Daron Hagen, Chair of the Auction Committee, and a board member of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, announced today the successful conclusion of the 2008 Online Composer Autograph Auction. Every autograph generously donated by the composers was sold, and the winning bidders (whose names are being kept confidential) have been notified. Below is a list of the composers and the winning bid amounts:
Isabelle Aboulker $50
Mark Adamo $180
Dominick Argento $300
Richard Rodney Bennett $300
Chester Biscardi $80
William Bolcom $250
David Conte $200
John Corigliano $500
Richard Danielpour $150
Michael Daugherty $120
David Del Tredici $150
Stephen Dembski $50
Danny Elfman $310
Jacquelyn Fontyn $50
Jefferson Todd Frazier $60
Christopher Lyndon Gee $50
Ricky Ian Gordon $180
Daron Hagen $350
John Harbison $210
Jake Heggie $200
Aaron Jay Kernis $110
Paula Kimper $280
Libby Larsen $250
Philip Lasser $50
Tania Leon $50
Colin Matthews $90
Ben Moore $180
Paul Moravec $90
Thomas Pasatieri $210
Tobias Picker $220
David Rakowski $50
Ned Rorem $390
Jonathan Sheffer $150
Stephen Sondheim $2000
Damien Top $50
Michael Torke $150
Craig Urquhart $240
Errollyn Wallen $50
Daniel Welcher $100
Linn Maxwell, President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, expressed her gratitude to the composers, the benefit committee, the board of directors and the board of advisors, as well as the generous bidders from around the United States.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
CyberSing 2008 Winners Announced
CyberSing 2008 Art Song Competition
WINNERS ANNOUNCED
WINNERS ANNOUNCED
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation proudly announces the winners of its
CyberSing 2008 Art Song Competition. A panel of distinguished judges met over the course of several months to review applicants' materials.
CyberSing 2008 Art Song Competition winners are:
Division One (for singers up to the age of 23):
* Top Prize: $1000 (not bestowed)
* Lotte Lehmann Foundation Prize: Joshua Quinn ($300)
* Second Prize: John Brancy ($250)
* Third Prize: Courtney Cacopardo ($250)
* Honorable Mention: Heidi Sauser
Division Two (for singers above the age of 23):
* Top Prize: $5000 (not bestowed)
* Lotte Lehmann Foundation Prize: Laura Stuart ($750)
* Daron Hagen and Paul Sperry American Song Prize: Marshall Dean ($500)
* Lindsey Christiansen Best Collaborative Pianist Prize
in Honor of Dalton Baldwin: Allen Perriello ($500)
*Melodie Francaise Prize: (not bestowed)
* Daniel Gundlach Lied Prize: Brooke Evers ($250)
CyberSing 2008 Art Song Competition. A panel of distinguished judges met over the course of several months to review applicants' materials.
CyberSing 2008 Art Song Competition winners are:
Division One (for singers up to the age of 23):
* Top Prize: $1000 (not bestowed)
* Lotte Lehmann Foundation Prize: Joshua Quinn ($300)
* Second Prize: John Brancy ($250)
* Third Prize: Courtney Cacopardo ($250)
* Honorable Mention: Heidi Sauser
Division Two (for singers above the age of 23):
* Top Prize: $5000 (not bestowed)
* Lotte Lehmann Foundation Prize: Laura Stuart ($750)
* Daron Hagen and Paul Sperry American Song Prize: Marshall Dean ($500)
* Lindsey Christiansen Best Collaborative Pianist Prize
in Honor of Dalton Baldwin: Allen Perriello ($500)
*Melodie Francaise Prize: (not bestowed)
* Daniel Gundlach Lied Prize: Brooke Evers ($250)
Monday, March 02, 2009
Online Composer Autograph Auction Begins
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation proudly announces the 2009 Composer Autograph Online Silent Auction. The auction website went live and the auction formally began at 6:00 PM EST at www.llfauction.org.
At the start of the auction, the following compsoers have generously donated musical autographs:
A silent auction allows you to view and read about auction items and bid online throughout the duration of the auction. At the end of the auction, the highest bidder on an item will win that item.
A digital image of each composer’s autograph appears on the website. To see a higher resolution image, click on the image. Your Username and password will log you into the system. The auction ends Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at midnight. Once online bidding has closed, individuals who attend in person the silent auction cocktail party in New York on May 13th will have a final opportunity to outbid online bidders. Contact the campaign coordinator to reserve a space at the silent auction benefit cocktail party or to ask for more information.
All proceeds go to Lotte Lehmann Foundation and must be paid by check, cashier's check or money order within 10 days of the close of auction (unless other arrangements are made).Winning bidders will be notified on May 14th, 2009.
Items will be available for pickup or delivery by May 15th, 2009.
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation is a recognized non-profit organization which the IRS designates 501 (c) (3). Please note that the majority of your bid is tax-deductible. For more information about the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, click here.
About the Autographs
Each musical autograph consists of three musical staves pre-printed on a sheet of 8.5 x 11 inch archival grade Acid-free paper with a neutral or basic pH (7 or slightly greater). It addresses the problem of preserving documents for long periods. Each composer was asked to provide a few measures in their own handwriting of one of their compositions. A letter of authenticity accompanies each autograph.
ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation 2009 Art Song Composition Competition Announced
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation and ASCAP announce the launch of the 2009 ASCAP / Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition. The competition was founded in 2005 by the Lehmann Foundation, which invited the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) to co-present and to help bring the competition to the attention of as many composers as possible.
2009 GUIDELINES
All Applications Must Include:
COMMISSIONS
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation & ASCAP will award commissions to compose new works to the prise-winning composers.
With approval of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, composers will select the English language text for the commission. If a protected text is selected, the composer will assume the obligation of acquiring all necessary rights and permissions required to fulfill the commission. After the Lotte Lehmann Foundation approves the text, and receives permission documentation, the commission agreement will be executed, and the first half of the commission fee will be awarded. Upon timely submission and acceptance of the completed work, The Lotte Lehmann Foundation will pay the second and final payment of the commission fee. The Lotte Lehmann Foundation will support costs to prepare the materials for performance. All rights to the commissioned work will remain with the composer, save for the customary credit acknowledging the prize. E.C. Schirmer Publishing has agreed to publish and new-issue to retailers the first prize commissioned work, if the composer is not already udner contract to a publisher. The Joy in Singing Foundation and the Phoenix Concerts in New York and two other national presenters have peldged to perform the first prize commission within two years of completion. The Lotte Lehmann Foundation will bring all the prize-winning commissions, and works earning Honorable Mention in the competition, to the attention of notable members of the cocnert music community interested in song.
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation reserves the right not to award a prize, if no winner is selected by the panel of adjudicators.
2009 GUIDELINES
- Previous winners in all categories are ineligible.
- Applicants must be citizens, permanent residents of the United States, or enrolled students with student visas, who have not reached their thirtieth (30th) birthday by January 1, 2010.
- Only one original art song with English text, per composer may be submitted.
- Arrangements of pre-existing music are ineligible.
- All scores and recordings remain the property of the composer.
- So that materials may be properly returned, please enclose a self-addressed envelope with sufficient return postage (SASE).
- Permission to set the text MUST be inlcuded to be eligible.
- All materials must be postmarked no later than September 15, 2009.
All Applications Must Include:
- Completed and signed application form.
- The reproduction of one (1) manuscript / score.
- If a text protected by copyright has been used, written permission from the literary publisher must be included. If the text is not published, a letter from the author
or author's representative granting permission to the composer must be enclosed. - A printed copy of the English text.
- A brief biography/CV of the composer, not to exceed 200 words.
- A compact disc/cassette recording of a live performance of the work submitted. (MIDI realizations will not be accepted). The recording must be clearly marked with the composer's name,
title of the composition, identification of the performers, and properly cued. Multimovement works should include track numbers for different movements. Compact discs must be playable on a standard CD player.
COMMISSIONS
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation & ASCAP will award commissions to compose new works to the prise-winning composers.
- First Prize: ($3500) commission to compose a Song Cycle for voice and piano, to be published by E.C. Schirmer, and performed in three major American cities.
- Second Prize:($1000)commission to compose an art song for voice and piano.
- Third Prize ($500) commission to compose an art song for voice and piano.
- Fourth Prize: ($500) commission to compose an art song for voice and piano on poetry by Andrée Brunin, with a world premiere of the newly commissioned song slated for the 2010 "Albert Roussel International Festival" in France.
With approval of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, composers will select the English language text for the commission. If a protected text is selected, the composer will assume the obligation of acquiring all necessary rights and permissions required to fulfill the commission. After the Lotte Lehmann Foundation approves the text, and receives permission documentation, the commission agreement will be executed, and the first half of the commission fee will be awarded. Upon timely submission and acceptance of the completed work, The Lotte Lehmann Foundation will pay the second and final payment of the commission fee. The Lotte Lehmann Foundation will support costs to prepare the materials for performance. All rights to the commissioned work will remain with the composer, save for the customary credit acknowledging the prize. E.C. Schirmer Publishing has agreed to publish and new-issue to retailers the first prize commissioned work, if the composer is not already udner contract to a publisher. The Joy in Singing Foundation and the Phoenix Concerts in New York and two other national presenters have peldged to perform the first prize commission within two years of completion. The Lotte Lehmann Foundation will bring all the prize-winning commissions, and works earning Honorable Mention in the competition, to the attention of notable members of the cocnert music community interested in song.
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation reserves the right not to award a prize, if no winner is selected by the panel of adjudicators.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Lotte Lehmann Foundation Elects New Board Members
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation today announced the addition of three new officers to its Board of Directors. Elizabeth Auman, Richard Lalli, and Andreas Klein were unanimously elected by the current Board. Linn Maxwell, the Foundation’s president, stated, “We are thrilled to welcome these three outstanding figures in the musical world to the Board of the Lehmann Foundation. Their expertise will greatly enhance the scope of the Foundation’s vision. We welcome them and look forward to their contributions and our collaboration.”
Elizabeth Auman is a music historian, archivist, acquisitions specialist, fund-raiser, concert and recording producer, appraiser, librarian and musician who has worked in the Library of Congress’s Music Division for 38 years. Her focus for most of those years has been on acquisitions—especially those of special collections—multi-format materials representing the complete lives and works of those whose materials they are. She has worked with many of the major figures in American music.
During her tenure at the Library, she has been instrumental in building a world-class music collection there; has been acquisitions and archival consultant to numerous private collections; has acted as a trusted advisor to the families and Estates of many noted composers, arrangers, orchestrators, and performers. She is a noted specialist in American musical theater (Grammy producer nominations for two restored Gershwin shows), American art song (Grammy producer nomination for Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen), the Romantic era (particularly Brahms and Liszt), and the Renaissance (Italian and English vocal/chamber music and their interrelationships).
She has been on the faculty of The Catholic University of America. She is also a free-lance consultant on and appraiser of performing arts-related archives. In her spare time, she loves to read, garden, play with her cats, and spend time on her property near Green River, Utah.
Richard Lalli is Professor of Music (Adjunct) at Yale University, where he is the Artistic Director of the Yale Baroque Opera Project and the conductor of the Yale Collegium Musicum. At Yale he also coordinates the Shen Musical Theater Curriculum, a program he has developed over the past four years that brings professionals in musical theater composition, lyric- and book-writing, and performance to teach in the Music and Theater Studies Departments, as well as in the Yale School of Drama.
Mr. Lalli appears around the world as a singer. He has given solo recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Spoleto Festival USA, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Merkin and Weill Halls in New York, Salle Cortot, and the United States Embassy in Paris. He has been particularly active in the performance of chamber music, appearing with the Boston Camerata, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Folger Consort, and the new-music ensemble Sequitur. During the coming season he tours with Peter Serkin and the Brentano String Quartet.
