(Credit: Dario Acosta)

Ars Lyrica Houston is set to showcase its virtual 2020 Spring Gala, “A Star is Born” on April 25, 2020.

The event is aimed at supporting the company’s major Baroque opera productions, with the next one set for May 2021.

The gala is set to honor legendary opera singer and teacher Lois Alba and will feature her pupil and rising soprano Michelle Bradley, who has performed at such famed companies as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera,  Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Oper Frankfurt, among others.

“Lois put in my mind that I could be at the Metropolitan Opera,” Bradley stated in a press release. “From the first moment, she said I had a world-class voice. I remember her telling me to come and see her every day I could, and that ‘we’ll get you to the Met because that’s where you belong.’”

Alba studied with such prominent artists as Lotte Lehmann, Rosa Ponselle, and Elena Nikolaida before performance all around the world at such venues as the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro la Fenice, and Teatro Verdi di Trieste, among others.

The gala will be chaired by Robin Angly and Miles Smith.