metropolitan Opera, having 220 performance credits there in featured roles such as The Dew Fairy (Hansel and Gretel), Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro), Laura (Iolanta), and her signature role of Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, which she has performed more at the Met than anyone in the company’s history. She has been seen in the Met’s Live in HD series broadcasting to movie theaters worldwide as Papagena on multiple broadcasts, Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore), and Laura Fleet in the American premiere of Marnie by Nico Muhly. In the 2024-25 season, Ashley sang the Farmer in the Vivaldi pastiche The Seasons with a libretto by Sarah Ruhl at Boston Lyric Opera, returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Papagena, sang songs of Haydn with the Brooklyn Art Song Society, and performed a Valentines Pops concert with the Aiken Symphony.
To learn more about Ashley Emerson, please visit her website – https://www.stratagemartists.com/ashley-emerson
Clinton Smith joined the faculty of the University of South Carolina’s School of Music in the fall of 2025 as Music Director/Conductor of Opera and Collaborative Pianist. He will return to Dayton Opera to conduct The Cook-Off and Bon Appétit by Shawn Okpebholo and Lee Hoiby, and continues on the conducting/coaching staff of The Atlanta Opera. He served on the Santa Fe Opera’s music staff from 2013-2021, and on the faculty of Georgia State University’s School of Music 2023-2025. Mr. Smith’s recent appearances on the podium include the Atlanta Opera, Florentine Opera, Arizona Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Dayton Opera, Opera Orlando, Kentucky Opera, Opera Birmingham, Tacoma Opera, Opera Las Vegas, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Pacific Northwest Opera, University of Michigan, Baldwin-Wallace University, and have included the preparation of over seventy operas in German, Italian, French, English, Czech, Russian, and Mandarin. He served on Santa Fe Opera’s music staff for nine seasons.
To learn more about Clinton Smith, please visit his website – https://www.clintonsmithconductor.com/
Performance Schedule
Duet: Brindisi “Libiamo”- La Traviata, Verdi
Tenor: Brindisi (Verdi Song) / Questo e quella – Rigoletto, Verdi
Soprano: Ave Maria – Bach/Gounod / Chacun le sait – La fille du régiment, Donizetti
Tenor: Morire- Puccini / E lucevan le stelle- Tosca, Puccini
Soprano: O mio babbino caro – Gianni Schicchi, Puccini
Duet: Un di felice- La Traviata, Verdi
Intermission
Soprano: Quando m’en vo- La Boheme, Puccini
Duet: Parle-moi de ma mère- Carmen, Bizet
Tenor: Mattinata- Leoncavallo / O sole mio- di Capua
Soprano: Mr. Snow – Carousel, Rodgers / I could have danced all night- My Fair Lady, Lerner
Duet: All I ask of you – Phantom of the Opera, Webber
Duet: O Happy We – Candide, Bernstein
Thank you to our event sponsors!