In recent seasons Lalli has premiered works of countless American composers, including Ricky Ian Gordon, Richard Pearson Thomas, Daron Hagen, and most recently, Ned Rorem. His recording of Yehudi Wyner’s The Mirror was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005.
With pianist Gary Chapman, Lalli has recorded four discs of popular songs. The two have appeared at festivals around the world, and also in intimate spaces such as the Players’ Club, the Carlyle, the Park Plaza, and The Whitney Museum of American Art.
Mr. Lalli was awarded the Sidonie Mishimin Clauss Prize in 2007 for excellence in teaching in the Humanities at Yale University, and
He has recently been named the eleventh Master of Jonathan Edwards College at Yale University.
Elizabeth Auman is a music historian, archivist, acquisitions specialist, fund-raiser, concert and recording producer, appraiser, librarian and musician who has worked in the Library of Congress’s Music Division for 38 years. Her focus for most of those years has been on acquisitions—especially those of special collections—multi-format materials representing the complete lives and works of those whose materials they are. She has worked with many of the major figures in American music.
During her tenure at the Library, she has been instrumental in building a world-class music collection there; has been acquisitions and archival consultant to numerous private collections; has acted as a trusted advisor to the families and Estates of many noted composers, arrangers, orchestrators, and performers. She is a noted specialist in American musical theater (Grammy producer nominations for two restored Gershwin shows), American art song (Grammy producer nomination for Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen), the Romantic era (particularly Brahms and Liszt), and the Renaissance (Italian and English vocal/chamber music and their interrelationships).
She has been on the faculty of The Catholic University of America. She is also a free-lance consultant on and appraiser of performing arts-related archives. In her spare time, she loves to read, garden, play with her cats, and spend time on her property near Green River, Utah.
Richard Lalli is Professor of Music (Adjunct) at Yale University, where he is the Artistic Director of the Yale Baroque Opera Project and the conductor of the Yale Collegium Musicum. At Yale he also coordinates the Shen Musical Theater Curriculum, a program he has developed over the past four years that brings professionals in musical theater composition, lyric- and book-writing, and performance to teach in the Music and Theater Studies Departments, as well as in the Yale School of Drama.Mr. Lalli appears around the world as a singer. He has given solo recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Spoleto Festival USA, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Merkin and Weill Halls in New York, Salle Cortot, and the United States Embassy in Paris. He has been particularly active in the performance of chamber music, appearing with the Boston Camerata, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Folger Consort, and the new-music ensemble Sequitur. During the coming season he tours with Peter Serkin and the Brentano String Quartet.
In recent seasons Lalli has premiered works of countless American composers, including Ricky Ian Gordon, Richard Pearson Thomas, Daron Hagen, and most recently, Ned Rorem. His recording of Yehudi Wyner’s The Mirror was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005.
With pianist Gary Chapman, Lalli has recorded four discs of popular songs. The two have appeared at festivals around the world, and also in intimate spaces such as the Players’ Club, the Carlyle, the Park Plaza, and The Whitney Museum of American Art.
Mr. Lalli was awarded the Sidonie Mishimin Clauss Prize in 2007 for excellence in teaching in the Humanities at Yale University, and
He has recently been named the eleventh Master of Jonathan Edwards College at Yale University.
German-born Andreas Klein enjoys two career paths: as an internationally acclaimed pianist and as a sought after audio producer/recording engineer. As soloist he has appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony, Stuttgart Radio Symphony, Halle Symphony, Houston Symphony and orchestras in Knoxville, Evansville, Green Bay and toured with the Lucerne Festival Strings and the Salzburg Chamber Soloists throughout the US and Mexico. He has presented recitals at the world’s most prestigious venues: London’s Wigmore Hall, Berlin’s Philharmonic Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, Mechanics Hall, MA, and in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Houston, Seattle, Cleveland, Rome, Milan, Bern, Leipzig, Dresden, Damascus, and Yerevan.
Andreas Klein is heard frequently on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, on numerous syndicated and local radio programs including three times as featured guest live on WGBH Boston and KUHF Houston. To attract and introduce television audiences to classical music, he created a series of short works by composers such as Chopin, Debussy and Stravinsky called Intermezzo with Andreas Klein, which was seen on PBS television stations nationwide. His teachers include Claudio Arrau, Nikita Magaloff, and John Perry. He holds a post-graduate diploma degree from Juilliard and a DMA from Rice University. www.AndreasKlein.com
As audio engineer and producer for classical music since 1987, he held positions of “Director for Audio Recordings” at the Brevard Music Festival, NC, and at the Peninsula Music Festival, WI, where he recorded for NPR affiliate radio station numerous orchestral concerts, some with soloists such as Joshua Bell, Midori, Lynn Harrell, Andre Watts and many more. Andreas Klein has produced, recorded, edited, and mastered his own piano CD, published by Eroica Classical. Most recently he became audio consultant for the new Performing Arts Center at Adelphi University in Garden City, NY, and produced a CD for the St. Petersburg String Quartet in Ohio. For more details, please see www.ultimoproductions.com.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Lotte Lehmann Foundation’s Springtime Evening of Song Honors Victoria Clark
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation’s annual spring event took place on Tuesday May 13 at the Bernstein family apartment. Victoria Clark, Tony-award-winning singer and actor, received a special commendation from the Foundation for her extraordinary presence on the music scene. Daniel Gundlach, the Foundation’s vice president, paid the following tribute to Ms. Clark: “In every generation there are a mere handful of singers who possess the extraordinary ability to reach their audience, and to touch our lives so deeply. Lotte Lehmann was an intuitive genius in that respect. And I submit to you that, in her generation, Victoria Clark is the same kind of artist.”
Music was presented by a splendid group of young performers. Martha Guth sang songs of Rachmaninov and Poulenc as well as an excerpt from the Scott Gendel’s song cycle ‘a space between,’ which she premiered last year. Gendel, the 2005 ASCAP/LLF Composition Contest, composed the work as his prize-winning commission. Scott Sowinski and Sarah Statler, students of Ms. Clark, performed works of Blitzstein, Sondheim and Bernstein. Danielle Talamantes, top winner of the 2006 CyberSing competition, performed songs of Rorem and Strauss. She also gave the world premiere of “I Look Through a Window,” a song written expressly for the event by Eli Marshall, winner of the Damien Top prize in the 2005 ASCAP/LLF Composition Contest. Award-winning pianist Spencer Myer was the collaborative pianist for the event.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Janet Baker Receives World of Song Award
Janet Baker, the distinguished English mezzo-soprano has been selected by the Board of Directors of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation as the seventh recipient of its annual World of Song Award. The award alternates among composers, singers, and collaborative pianists. It serves to raise public consciousness of art song and to honor those who have devoted their creative lives to this enriching form of music.
Daniel Gundlach, the chairman of the World of Song Award committee, stated, “Throughout her career, Janet Baker gave wholly of her artistic self in the service of music. We are particularly privileged to acknowledge her, given her lifelong dedication to art song. On a personal note, it affords me great pleasure to offer this award to a singer whose work I have revered for many years.”
Linn Maxwell, newly-elected president of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, speaking for the entire board of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, said, “I am thrilled to be able to honor a singer whose artistry has touched so many lives. Dame Janet Baker has made a lasting impact on musicians and audiences worldwide. We are pleased to announce her gracious acceptance of the 2007 World of Song Award.”
Lindsey Christensen, a board member of the LLF, praised the awardee’s contribution to art song thus: “For singers and teachers in my generation Janet Baker was the embodiment of the singer in service to the music. The beauty and humility of her performances inspired countless singers to dedicate their lives to song.”
Gary Hickling, founder and past president of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation stated, “Janet Baker’s beautiful, recognizable sound, the clear diction as well as intense involvement with the words and the overall meaning of the poem, the logical, technically masterful and musical way she dealt with each phrase, all are deeply satisfying. But there was another dimension that always sets her song performances above the huge field of excellent singers, past and present, and that was her palpable joy in what she was singing.”
Upon learning of the tribute, Dame Janet responded, “I am honoured indeed to be a recipient of the Award. In 1957 I was… invited to take part in master classes which Lotte Lehmann gave in the Wigmore Hall… I was heard by the Director of the most prestigious agency in the country… who became my representatives as a result… Lotte Lehmann was therefore responsible for giving me a marvelous chance at a very important moment and I was always grateful to her, not just for that but for her comments and wisdom; her name was revered by all of us and her presence was unforgettable… I am proud and delighted to think that, once again and after so many years, I am associated with her name in such a delightful way and I cannot adequately express my feelings of gratitude to the Board for a mark of respect which I appreciate so deeply.”
Thursday, May 08, 2008
New Lotte Lehmann Biography Issued
Cambridge University Press has just published author Michael H. Kater’s exhaustive and authoritative biography of Lotte Lehmann, entitled Never Sang for Hitler: The Life and Times of Lotte Lehmann. More than a traditional biography, Kater’s book, the result of years of assiduous research, is both a descriptive narrative of Lehmann’s life and a fresh look at the interconnections of the artist and society. Kater describes the various phases of Lehmann’s life, as well as the socio-cultural settings in which she found herself. Kater’s access to Lehmann’s personal documents and other papers housed in the Lotte Lehmann Archive at the
Music critic and author Peter G. Davis praises Kater’s book thus: “Michael Kater gives us an uncommonly full portrait of Lotte Lehmann. His vivid brush strokes leave no part of personality or colorful career unexamined, as he follows her star over two continents during two world wars and their aftermath. Whether dealing with the monsters of the Third Reich,
Author Michael Kater issued the following statement to the Lotte Lehmann Foundation: “In my biography of Lotte Lehmann I have attempted, among other things, to show the development of the singer through historic epochs; the dusk of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the First Austrian Republic, and a culturally ever more assertive United States of America. I wanted to demonstrate how these epochs shaped her and how, in turn, she left her traces on those times. Another goal of mine was to demonstrate the nature and the depth of her art in constantly changing situations. And, not least, I tried to deal with Lotte Lehmann the person judiciously, balancing her strengths with her failings. This was perhaps the hardest part of the book.”
Monday, April 14, 2008
Lotte Lehmann Foundation announces CyberSing 2008
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation has released the new rules, regulations, and dates for CyberSing 2008, its fourth biannual art song performance competition.
The stated objective of CyberSing is “[t]o recognize and award performance of art song by singers and pianists throughout the world.”
Entrants to the competition may enter in one of two Divisions: Division One, for singers 23 years of age and younger, and Division Two for singers over the age of 23. Prizes will include a Top Prize of $1,000 for the Division One winner, and a Top Prize of $5,000 for the Division Two winner. Prizes for best individual song performances will also be awarded in each Division.
Singers of both divisions will submit audio recordings of a range of art song repertoire, including German and French art song, a required song composed expressly for CyberSing by Larry Alan Smith, which is available for download exclusively at the CyberSing website.
In past competitions, entrants were judged exclusively on their submitted audio recordings of a prescribed art song repertoire. This year, for the first time, finalists will be requested to submit a performance DVD. The final round will be judged exclusively on these submitted DVD recordings.
The Foundation is accepting applications now through August 31, 2008. Finalists will be chosen by October 15, 2008, with a November 15, 2008 submission deadline for finalists’ DVD recordings. The winners will be announced on or before January 31, 2009.
Daniel Gundlach, the vice president of the Foundation’s Board of Directors stated, “CyberSing has always been a crucial element of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation’s activities. We are all thrilled with the new parameters of the competition, which will enable the judges to more completely and accurately evaluate the performances of the participants.”
Repertoire requirements and complete rules and regulations for the competition, as well as application forms, are available on the Foundation’s website: www.lottelehmann.org or at www.cybersing.org.
The stated objective of CyberSing is “[t]o recognize and award performance of art song by singers and pianists throughout the world.”
Entrants to the competition may enter in one of two Divisions: Division One, for singers 23 years of age and younger, and Division Two for singers over the age of 23. Prizes will include a Top Prize of $1,000 for the Division One winner, and a Top Prize of $5,000 for the Division Two winner. Prizes for best individual song performances will also be awarded in each Division.
Singers of both divisions will submit audio recordings of a range of art song repertoire, including German and French art song, a required song composed expressly for CyberSing by Larry Alan Smith, which is available for download exclusively at the CyberSing website.
In past competitions, entrants were judged exclusively on their submitted audio recordings of a prescribed art song repertoire. This year, for the first time, finalists will be requested to submit a performance DVD. The final round will be judged exclusively on these submitted DVD recordings.
The Foundation is accepting applications now through August 31, 2008. Finalists will be chosen by October 15, 2008, with a November 15, 2008 submission deadline for finalists’ DVD recordings. The winners will be announced on or before January 31, 2009.
Daniel Gundlach, the vice president of the Foundation’s Board of Directors stated, “CyberSing has always been a crucial element of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation’s activities. We are all thrilled with the new parameters of the competition, which will enable the judges to more completely and accurately evaluate the performances of the participants.”
Repertoire requirements and complete rules and regulations for the competition, as well as application forms, are available on the Foundation’s website: www.lottelehmann.org or at www.cybersing.org.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Carol Kimball Joins LLF Advisory Board
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation Board of Directors proudly announced today the unanimous election of Carol Kimball to the Board of Advisors of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation.
A passionate advocate for classical song, Carol Kimball is the author of Song: A Guide to Art Song Style and Literature, a highly regarded reference and text that has become "the principal one-volume American source on the topic," and Interpreting the Songs of Jacques Leguerney: A Guide for Study and Performance (with Mary Dibbern and Patrick Choukroun). She has edited The French Song Anthology, Women Composers: A Heritage of Song, and Art Song in English: 50 Songs by 21 American and British Composers, all publications of the Hal Leonard Corporation. Her writing also includes the Singer’s Edition opera anthologies and articles and reviews on opera and song in many professional journals, including The Opera Quarterly, The Opera Journal (National Opera Association), and The Journal of Singing (National Association of Teachers of Singing). She has served as past editor of The Journal of Singing and The Opera Journal.
Dr. Kimball has written liner notes for the following recordings: Four Composers-One Voice (cycles by Del Tredici, Hagen, Rorem, and Baley with the composers at the piano), Arsis Records; Le Premier matin du monde (works by Chausson, Fauré, Debussy, Poulenc, and Satie), Cambria Master Recordings; and (In)Habitation: Musical Settings of Margaret Atwood Poetry, forthcoming in 2008 (newly commissioned works by Libby Larsen, Amanda Harberg, Lori Laitman, Tania Léon, Elisenda Fabregas, and Judith Cloud), Centaur Records.
As a performer, Carol Kimball earned a reputation as an expressive and versatile performer in concerts, opera, and musical theater. Recognized as a gifted recitalist, her imaginative programming and the unusual scope of her repertoire garnered critical praise. A specialist in French repertoire, Dr. Kimball has studied and coached with Pierre Bernac, Gerard Souzay, Martial Singher, Thomas Grubb, and Dalton Baldwin.
Carol Kimball is Professor of Voice and Vocal Literature and a Barrick Distinguished Scholar at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she has taught since 1972. For her accomplishments in and for the Arts, she was honored with the 1992 Nevada Governor’s Arts Award for Excellence in the Arts. She remains active teaching, presenting master classes and clinics, and writing.
LLF Elects New President, VP, and Treasurer
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation today announced the election of three new officers to the posts of president, vice president and treasurer. Linn Maxwell, new to the board, will serve as president, Daniel Gundlach will assume the position of vice president and Larry Alan Smith will serve as treasurer.
Past president Daron Hagen, in remarks to the Board of Directors at the Foundation's Annual Fall Meeting today at the offices of Schiff, Hardin in New York City, thanked the board for their support during his term, and noted their achievements during that time, including the creation of the ASCAP/LLF Composition Contest, the launching of the media division VoxNova, and the Foundation's first New York Benefit. "I am particularly proud of the professionalism and dedication of our board members, how hard they have worked to fulfill the Foundation's many functions, and the vibrant sense of cooperation and enjoyment we've all brought to our work together."
Peter Kazaras, artistic director of the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program, and LLF board member stated, "As President of the LLF, Daron Hagen’s inextinguishable enthusiasm, unflagging energy, and thoughtful sense of discretion and kindness have been invaluable assets to the Board in its transition period. Daron has an uncanny ability to recognize your strong points and to play to them... He has demonstrated again and again what a tactful and wonderful leader and teacher he is."
Craig Urquhart, an active member of the board also expressed his gratitude to Mr. Hagen: "Daron Hagen’s tenure as the Chairman of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation was remarkable in that he led the Foundation in a creative and far-reaching way. In doing so he has handed over a more solid reinvigorated LLF to Ms Maxwell, our incoming president."
Russell Platt, LLF Board secretary welcomed Ms. Maxwell as incoming president: "In our meetings, Linn Maxwell has impressed me not only by the breadth of her notable career but by the obvious clarity of mind she has brought to her high-level experience as a supporter of vocalists and vocal music. I am confident that she will be a judicious leader of the Foundation in the coming years."
Daniel Gundlach spoke for the entire board when he said, "I greatly look forward to working closely with Ms. Maxwell, who has already shown herself to be a perceptive and creative thinker and a capable and confident leader. And I echo my fellow board members in their profound appreciation for Daron Hagen’s prodigious accomplishments during his tenure as president of the Foundation."
Succeeding Daron Hagen as the Lotte Lehmann Foundation's new president, Linn Maxwell, a mezzo-soprano, has performed on the stages of major orchestras, opera companies and recital halls across the United States and 25 foreign countries. She has also performed cabaret and one-woman shows in New York City and in March 2006 made her European cabaret debut at the International Theater, Frankfurt, Germany. A native of Indiana, Ms. Maxwell has been a soloist with the orchestras of Toronto, Cleveland, Chicago, Seattle, Oregon, Puerto Rico, San Antonio, Kansas, Rochester, Denver, Brooklyn, Minnesota and the Orchestra of the U.N.A.M of Mexico City.
In demand with oratorio and choral societies, Ms. Maxwell has appeared with the Bach festivals of Rochester, New York (for twelve seasons), Oregon (with Helmuth Rilling), Kalamazoo and Carmel. She is the founder of the Grand Rapids Bach Festival, has appeared with the Oratorio Society of Washington at the Kennedy Center, the Pro Arte Chorale at Carnegie Hall, the Oratorio Society of Utah in a nationally televised performance of Handel’s Messiah from the Mormon Tabernacle, and on several occasions with Musica Sacra at New York’s Lincoln Center. In recent seasons she has sung the Mozart Requiem with the Sofia, Bulgaria Philharmonic, premiered Mary Cassatt by Libby Larsen with the Grand Rapids Symphony, performed a concert of Russian opera arias with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and premiered a song cycle by Patrick Kavanaugh at Washington’s Kennedy Center in 2002.
Ms. Maxwell began her career in Europe, spending two seasons at the Städtische Bühnen in Essen, Germany where she sang Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, also singing major roles with the opera companies of Strasbourg, Lyon, Toulouse, the Netherlands (where she sang Baroque operas with Nicholas Harnancourt and Rosina in Barbiere di Siviglia), Hungarian State Opera and concerts with the Berlin Radio Orchestra. Her opera engagements in the U.S. have included San Francisco Opera, again as Rosina, two appearances with Santa Fe Opera, and Tales of Hoffmann with Cincinnati Opera.
Ms. Maxwell is a graduate of the University of Maryland and holds a Master of Music degree from the Catholic University of America. She has recorded for RCA Red Seal, New World, Centaur and Albany Records. Prior to succeeding Mr. Hagen as president of the board of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation she served as president of Joy in Singing. For more information about Linn Maxwell, plaease visit the official website: www.linnmaxwell.com.
Daniel Gundlach succeeds Brian Zeger as vice president of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation. A countertenor, he has been hailed as a vivid singer and actor in his appearances throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He has sung under James Conlon, Helmuth Rilling, Marc Minkowski, John Nelson, Daniel Beckwith, Jeffrey Thomas, Alain Altinoglu, James Richman, Johannes Somary, Philip Brunelle, Gwendolyn Toth, and the late Newell Jenkins, among others. His has sung with Chicago Lyric Opera, New York City Opera, Minnesota Opera, Skylight Opera, Edmonton Opera, the Broomhill Festival (UK), Les Musiciens du Louvre, and the Dallas Bach Society, the Clarion Music Society, Artek, Concert Royal, Amor Artis, the Dayton Philharmonic, and the Honolulu Symphony.
He has created leading roles in six contemporary operas, including the world premiere of Gualtiero Dazzi’s Le Luthier de Venise at the Théâtre du Châtelet and Pascal Dusapin’s Perelà, l’homme de fumée at the Opéra de Paris and at the Opéra de Montpellier. A live recording of these latter performances has been recently released on the Naïve Classics label.
A frequent recitalist, Mr. Gundlach has appeared on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago and on St. Bartholomew’s Concert Series and at the Donnell Library in New York, at Lawrence University, Northwestern University, the University of Hawaii, and the University of Illinois in Urbana. He also was featured in American Chamber Opera’s staged production of Pierrot Lunaire, which used his own English translation. In the fall of 2006, he appeared in New York and Chicago with countertenor Mark Crayton in a series of recitals entitled Conversations: New Music for Two Countertenors featuring newly-commissioned work by eight different composers. In March 2008, he performed a recital at KHPR, Honolulu's National Public Radio station. He is currently developing a cabaret act featuring songs made popular by Edith Piaf.
In addition to his performing career, Daniel Gundlach is active as a writer, teacher and vocal coach. He has taught master classes at the Classical Singer convention in New York City, and at the Neil Semer Vocal Institute. More information about Mr. Gundlach may be found at the official website: www.danielgundlach.com.
Past president Daron Hagen, in remarks to the Board of Directors at the Foundation's Annual Fall Meeting today at the offices of Schiff, Hardin in New York City, thanked the board for their support during his term, and noted their achievements during that time, including the creation of the ASCAP/LLF Composition Contest, the launching of the media division VoxNova, and the Foundation's first New York Benefit. "I am particularly proud of the professionalism and dedication of our board members, how hard they have worked to fulfill the Foundation's many functions, and the vibrant sense of cooperation and enjoyment we've all brought to our work together."
Peter Kazaras, artistic director of the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program, and LLF board member stated, "As President of the LLF, Daron Hagen’s inextinguishable enthusiasm, unflagging energy, and thoughtful sense of discretion and kindness have been invaluable assets to the Board in its transition period. Daron has an uncanny ability to recognize your strong points and to play to them... He has demonstrated again and again what a tactful and wonderful leader and teacher he is."
Craig Urquhart, an active member of the board also expressed his gratitude to Mr. Hagen: "Daron Hagen’s tenure as the Chairman of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation was remarkable in that he led the Foundation in a creative and far-reaching way. In doing so he has handed over a more solid reinvigorated LLF to Ms Maxwell, our incoming president."
Russell Platt, LLF Board secretary welcomed Ms. Maxwell as incoming president: "In our meetings, Linn Maxwell has impressed me not only by the breadth of her notable career but by the obvious clarity of mind she has brought to her high-level experience as a supporter of vocalists and vocal music. I am confident that she will be a judicious leader of the Foundation in the coming years."
Daniel Gundlach spoke for the entire board when he said, "I greatly look forward to working closely with Ms. Maxwell, who has already shown herself to be a perceptive and creative thinker and a capable and confident leader. And I echo my fellow board members in their profound appreciation for Daron Hagen’s prodigious accomplishments during his tenure as president of the Foundation."
* * *
Succeeding Daron Hagen as the Lotte Lehmann Foundation's new president, Linn Maxwell, a mezzo-soprano, has performed on the stages of major orchestras, opera companies and recital halls across the United States and 25 foreign countries. She has also performed cabaret and one-woman shows in New York City and in March 2006 made her European cabaret debut at the International Theater, Frankfurt, Germany. A native of Indiana, Ms. Maxwell has been a soloist with the orchestras of Toronto, Cleveland, Chicago, Seattle, Oregon, Puerto Rico, San Antonio, Kansas, Rochester, Denver, Brooklyn, Minnesota and the Orchestra of the U.N.A.M of Mexico City.
In demand with oratorio and choral societies, Ms. Maxwell has appeared with the Bach festivals of Rochester, New York (for twelve seasons), Oregon (with Helmuth Rilling), Kalamazoo and Carmel. She is the founder of the Grand Rapids Bach Festival, has appeared with the Oratorio Society of Washington at the Kennedy Center, the Pro Arte Chorale at Carnegie Hall, the Oratorio Society of Utah in a nationally televised performance of Handel’s Messiah from the Mormon Tabernacle, and on several occasions with Musica Sacra at New York’s Lincoln Center. In recent seasons she has sung the Mozart Requiem with the Sofia, Bulgaria Philharmonic, premiered Mary Cassatt by Libby Larsen with the Grand Rapids Symphony, performed a concert of Russian opera arias with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and premiered a song cycle by Patrick Kavanaugh at Washington’s Kennedy Center in 2002.
Ms. Maxwell began her career in Europe, spending two seasons at the Städtische Bühnen in Essen, Germany where she sang Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, also singing major roles with the opera companies of Strasbourg, Lyon, Toulouse, the Netherlands (where she sang Baroque operas with Nicholas Harnancourt and Rosina in Barbiere di Siviglia), Hungarian State Opera and concerts with the Berlin Radio Orchestra. Her opera engagements in the U.S. have included San Francisco Opera, again as Rosina, two appearances with Santa Fe Opera, and Tales of Hoffmann with Cincinnati Opera.
Ms. Maxwell is a graduate of the University of Maryland and holds a Master of Music degree from the Catholic University of America. She has recorded for RCA Red Seal, New World, Centaur and Albany Records. Prior to succeeding Mr. Hagen as president of the board of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation she served as president of Joy in Singing. For more information about Linn Maxwell, plaease visit the official website: www.linnmaxwell.com.
* * *
Daniel Gundlach succeeds Brian Zeger as vice president of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation. A countertenor, he has been hailed as a vivid singer and actor in his appearances throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He has sung under James Conlon, Helmuth Rilling, Marc Minkowski, John Nelson, Daniel Beckwith, Jeffrey Thomas, Alain Altinoglu, James Richman, Johannes Somary, Philip Brunelle, Gwendolyn Toth, and the late Newell Jenkins, among others. His has sung with Chicago Lyric Opera, New York City Opera, Minnesota Opera, Skylight Opera, Edmonton Opera, the Broomhill Festival (UK), Les Musiciens du Louvre, and the Dallas Bach Society, the Clarion Music Society, Artek, Concert Royal, Amor Artis, the Dayton Philharmonic, and the Honolulu Symphony.
He has created leading roles in six contemporary operas, including the world premiere of Gualtiero Dazzi’s Le Luthier de Venise at the Théâtre du Châtelet and Pascal Dusapin’s Perelà, l’homme de fumée at the Opéra de Paris and at the Opéra de Montpellier. A live recording of these latter performances has been recently released on the Naïve Classics label.
A frequent recitalist, Mr. Gundlach has appeared on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago and on St. Bartholomew’s Concert Series and at the Donnell Library in New York, at Lawrence University, Northwestern University, the University of Hawaii, and the University of Illinois in Urbana. He also was featured in American Chamber Opera’s staged production of Pierrot Lunaire, which used his own English translation. In the fall of 2006, he appeared in New York and Chicago with countertenor Mark Crayton in a series of recitals entitled Conversations: New Music for Two Countertenors featuring newly-commissioned work by eight different composers. In March 2008, he performed a recital at KHPR, Honolulu's National Public Radio station. He is currently developing a cabaret act featuring songs made popular by Edith Piaf.
In addition to his performing career, Daniel Gundlach is active as a writer, teacher and vocal coach. He has taught master classes at the Classical Singer convention in New York City, and at the Neil Semer Vocal Institute. More information about Mr. Gundlach may be found at the official website: www.danielgundlach.com.
* * *
Larry Alan Smith, the new treasurer of the Lehmann Foundation, began his earliest musical training in Ohio, and pursued his studies in France with Nadia Boulanger and at The Juilliard School with Vincent Persichetti. While earning his B.M., M.M. and D.M.A. degrees at Juilliard, he was the recipient of several prizes, including the Joseph Machlis Prize for outstanding distinction in composition. During his final year of study, Dr. Smith was appointed to the Faculty of the Juilliard School where he taught from 1980-86. Previously, he was on the Composition Faculty of the Boston Conservatory.
An award-winning and prolific composer, Dr. Smith is represented and published by the Theodore Presser Company. His works are also published by Bourne Music, E.B. Marks, Colla Voce Music, and Tallow Tree Music Publishing; and his vocal works are distributed by Classical Vocal Reprints. Dr. Smith is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and he serves on a number of regional and national boards. He was recently awarded the 2006 Forrest Goodenough Fellowship for Composers and Songwriters from the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
Dr. Smith also maintains an active performing schedule. He has guest conducted numerous orchestras and chamber ensembles in England, Brazil, Italy, Germany and the United States. Dr. Smith is also an experienced pianist who frequently performs his own works.
As an arts executive, he served as the President of the School of American Ballet from 1997-2000, Dean of the Hartt School at the University of Hartford from 1990-97 and Dean of the School of Music at the North Carolina School of the Arts from 1986-90. He is currently Professor of Composition at the Hartt School, Artistic and Executive Director of Wintergreen Performing Arts in Wintergreen, VA and Artistic Director of American SongFest in Woodstock, New York, a component of Woodstock Fringe. More information about Mr. Smith may be found at the official website: www.larryalansmith.com.
An award-winning and prolific composer, Dr. Smith is represented and published by the Theodore Presser Company. His works are also published by Bourne Music, E.B. Marks, Colla Voce Music, and Tallow Tree Music Publishing; and his vocal works are distributed by Classical Vocal Reprints. Dr. Smith is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and he serves on a number of regional and national boards. He was recently awarded the 2006 Forrest Goodenough Fellowship for Composers and Songwriters from the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
Dr. Smith also maintains an active performing schedule. He has guest conducted numerous orchestras and chamber ensembles in England, Brazil, Italy, Germany and the United States. Dr. Smith is also an experienced pianist who frequently performs his own works.
As an arts executive, he served as the President of the School of American Ballet from 1997-2000, Dean of the Hartt School at the University of Hartford from 1990-97 and Dean of the School of Music at the North Carolina School of the Arts from 1986-90. He is currently Professor of Composition at the Hartt School, Artistic and Executive Director of Wintergreen Performing Arts in Wintergreen, VA and Artistic Director of American SongFest in Woodstock, New York, a component of Woodstock Fringe. More information about Mr. Smith may be found at the official website: www.larryalansmith.com.
Friday, March 02, 2007
ASCAP-LLF 2007 Competition is Launched
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation and ASCAP announce the launch of the 2007 ASCAP / Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition. The compeition was founded in 2005 by the Lehmann Foundation, which invited the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) to co-present and to help bring the competition to the attention of as many composers as possible.
2007 GUIDELINES
All Applications Must Include:
COMMISSIONS
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation & ASCAP will award commissions to compose new works to the prise-winning composers.
With approval of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, composers will select the English language text for the commission. If a protected text is selected, the composer will assume the obligation of acquiring all necessary rights and permissions required to fulfill the commission. After the Lotte Lehmann Foundation approves the text, and receives permission documentation, the commission agreement will be executed, and the first half of the commission fee will be awarded. Upon timely submission and acceptance of the completed work, The Lotte Lehmann Foundation will pay the second and final payment of the commission fee. The Lotte Lehmann Foundation will support costs to prepare the materials for performance. All rights to the commissioned work will remain with the composer, save for the customary credit acknowledging the prize. E.C. Schirmer Publishing has agreed to publish and new-issue to retailers the first prize commissioned work, if the composer is not already udner contract to a publisher. The Joy in Singing Foundation in New York and two other national presenters have peldged to perform the first prize commission within two years of completion. The Lotte Lehmann Foundation will bring all the prize-winning commissions, and works earning Honorable Mention in the competition, to the attention of notable members of the cocnert music community interested in song.
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation reserves the right not to award a prize, if no winner is selected by the panel of adjudicators.
2007 GUIDELINES
- Previous winners in all categories are ineligible.
- Applicants must be citizens, permanent residents of the United States, or enrolled students with student visas, who have not reached their thirtieth (30th) birthday by January 1, 2008.
- Only one original art song with English text, per composer may be submitted.
- Arrangements of pre-existing music are ineligible.
- All scores and recordings remain the property of the composer.
- So that materials may be properly returned, please enclose a self-addressed envelope with sufficient return postage (SASE).
- Permission to set the text MUST be inlcuded to be eligible.
- All materials must be postmarked no later than September 15, 2007.
All Applications Must Include:
- Completed and signed application form.
- The reproduction of one (1) manuscript / score.
- If a text protected by copyright has been used, written permission from the literary publisher must be included. If the text is not published, a letter from the author
or author's representative granting permission to the composer must be enclosed. - A printed copy of the English text.
- A brief biography/CV of the composer, not to exceed 200 words.
- A compact disc/cassette recording of a live performance of the work submitted. (MIDI realizations will not be accepted). The recording must be clearly marked with the composer's name,
title of the composition, identification of the performers, and properly cued. Multimovement works should include track numbers for different movements. Compact discs must be playable
on a standard CD player.
COMMISSIONS
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation & ASCAP will award commissions to compose new works to the prise-winning composers.
- First Prize: ($3500) commission to compose a Song Cycle for voice and piano, to be published by E.C. Schirmer, and performed in three major American cities.
- Second Prize:($1000)commission to compose an art song for voice and piano.
- Third Prize ($750) commission to compose an art song for voice and piano.
- Fourth Prize: ($500) commission to compose an art song for voice and piano on poetry by Andrée Brunin, with a world premiere of the newly commissioned song slated for the 2008 "Albert Roussel International Festival" in France.
With approval of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, composers will select the English language text for the commission. If a protected text is selected, the composer will assume the obligation of acquiring all necessary rights and permissions required to fulfill the commission. After the Lotte Lehmann Foundation approves the text, and receives permission documentation, the commission agreement will be executed, and the first half of the commission fee will be awarded. Upon timely submission and acceptance of the completed work, The Lotte Lehmann Foundation will pay the second and final payment of the commission fee. The Lotte Lehmann Foundation will support costs to prepare the materials for performance. All rights to the commissioned work will remain with the composer, save for the customary credit acknowledging the prize. E.C. Schirmer Publishing has agreed to publish and new-issue to retailers the first prize commissioned work, if the composer is not already udner contract to a publisher. The Joy in Singing Foundation in New York and two other national presenters have peldged to perform the first prize commission within two years of completion. The Lotte Lehmann Foundation will bring all the prize-winning commissions, and works earning Honorable Mention in the competition, to the attention of notable members of the cocnert music community interested in song.
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation reserves the right not to award a prize, if no winner is selected by the panel of adjudicators.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
LLF and NYSTA Co-Present NYC Recital
“POETS, PROPHETS AND QUEENS”
AN EVENING OF AMERICAN SONG
PRESENTED BY THE NEW YORK SINGING TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
AND
THE LOTTE LEHMANN FOUNDATION
Friday, April 20, 2007, 7:30 pm
Yamaha Showroom
689 Fifth Avenue, NYC
An outstanding quartet of young singers will perform a program entitled Poets Prophets and Queens, on Friday, April 20 at the Yamaha Showroom, located at 689 Fifth Avenue. The evening features recent American songs by acclaimed composers John Corigliano, Daron Hagen, Lee Hoiby, and Libby Larsen and emerging composers Scott Gendel, Mark Buntag and Michael Djupstrom. This concert is co-presentated by two non-profit organizations devoted to promoting American song, the New York Singing Teachers Association, Inc. and the Lotte Lehmann Foundation.
Repertoire for this concert reflects some of the most exciting recent vocal work by major American composers and illustrates the powerful eloquence of music and text embodied in the art song. Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man, based on lyrics by Bob Dylan, forces the listener to reexamine this unforgettable poetry in an entirely new light. Several of the Corigliano songs address the subject of war, as does Lee Hoiby’s beautifully unadorned setting Private Jesse Givens, a letter written by a soldier to his family shortly before his death in Iraq. Libby Larsen’s Try Me, Good King: Last Words of the Wives of Henry VIII also offers first-person narrative in the face of death, in a cycle packed with high drama and emotion. Opening this program is a set of songs by Mr. Hoiby, Leonard Bernstein and Chris de Blasio on poetry of Walt Whitman. Daron Hagen’s moving setting of Holy Thursday, a poem by Paul Muldoon, will also be heard.
Along with these well-known composers, the concert features songs by three winners of the 2005 ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition, all under thirty years old: first prize winner, Scott Gendel, Damine prize winner Eli Marshall and third prize winner Michael Djupstrom. Gendel, whose output includes over twenty vocal works, is represented by his cycle Violi Songs, a fine addition to the song repertoire based on the fresh and funny poetry of Paul Violi, and his “remixes” of two 18th century Italian songs. Gendel, as the competition’s first prize winner, was commissioned to write a song cycle and the resulting work, The Space Between was premiered by the Joy of Singing on February 24th this year. The second and third prize winners are each commissioned to write a song, and Marshall’s Infini , on a poem of Andrée Brunin and Djupstom’s I Would Live in Your Love on a poem by Sara Teasdale, will be performed on this concert.
The singers are sopranos Deborah Lifton and Amy Synatzke Blake, tenor Matthew Garret, and baritone Jesse Blumburg, all of whom are gifted artists with rising careers. Ms. Lifton, who will sing the Larsen songs, performs many concerts in the New York area, has appeared in several operatic and orchestral performances at the Aspen Music Festival and can be heard on Albany Records CD of A Death in the Family. Soprano Amy Syntazke Blake, who tackles the Corigliano, has appeared as Pamina and Nedda at the Natchez Opera, has covered several leading roles at the the Caramoor Festival, and appears regularly with the Goliard Chamber Ensemble. Matthew Garrett, who performs this season with Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Connecticut Concert Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, the Oratorio Society of New York, and the Basel Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, will sing Gendel’s cycle. The Whitman set and Mr. Hoiby’s Private Jesse Givens are performed by baritone Jesse Blumberg, who appears this season in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's opera The Grapes of Wrath at The Minnesota Opera, in the title role in Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses with Opera Vivente in Baltimore and with American Bach Soloists in the San Francisco Bay area.
Collaborative pianists in this event are of equally high caliber: the credits of Charis Dimaris, who plays Larsen and Gendel, includes the Salzburg Mozarteum International summer concerts, Brighton and Newcastle International Chamber Music Festivals, University Sacaellum, Amsterdam Concertgebouw Hall, Holland Music Sessions and many New York City concerts. Jocelyn Dueck, who performs the Corigliano and Whitman sets and the Hoiby, is heard frequently in contemporary music in New York, and has performed internationally at the Cloître du Monastére de Cimiez in Nice, the Konzertsaal der Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, and as soloist on NPR’s Talking Volumes.
The New York Singing Teachers Association, Inc. (NYSTA) was founded in 1906 and celebrated its centenary last year. One of the leading pedagogical organizations in the U.S., NYSTA presents a full season of lectures, symposiums, and master classes, and an ongoing Professional Development Program offering extensive courses in vocal pedagogy. A commitment to singing in English was one of the organization’s founding tenets, and remains an important focus today.
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation was founded in 1997 with the dual mission of preserving and perpetuating Lotte Lehmann's legacy, and to honor her dream of bringing art song into the lives of as many people as possible. The Foundation sponsors two major music competitions: CyberSing, an Internet-based international Art Song Performance Competition for singers and pianists, takes place in even-numbered years; the ASCAP / Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition, a major national composition prize funded by Board Member Margo Garrett, is held in odd-numbered years.
The Yamaha Showroom is located at 689 Fifth Avenue, with its entrance on 54th Street just East of Fifth Avenue. Tickets for the concerts are free to NYSTA members, $20 for the general public and $10 for students and seniors, and can be reserved at www.nyst.org.
AN EVENING OF AMERICAN SONG
PRESENTED BY THE NEW YORK SINGING TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
AND
THE LOTTE LEHMANN FOUNDATION
Friday, April 20, 2007, 7:30 pm
Yamaha Showroom
689 Fifth Avenue, NYC
An outstanding quartet of young singers will perform a program entitled Poets Prophets and Queens, on Friday, April 20 at the Yamaha Showroom, located at 689 Fifth Avenue. The evening features recent American songs by acclaimed composers John Corigliano, Daron Hagen, Lee Hoiby, and Libby Larsen and emerging composers Scott Gendel, Mark Buntag and Michael Djupstrom. This concert is co-presentated by two non-profit organizations devoted to promoting American song, the New York Singing Teachers Association, Inc. and the Lotte Lehmann Foundation.
Repertoire for this concert reflects some of the most exciting recent vocal work by major American composers and illustrates the powerful eloquence of music and text embodied in the art song. Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man, based on lyrics by Bob Dylan, forces the listener to reexamine this unforgettable poetry in an entirely new light. Several of the Corigliano songs address the subject of war, as does Lee Hoiby’s beautifully unadorned setting Private Jesse Givens, a letter written by a soldier to his family shortly before his death in Iraq. Libby Larsen’s Try Me, Good King: Last Words of the Wives of Henry VIII also offers first-person narrative in the face of death, in a cycle packed with high drama and emotion. Opening this program is a set of songs by Mr. Hoiby, Leonard Bernstein and Chris de Blasio on poetry of Walt Whitman. Daron Hagen’s moving setting of Holy Thursday, a poem by Paul Muldoon, will also be heard.
Along with these well-known composers, the concert features songs by three winners of the 2005 ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition, all under thirty years old: first prize winner, Scott Gendel, Damine prize winner Eli Marshall and third prize winner Michael Djupstrom. Gendel, whose output includes over twenty vocal works, is represented by his cycle Violi Songs, a fine addition to the song repertoire based on the fresh and funny poetry of Paul Violi, and his “remixes” of two 18th century Italian songs. Gendel, as the competition’s first prize winner, was commissioned to write a song cycle and the resulting work, The Space Between was premiered by the Joy of Singing on February 24th this year. The second and third prize winners are each commissioned to write a song, and Marshall’s Infini , on a poem of Andrée Brunin and Djupstom’s I Would Live in Your Love on a poem by Sara Teasdale, will be performed on this concert.
The singers are sopranos Deborah Lifton and Amy Synatzke Blake, tenor Matthew Garret, and baritone Jesse Blumburg, all of whom are gifted artists with rising careers. Ms. Lifton, who will sing the Larsen songs, performs many concerts in the New York area, has appeared in several operatic and orchestral performances at the Aspen Music Festival and can be heard on Albany Records CD of A Death in the Family. Soprano Amy Syntazke Blake, who tackles the Corigliano, has appeared as Pamina and Nedda at the Natchez Opera, has covered several leading roles at the the Caramoor Festival, and appears regularly with the Goliard Chamber Ensemble. Matthew Garrett, who performs this season with Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Connecticut Concert Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, the Oratorio Society of New York, and the Basel Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, will sing Gendel’s cycle. The Whitman set and Mr. Hoiby’s Private Jesse Givens are performed by baritone Jesse Blumberg, who appears this season in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's opera The Grapes of Wrath at The Minnesota Opera, in the title role in Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses with Opera Vivente in Baltimore and with American Bach Soloists in the San Francisco Bay area.
Collaborative pianists in this event are of equally high caliber: the credits of Charis Dimaris, who plays Larsen and Gendel, includes the Salzburg Mozarteum International summer concerts, Brighton and Newcastle International Chamber Music Festivals, University Sacaellum, Amsterdam Concertgebouw Hall, Holland Music Sessions and many New York City concerts. Jocelyn Dueck, who performs the Corigliano and Whitman sets and the Hoiby, is heard frequently in contemporary music in New York, and has performed internationally at the Cloître du Monastére de Cimiez in Nice, the Konzertsaal der Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, and as soloist on NPR’s Talking Volumes.
The New York Singing Teachers Association, Inc. (NYSTA) was founded in 1906 and celebrated its centenary last year. One of the leading pedagogical organizations in the U.S., NYSTA presents a full season of lectures, symposiums, and master classes, and an ongoing Professional Development Program offering extensive courses in vocal pedagogy. A commitment to singing in English was one of the organization’s founding tenets, and remains an important focus today.
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation was founded in 1997 with the dual mission of preserving and perpetuating Lotte Lehmann's legacy, and to honor her dream of bringing art song into the lives of as many people as possible. The Foundation sponsors two major music competitions: CyberSing, an Internet-based international Art Song Performance Competition for singers and pianists, takes place in even-numbered years; the ASCAP / Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition, a major national composition prize funded by Board Member Margo Garrett, is held in odd-numbered years.
The Yamaha Showroom is located at 689 Fifth Avenue, with its entrance on 54th Street just East of Fifth Avenue. Tickets for the concerts are free to NYSTA members, $20 for the general public and $10 for students and seniors, and can be reserved at www.nyst.org.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Larry Alan Smith Joins Board of Directors
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation announced today that American composer, pianist, educator, and poet Larry Alan Smith has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation.
Praised by the New York Times as “a young composer of great gifts”, Smith has developed an international reputation as a composer, performer, educator and arts executive. Many of today’s outstanding soloists, chamber ensembles and orchestras have performed and commissioned works by Smith. Upon hearing the world premiere of his one-act opera, Aria da Capo, the well-known Chicago-based critic, Claudia Cassidy, reported: “This is remarkable opera theatre…Smith has an ear for flaring brilliance…All this seems to me a true talent, primarily because I want to hear Aria da Capo again.”
He began his earliest musical training in Ohio, and pursued his studies in France with Nadia Boulanger and at The Juilliard School with Vincent Persichetti. While earning his B.M., M.M. and D.M.A. degrees at Juilliard, he was the recipient of several prizes, including the Joseph Machlis Prize for outstanding distinction in composition. During his final year of study, Dr. Smith was appointed to the Faculty of the Juilliard School where he taught from 1980-86. Previously, he was on the Composition Faculty of the Boston Conservatory.
An award-winning and prolific composer, Larry Alan Smith is represented and published by the Theodore Presser Company. His works are also published by Bourne Music, E.B. Marks, Colla Voce Music, and Tallow Tree Music Publishing; and his vocal works are distributed by Classical Vocal Reprints. Dr. Smith is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and he serves on a number of regional and national boards. He was recently awarded the 2006 Forrest Goodenough Fellowship for Composers and Songwriters from the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
In addition to his primary life as a composer, Dr. Smith also maintains an active performing schedule. He has guest conducted numerous orchestras and chamber ensembles in England, Brazil, Italy, Germany and the United States. Dr. Smith is also an experienced pianist who frequently performs his own works.
As an arts executive, he served as the President of the School of American Ballet from 1997-2000, Dean of the Hartt School at the University of Hartford from 1990-97 and Dean of the School of Music at the North Carolina School of the Arts from 1986-90. He is currently Professor of Composition at the Hartt School, Artistic and Executive Director of Wintergreen Performing Arts in Wintergreen, VA and Artistic Director of American SongFest in Woodstock, New York, a component of Woodstock Fringe.
Larry Alan Smith is a Group XI Fellow of the Kellogg National Fellowship Program, a program of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation designed to expand the nation’s pool of capable leaders. He is the President of Berg Associates, Inc., a Connecticut corporation providing consulting services to arts organizations and other businesses; and he serves as a Senior Consultant for Arts Consulting Group, Inc., working out of the firm’s New York and Boston offices.
Dr. Smith is also a prolific poet who resides in Avon, Connecticut with his wife, pianist Marguerita Oundjian Smith, and their sons, Jamie, Christopher, Benjamin and William.
You may find more information about Dr. Smith at larryalansmith.com.
Friday, February 09, 2007
CYBERSING 2006 WINNERS ANNOUNCED
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation is proud to announce the winners of the 2006 CyberSing Competition. CyberSing is the only international singing competition available to entrants purely on the basis of their recorded submissions. This year, the biannual competition drew entries from Asia, Europe and North America. Contestants are divided into two categories: Division I includes singers up to the age of 23 while Division II comprises singers above the age of 23. Each year, a required song is commissioned from a major internationally-known composer and made available for download from the Foundation's website. This year's required song was "How to Make Coq Au Vin" by Dan Welcher. The competition also features "audience voting" in which the online public is invited to vote for its favorite entry via the competition website. Judges for the final round of the competition included Christopher Arneson, Martin Bruns and Lehmann Foundation board members Lindsey Christensen and Daniel Gundlach.
This year's winners are:
Division One:
Debra Stanley, soprano (USA), (assisted by pianist Fan Yang (China)):
The Violet Chang Top Prize in Memory of Her Professor Dr. Erik Werba, Vienna ($1000)
Mélodie Prize to honor the mélodie composer, Jacques Leguerney (1906-1997): Mary Dibbern ($250)
Required Song Prize in Memory of Susanna Kim Lar: Dwight & Louise Emery ($250)
The Nancy Bannick Lieder Prize in Honor of Judy Neale ($250)
American soprano Debra Stanley graduated from the Eastman School of Music in 2004, where she studied with Carol Webber. She is currently in the Lieder class of pianist Hartmut Höll and mezzo-soprano Mitsuko Shirai at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe and studying privately with Rudolf Piernay in Germany. She received a fellowship to study and perform at the Ravinia Festival as part of the Steans Institute for Young Artists in the summer of 2006. She has coached with artists such as Rudolf Piernay, Martin Katz, Malcolm Martineau, Elly Ameling, Edith Wiens, Rudolf Jansen, Helmut Deutsch, and Graham Johnson, and sung in master classes with Christa Ludwig, Julia Varady, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Debra Stanley recently won third prize at the 2006 International Euriade Vocal Concours in Kerkrade, Holland. She was awarded of the Golden Key International Honor Society study abroad scholarship toward her studies in Germany.
Jonathan Michie, baritone (USA), (assisted by pianist Joe Liccardo (USA)):
American Song Prize: Albert Schütz ($250)
American baritone Jonathan Michie is currently pursuing his Masters degree at the Eastman School of Music in the studio of Carol Webber. He has performed an eclectic repertoire at Eastman Opera Theatre and is the winner of the Kurt Weill Foundation's 2005 Lotte Lenya Competition, and the Liederkranz Foundation's 2006 Reusche Lieder Award. He has been featured in concert at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and has participated in master classes with Jay Lesenger, Jennifer Larmore, Robert White and Richard Hundley. He returns to Chautauqua Opera in 2007 as a Young Artist, singing Moralès in Carmen, among other roles, and performs a recital of works by Kurt Weill at the 2007 Spoleto USA Festival.
Kristin Hoff, soprano (Canada) (assisted by pianist Rachel Rensink-Hoff (Canada)):
The Nancy Bannick Mélodie Prize in Honor of Beebe Freitas ($250)
Canadian soprano Kristin Hoff received a BA in vocal performance and piano performance at Calvin College and is in her first year of the vocal performance masters program at the University of Montreal, where she studies under Mark Pedrotti. She is currently pursuing an independent study/research project on Judith Weir and this spring will present a recital of several of her works, chamber and solo, including her unaccompanied opera for soprano, King Harald’s Saga.
David Wilson, tenor (USA), (assisted by pianist Thomas Bandy (USA)):
Audience Prize: Ruth Ballard ($250)
Tenor David Wilson is an active performer of a variety of repertoire ranging from opera and concert to art song. He has performed as a soloist at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria, at the National Opera Association 2006 Convention, at the Kennedy Center, at Boston’s Jordan Hall and at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. He has sung in art song recitals throughout the greater Boston and greater metro-Detroit areas, and participated in master classes for renowned singers and coaches such as Walter Moore, Gabriela Lechner, and Sondra Kelly. Currently a student of Martha Sheil at UM, Wilson will complete his bachelors degree in April of 2007, and plans to pursue graduate studies the following year.
Division Two:
Andrew Garland, baritone (USA) (assisted by pianist Bethany Johnson (USA)):
Top Prize (shared $2500)
American Song Prize: Daron Hagen & Paul Sperry ($500)
American baritone Andrew Garland has an active career in opera, concert and recital. He has sung with Lake George Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, the National Philharmonic, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Phillips Collection, the Cathedral Choral Society, the Bard Music Festival, the New York Festival of Song, and under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation. Together with pianist Donna Loewy, he has performed programs of art songs by living American composers were heard in New York City, Washington, DC, Seattle, Cincinnati, Fullerton, CA, Hammond, LA, and Williamsburg, VA. Last summer Garland premiered Jake Heggie’s Here and Gone at the Ravinia Festival. Garland is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His teachers and coaches have included William McGraw, Paulina Stark, John Humphrey, Oren Brown, Elizabeth Mannion, Martin Katz, Donna Loewy, Kenneth Griffiths and Terry Lusk.
Danielle Talamantes, soprano (USA), (assisted by pianist Joy Schreier (USA)):
Top Prize (shared $2500)
Danielle Talamantes, soprano, has performed with Spoleto Festival USA, Wolf Trap Opera, Nevada Opera, and Annapolis Opera. She has sung in oratorio with various groups in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. Ms. Talamantes is the current first place winner in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Awards and will appear in a solo recital in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in March, 2007. Ms. Talamantes maintains a voice studio in the Northern Virginia area and holds degrees from Virginia Tech and Westminster Choir College.
Peiyi Wang, mezzo-soprano (China) (assisted by pianist Thomas Bandy (USA)):
Mélodie Française Prize: Dalton Baldwin ($500)
Lieder Prize: Natalie Limonick ($500)
Peiyi Wang, mezzo-soprano, originally from Beijing, China, obtained her masters degree and Specialist degree in Voice Performance from the University of Michigan-School of Music and her bachelors degree in English Language & Literature from Peking University. Ms. Wang made her professional debuts in 2006 with Michigan Opera Theatre in the title role of Cenerentola, and with the University Musical Society as Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice in 2001 and as Roggiero in Tancredi in 2006. Ms. Wang was the first prize winner of Great Lakes Opera Competition and Harold Haugh Opera Competition. She has recorded music of David Amram for Naxos as part of its Milken Archive of American Jewish Music. She was the recipient of career grants from the Ars Gratia Artis Foundation and the Rislov Foundation and she has participated in master classes with Lorraine Nubar and Dalton Baldwin.
Thomas Bandy, pianist (USA):
Best Collaborative Pianist Prize in Honor of Dalton Baldwin: Lindsey Christiansen ($500)
Thomas Bandy is originally from Charleston, South Carolina, and is presently finishing his doctoral studies in collaborative piano at the University of Michigan. He studies with Martin Katz, with whom he also studied during work on his Master's degree, received in 2004. He currently plays in the voice studios of Shirley Verrett and George Shirley. He graduated summa cum laude from Furman University, in Greenville, South Carolina, in 2001 with a double major in philosophy and piano.
Shieh Yih Lim, tenor (Singapore) (assisted by pianist Pei-Chi Hong (Taiwan)):
Robert Bullington Audience Prize, in honor of the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Mercer County, New Jersey ($500)
Tenor Shieh-Yih Lim has performed widely in opera, oratorio and art song, including Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and the New England Conservatory, as well as Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos at Music Academy of the West. He has also participated in summer programs at the Pacific Music Festival and at the Aspen Music Festival. He has earned degrees from the Trinity College of Music, London, the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, PR China and the Juilliard School in both piano and voice. His teachers include Scelagh Molyneaux, Yang Jie, Li Xinchang, Robert White, Edward Zambara and Marilyn Horne. Currently residing in his native Singapore, Mr. Lim is a member of the voice faculty at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and LaSalle – SIA College of the Arts in Singapore.
This year's winners are:
Division One:
Debra Stanley, soprano (USA), (assisted by pianist Fan Yang (China)):
The Violet Chang Top Prize in Memory of Her Professor Dr. Erik Werba, Vienna ($1000)
Mélodie Prize to honor the mélodie composer, Jacques Leguerney (1906-1997): Mary Dibbern ($250)
Required Song Prize in Memory of Susanna Kim Lar: Dwight & Louise Emery ($250)
The Nancy Bannick Lieder Prize in Honor of Judy Neale ($250)
American soprano Debra Stanley graduated from the Eastman School of Music in 2004, where she studied with Carol Webber. She is currently in the Lieder class of pianist Hartmut Höll and mezzo-soprano Mitsuko Shirai at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe and studying privately with Rudolf Piernay in Germany. She received a fellowship to study and perform at the Ravinia Festival as part of the Steans Institute for Young Artists in the summer of 2006. She has coached with artists such as Rudolf Piernay, Martin Katz, Malcolm Martineau, Elly Ameling, Edith Wiens, Rudolf Jansen, Helmut Deutsch, and Graham Johnson, and sung in master classes with Christa Ludwig, Julia Varady, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Debra Stanley recently won third prize at the 2006 International Euriade Vocal Concours in Kerkrade, Holland. She was awarded of the Golden Key International Honor Society study abroad scholarship toward her studies in Germany.
Jonathan Michie, baritone (USA), (assisted by pianist Joe Liccardo (USA)):
American Song Prize: Albert Schütz ($250)
American baritone Jonathan Michie is currently pursuing his Masters degree at the Eastman School of Music in the studio of Carol Webber. He has performed an eclectic repertoire at Eastman Opera Theatre and is the winner of the Kurt Weill Foundation's 2005 Lotte Lenya Competition, and the Liederkranz Foundation's 2006 Reusche Lieder Award. He has been featured in concert at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and has participated in master classes with Jay Lesenger, Jennifer Larmore, Robert White and Richard Hundley. He returns to Chautauqua Opera in 2007 as a Young Artist, singing Moralès in Carmen, among other roles, and performs a recital of works by Kurt Weill at the 2007 Spoleto USA Festival.
Kristin Hoff, soprano (Canada) (assisted by pianist Rachel Rensink-Hoff (Canada)):
The Nancy Bannick Mélodie Prize in Honor of Beebe Freitas ($250)
Canadian soprano Kristin Hoff received a BA in vocal performance and piano performance at Calvin College and is in her first year of the vocal performance masters program at the University of Montreal, where she studies under Mark Pedrotti. She is currently pursuing an independent study/research project on Judith Weir and this spring will present a recital of several of her works, chamber and solo, including her unaccompanied opera for soprano, King Harald’s Saga.
David Wilson, tenor (USA), (assisted by pianist Thomas Bandy (USA)):
Audience Prize: Ruth Ballard ($250)
Tenor David Wilson is an active performer of a variety of repertoire ranging from opera and concert to art song. He has performed as a soloist at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria, at the National Opera Association 2006 Convention, at the Kennedy Center, at Boston’s Jordan Hall and at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. He has sung in art song recitals throughout the greater Boston and greater metro-Detroit areas, and participated in master classes for renowned singers and coaches such as Walter Moore, Gabriela Lechner, and Sondra Kelly. Currently a student of Martha Sheil at UM, Wilson will complete his bachelors degree in April of 2007, and plans to pursue graduate studies the following year.
Division Two:
Andrew Garland, baritone (USA) (assisted by pianist Bethany Johnson (USA)):
Top Prize (shared $2500)
American Song Prize: Daron Hagen & Paul Sperry ($500)
American baritone Andrew Garland has an active career in opera, concert and recital. He has sung with Lake George Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, the National Philharmonic, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Phillips Collection, the Cathedral Choral Society, the Bard Music Festival, the New York Festival of Song, and under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation. Together with pianist Donna Loewy, he has performed programs of art songs by living American composers were heard in New York City, Washington, DC, Seattle, Cincinnati, Fullerton, CA, Hammond, LA, and Williamsburg, VA. Last summer Garland premiered Jake Heggie’s Here and Gone at the Ravinia Festival. Garland is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His teachers and coaches have included William McGraw, Paulina Stark, John Humphrey, Oren Brown, Elizabeth Mannion, Martin Katz, Donna Loewy, Kenneth Griffiths and Terry Lusk.
Danielle Talamantes, soprano (USA), (assisted by pianist Joy Schreier (USA)):
Top Prize (shared $2500)
Danielle Talamantes, soprano, has performed with Spoleto Festival USA, Wolf Trap Opera, Nevada Opera, and Annapolis Opera. She has sung in oratorio with various groups in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. Ms. Talamantes is the current first place winner in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Awards and will appear in a solo recital in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in March, 2007. Ms. Talamantes maintains a voice studio in the Northern Virginia area and holds degrees from Virginia Tech and Westminster Choir College.
Peiyi Wang, mezzo-soprano (China) (assisted by pianist Thomas Bandy (USA)):
Mélodie Française Prize: Dalton Baldwin ($500)
Lieder Prize: Natalie Limonick ($500)
Peiyi Wang, mezzo-soprano, originally from Beijing, China, obtained her masters degree and Specialist degree in Voice Performance from the University of Michigan-School of Music and her bachelors degree in English Language & Literature from Peking University. Ms. Wang made her professional debuts in 2006 with Michigan Opera Theatre in the title role of Cenerentola, and with the University Musical Society as Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice in 2001 and as Roggiero in Tancredi in 2006. Ms. Wang was the first prize winner of Great Lakes Opera Competition and Harold Haugh Opera Competition. She has recorded music of David Amram for Naxos as part of its Milken Archive of American Jewish Music. She was the recipient of career grants from the Ars Gratia Artis Foundation and the Rislov Foundation and she has participated in master classes with Lorraine Nubar and Dalton Baldwin.
Thomas Bandy, pianist (USA):
Best Collaborative Pianist Prize in Honor of Dalton Baldwin: Lindsey Christiansen ($500)
Thomas Bandy is originally from Charleston, South Carolina, and is presently finishing his doctoral studies in collaborative piano at the University of Michigan. He studies with Martin Katz, with whom he also studied during work on his Master's degree, received in 2004. He currently plays in the voice studios of Shirley Verrett and George Shirley. He graduated summa cum laude from Furman University, in Greenville, South Carolina, in 2001 with a double major in philosophy and piano.
Shieh Yih Lim, tenor (Singapore) (assisted by pianist Pei-Chi Hong (Taiwan)):
Robert Bullington Audience Prize, in honor of the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Mercer County, New Jersey ($500)
Tenor Shieh-Yih Lim has performed widely in opera, oratorio and art song, including Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and the New England Conservatory, as well as Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos at Music Academy of the West. He has also participated in summer programs at the Pacific Music Festival and at the Aspen Music Festival. He has earned degrees from the Trinity College of Music, London, the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, PR China and the Juilliard School in both piano and voice. His teachers include Scelagh Molyneaux, Yang Jie, Li Xinchang, Robert White, Edward Zambara and Marilyn Horne. Currently residing in his native Singapore, Mr. Lim is a member of the voice faculty at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and LaSalle – SIA College of the Arts in Singapore.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
EC Schirmer and LLF Sign Publishing Agreement
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation is proud to announce a groundbreaking publication and print music distribution agreement with ECS Publishing covering all print music publications of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation's VoxNova Media division.
Each work will be published in printed format by ECS as part of a series identified as "The Lotte Lehmann Foundation VoxNova Editions" and shall be made available by E.C. Schirmer for sale as a printed edition throughout the world.
Beginning in the Spring of 2007, VoxNova will make available as PDF downloads for sale on the Internet from the VoxNova website these newly-edited and engraved critical editions. Please visit the VoxNova Media website for more information.
The Editorial Committee of VoxNova, under the direction of composer, flautist, educator and Lehmann Foundation board member Su Lian Tan, is currently accepting submissions not only from living composers of vocal music, but also from foundations and the estates of composers seeking to bring back into print historically important compositions that have fallen out of print. Remarks Su Lian Tan, "This is a bold initiative that addresses in an innovative way the needs of composers, scholars, and performers of serious vocal music. The successful and ongoing publication of these works represents an important manifestation of the Lehmann Foundation's mission."
"The Lotte Lehmann Foundation, in furtherance of its charitable mission, has reached out to E.C. Schirmer in an effort to encourage the publication, dissemination, performance, and appreciation of vocal music, including art songs," notes Lehmann foundation president Daron Hagen. "We're awfully proud to enter into this agreement with Robert Schuneman and E.C. Schirmer. ECS is a first-class international music publishing company with extensive experience publishing vocal music and art songs and an impeccable reputation."
William Rhoads, Co-Director of VoxNova, agrees, "We are pleased to move forward with E.C. Schirmer in this exciting and visionary arrangement. ECS's high standing in the music publishing industry and the prestigious offerings foreseen by the Vox Nova Editorial Committee and the Lotte Lehmann Foundation will undoubtedly bode well for this important catalog of works and composers."
Scheduled 2007 French Music Releases:
(Damien Top, Editor)
Each work will be published in printed format by ECS as part of a series identified as "The Lotte Lehmann Foundation VoxNova Editions" and shall be made available by E.C. Schirmer for sale as a printed edition throughout the world.
Beginning in the Spring of 2007, VoxNova will make available as PDF downloads for sale on the Internet from the VoxNova website these newly-edited and engraved critical editions. Please visit the VoxNova Media website for more information.
The Editorial Committee of VoxNova, under the direction of composer, flautist, educator and Lehmann Foundation board member Su Lian Tan, is currently accepting submissions not only from living composers of vocal music, but also from foundations and the estates of composers seeking to bring back into print historically important compositions that have fallen out of print. Remarks Su Lian Tan, "This is a bold initiative that addresses in an innovative way the needs of composers, scholars, and performers of serious vocal music. The successful and ongoing publication of these works represents an important manifestation of the Lehmann Foundation's mission."
"The Lotte Lehmann Foundation, in furtherance of its charitable mission, has reached out to E.C. Schirmer in an effort to encourage the publication, dissemination, performance, and appreciation of vocal music, including art songs," notes Lehmann foundation president Daron Hagen. "We're awfully proud to enter into this agreement with Robert Schuneman and E.C. Schirmer. ECS is a first-class international music publishing company with extensive experience publishing vocal music and art songs and an impeccable reputation."
William Rhoads, Co-Director of VoxNova, agrees, "We are pleased to move forward with E.C. Schirmer in this exciting and visionary arrangement. ECS's high standing in the music publishing industry and the prestigious offerings foreseen by the Vox Nova Editorial Committee and the Lotte Lehmann Foundation will undoubtedly bode well for this important catalog of works and composers."
Scheduled 2007 French Music Releases:
(Damien Top, Editor)
- Recueil de Mélodies, pour voix et piano — Ladislas de Rohozinski
- Rosaire sur un poème de Francis Jammes, pour voix et piano — Blanche Selva
- Venez sous la tonnelle assombrie de lilas sur un poème de Francis Jammes,
pour voix et piano — Blanche Selva - Mes de Maria, pour voix et piano — Blanche Selva
- 10 mélodies pour voix et piano — Blanche Selva
- Noël, three pieces for a cappella mixed choir — Suzanne Joly
- Trois Chansons pour ténor et piano — Harry Cox
- Si..., pour voix et piano — Horia Surianu
Saturday, November 11, 2006
John Wustman Receives 2007 World of Song Award
John Wustman, the distinguished American collaborative pianist and educator, has been chosen by the Board of Directors of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation as recipient of its annual 2007 World of Song Award.
The award alternates among composers, singers, and collaborative pianists. It serves to raise public consciousness of art song and to honor those who have devoted their creative lives to this enriching form of music.
Lindsey Christiansen, a member of the Foundation’s board of directors who sponsored Wustman’s nomination, offered this comment: "The numbers of singers, pianists and audience members for whom John Wustman has ignited the love affair with German lieder is legion. My encounter with his passionate and exacting love of this repertoire changed my life forever."
Daron Hagen, president of the Lehmann Foundation, summed up the feelings of the entire board of directors: "The loyalty with which John Wustman has served this noble art have been matched by very few and the fervor of his commitment is unparalleled. In so many ways he has been a trailblazer in his field, and elevated the role of the accompanist to an equal partner with the singer. The Lehmann Foundation is thrilled to recognize him for a lifetime of song."
Daniel Gundlach, chairman of the World of Song committee, recognized Wustman’s contribution thus: "John Wustman has influenced generations of pianists and singers. His dedication to art song, in particular the works of Wolf and Schubert, has been unwavering. I am proud to be one such student whose musical life was enriched by his example and I am proud that he is being celebrated by the Lehmann Foundation for his immeasurable contribution to the world of song."
Upon finding that he was to receive the award, Wustman himself said: "With my heart full of love and gratitude I accept the World of Song award from the Lotte Lehmann Foundation. We go along very happily and content and then such a surprise as to find that I am receiving this great honor. There are good things in this life."
The citation consists of a beautifully framed document designed by noted calligrapher Denis Lund. It can be viewed on the Lehmann Foundation’s website.
Previous World of Song Awards have gone to collaborative pianists Dalton Baldwin and Graham Johnson, tenor Hugues Cuénod, baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and composers Ned Rorem and Dominick Argento.
* * *
John Wustman, who has been called the "Dean of American accompanists" studied with John Kollen at the University of Michigan and in New York with Leonard Shure. When he became affiliated with Robert Shaw his long and illustrious career took off.
Wustman’s New York years read like a veritable history of singers and singing. He was pianist for the rehearsals of the American Opera Society’s presentation of Bellini’s Il Pirata at Carnegie Hall in 1959. The performances featured Maria Callas; Wustman would later serve as a member of the jury at the Fourth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow with Mme. Callas. During this time he traveled abroad under the aegis of the Fulbright Commission and also the United States State Department teaching master classes in German Lieder in Uruguay, Peru, and Argentina. He has appeared in the leading concert halls on six continents with singers whose names are synonymous great singing in the second half of the twentieth century: singers such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Birgit Nilsson, Régine Crespin, Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Gedda, Carlo Bergonzi, Luciano Pavarotti, and a host of others.
Highlights in his career included a series of televised recitals with Pavarotti, including the first recital from the Metropolitan Opera House in 1978. His recording of Mussorgsky and Rachmaninov songs with Irina Arkhipova won the Grand Prix du Disque. Other recordings include song recitals with Régine Crespin, Carlo Bergonzi, Brigitte Fassbaender and the “Live from Carnegie Hall” recital with Luciano Pavarotti.
In 1968 Wustman became Professor of Music at the University of Illinois where he founded the vocal coaching and accompanying program. His presence has been keenly felt in his recitals, often devoted to the works of one composer and master classes.
In recent times, Mr. Wustman engaged in a “labor of love”– a six-year series of recitals of the complete songs of Franz Schubert. The songs were performed in thirty-two separate programs in venues from New England to Florida, Nebraska to the Atlantic. The series of more than 350 concerts reached its culmination on January 31, 1997, the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
Wustman’s students are engaged as teachers, singers, conductors and repetiteurs in colleges and universities as well as the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Munich Staatsoper and La Scala, to name a few.
John Wustman is one of a few select members of the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois, the highest award the university grants its faculty.
The award alternates among composers, singers, and collaborative pianists. It serves to raise public consciousness of art song and to honor those who have devoted their creative lives to this enriching form of music.
Lindsey Christiansen, a member of the Foundation’s board of directors who sponsored Wustman’s nomination, offered this comment: "The numbers of singers, pianists and audience members for whom John Wustman has ignited the love affair with German lieder is legion. My encounter with his passionate and exacting love of this repertoire changed my life forever."
Daron Hagen, president of the Lehmann Foundation, summed up the feelings of the entire board of directors: "The loyalty with which John Wustman has served this noble art have been matched by very few and the fervor of his commitment is unparalleled. In so many ways he has been a trailblazer in his field, and elevated the role of the accompanist to an equal partner with the singer. The Lehmann Foundation is thrilled to recognize him for a lifetime of song."
Daniel Gundlach, chairman of the World of Song committee, recognized Wustman’s contribution thus: "John Wustman has influenced generations of pianists and singers. His dedication to art song, in particular the works of Wolf and Schubert, has been unwavering. I am proud to be one such student whose musical life was enriched by his example and I am proud that he is being celebrated by the Lehmann Foundation for his immeasurable contribution to the world of song."
Upon finding that he was to receive the award, Wustman himself said: "With my heart full of love and gratitude I accept the World of Song award from the Lotte Lehmann Foundation. We go along very happily and content and then such a surprise as to find that I am receiving this great honor. There are good things in this life."
The citation consists of a beautifully framed document designed by noted calligrapher Denis Lund. It can be viewed on the Lehmann Foundation’s website.
Previous World of Song Awards have gone to collaborative pianists Dalton Baldwin and Graham Johnson, tenor Hugues Cuénod, baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and composers Ned Rorem and Dominick Argento.
* * *
John Wustman, who has been called the "Dean of American accompanists" studied with John Kollen at the University of Michigan and in New York with Leonard Shure. When he became affiliated with Robert Shaw his long and illustrious career took off.
Wustman’s New York years read like a veritable history of singers and singing. He was pianist for the rehearsals of the American Opera Society’s presentation of Bellini’s Il Pirata at Carnegie Hall in 1959. The performances featured Maria Callas; Wustman would later serve as a member of the jury at the Fourth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow with Mme. Callas. During this time he traveled abroad under the aegis of the Fulbright Commission and also the United States State Department teaching master classes in German Lieder in Uruguay, Peru, and Argentina. He has appeared in the leading concert halls on six continents with singers whose names are synonymous great singing in the second half of the twentieth century: singers such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Birgit Nilsson, Régine Crespin, Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Gedda, Carlo Bergonzi, Luciano Pavarotti, and a host of others.
Highlights in his career included a series of televised recitals with Pavarotti, including the first recital from the Metropolitan Opera House in 1978. His recording of Mussorgsky and Rachmaninov songs with Irina Arkhipova won the Grand Prix du Disque. Other recordings include song recitals with Régine Crespin, Carlo Bergonzi, Brigitte Fassbaender and the “Live from Carnegie Hall” recital with Luciano Pavarotti.
In 1968 Wustman became Professor of Music at the University of Illinois where he founded the vocal coaching and accompanying program. His presence has been keenly felt in his recitals, often devoted to the works of one composer and master classes.
In recent times, Mr. Wustman engaged in a “labor of love”– a six-year series of recitals of the complete songs of Franz Schubert. The songs were performed in thirty-two separate programs in venues from New England to Florida, Nebraska to the Atlantic. The series of more than 350 concerts reached its culmination on January 31, 1997, the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
Wustman’s students are engaged as teachers, singers, conductors and repetiteurs in colleges and universities as well as the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Munich Staatsoper and La Scala, to name a few.
John Wustman is one of a few select members of the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois, the highest award the university grants its faculty.
Friday, November 10, 2006
LLF Board Member Daniel Gundlach commissions and performs new works
Lehmann Foundation Board Member Daniel Gundlach has joined with fellow countertenor Mark Crayton and pianist James Janssen in performances of a recital program entitled Conversations: New Music for Two Countertenors. The singers commissioned new and newly-arranged work from eight different composers, including LLF board members Daron Hagen (We Two, two Walt Whitman poems) and Craig Urquhart (Quilt Song, a setting of two of 27 text blocks from a patchwork signature quilt, crafted in 1841).
Other works on the program include Thy Lucifer by Gilda Lyons, an adaptation of the Mystery Play The Creation and Fall of Lucifer; three settings of the Rilke Sonette an Orpheus composed by Martha Sullivan; five duets on various texts by Elliot Z. Levine; theater songs by Joe and David Zellnik, adapted from three of their musicals, including the award-winning Yank!; Audio Visual, the first of a cycle of three duets entitled Trio by Michael Webster on texts of Noah de Lissovoy; and Narcissus, set by Chicago composer Gregory Peebles to his own text, one of a series of projected songs inspired by various characters in Greek mythology.
These songs (with the exception of Hagen’s Whitman settings) received their world premiere on 29 September 2006 as the first concert in the 2006-07 season of The Phoenix Concerts of Saint Matthew and Saint Timothy in New York City. The program is to be repeated, along with the world premiere of We Two, on 19 November 2006 as part of the Voices! concert series at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, in Evanston, Illinois. Further information is available at Mr.Gundlach’s website, www.danielgundlach.com, as well as Mr. Crayton’s website at www.markcrayton.com.
Mark Crayton, the 2004 winner of Classical Singer’s International Competition Grand Prize performs on concert stages and in opera houses throughout the United States and Europe. Mr. Crayton created the roles of the First Minstrel in The Holland Festival's production of Peter Onnes opera/theatre piece Pantagruel et Gargantua, the Cardinal/Inquisitor in Phillip Glass’ opera Galileo Galilei (in Chicago, New York and London) and Louis Perch in the new Kander and Ebb musical The Visit starring Chita Rivera. The recital repertoire is important to Mr. Crayton. He has been heard at New York's Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, a live broadcast on Chicago’s WFMT that was also transmitted via the internet, an appearance at Northeastern Illinois University’s acclaimed Jewel Box Series with a simulcast on WFMT, and at the Ravinia Music Festival. His orchestral appearances have been highlighted by performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and at Washington DC’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Last season Mr. Crayton, made his debut with the San Diego Opera in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, toured Europe in recital including performances in both Amsterdam and London, as well as a return to the concert series of The Phillips Collection in Washington DC. This season Mr. Crayton will debut with Seattle Opera as Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, return to the Jewel Box Series as well as The Phillips Collection, Ars Musica Chicago and many other venues.
Daniel Gundlach has been hailed as a vivid singer and actor in his appearances throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He has sung with James Conlon, Helmuth Rilling, Marc Minkowski, John Nelson, Daniel Beckwith, Jeffrey Thomas, Alain Altinoglu, James Richman, Johannes Somary, Philip Brunelle, Gwendolyn Toth, and the late Newell Jenkins, among others. His operatic appearances include Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare, Arsamene in Xerxes, Arsace and Armindo in Partenope, Polinesso in Ariodante, Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ottone in L’Incoronazione Di Poppea, the Sorceress in Dido and Æneas and Zephyrus in Apollo et Hyacinthus with Chicago Lyric Opera, New York City Opera, Minnesota Opera, Skylight Opera, Edmonton Opera, the Broomhill Festival (UK), Les Musiciens du Louvre, the Dallas Bach Society and at the Mostly Mozart Festival. He has been a soloist in oratorios by Bach (St. Matthew Passion, Magnificat and the Mass in B Minor), Scarlatti (the modern premiere of La Vergine Addolorata), Handel (Solomon, Samson, Messiah, Saul and Judas Maccabaeus, among others), Purcell, Zelenka, Bernstein (Chichester Psalms) and Orff (Carmina Burana) with the Clarion Music Society, Artek, Concert Royal, Amor Artis, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Honolulu Symphony, and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He recently created the role of La Mendiante in the world premiere of Gualtiero Dazzi’s Le Luthier de Venise at the Théâtre du Châtelet. He also appeared in the joint world premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s Perelà, l’homme de fumée at the Opéra de Paris (as Le Perroquet) and at the Opéra de Montpellier (as L’Archevêque). A live recording of these latter performances has been recently released on the Naïve Classics label. In the spring of 2006, he sang leading roles in the world premiere of Hell: The Opera at PS122 in New York City. In addition to his performing career, Daniel Gundlach is active as a writer, teacher, and vocal coach.
James Janssen made his debut at age 13 with Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D with the Anderson Symphony Orchestra. A native of Indianapolis, he received his education from Indiana University and Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute, studying with Penelope Crawford, Patrick Allen, Webb Wiggins, and Lisa Goode Crawford. Janssen is the artistic director and a founding member of Haydn by the Lake, Chicagoland’s period instrument chamber ensemble specializing in the music of the 18th and 19th centuries. He tours regularly in recital with Mark Crayton. In 2001, he was featured in recital with Crayton on Chicago’s WFMT in a Live from WFMT broadcast. Janssen has appeared in the Chicago area with Ars Antigua, the St. Clement Orchestra, in recital with fellow fortepianist David Schrader, and on Northeastern Illinois University’s acclaimed Jewel Box series with Haydn by the Lake and also with Crayton. Outside the Chicago area, he has performed in Indianapolis, Washington DC at the Phillips Collection, and New York City, where he made his debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Internationally, he has performed on the Aemstelrande Concerten series in Amsterdam and at Grosvenor Hall in London. Engagements of the last season included Chicago performances of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 14 in E-flat, K.449 with Ars Antigua, Handel’s Messiah with the St. Clement Orchestra, a recital of Mozart four-hand sonatas on fortepiano with Thomas Gerber of Ensemble Voltaire, and recitals in London and Amsterdam. Janssen is the organist at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, Illinois.
Other works on the program include Thy Lucifer by Gilda Lyons, an adaptation of the Mystery Play The Creation and Fall of Lucifer; three settings of the Rilke Sonette an Orpheus composed by Martha Sullivan; five duets on various texts by Elliot Z. Levine; theater songs by Joe and David Zellnik, adapted from three of their musicals, including the award-winning Yank!; Audio Visual, the first of a cycle of three duets entitled Trio by Michael Webster on texts of Noah de Lissovoy; and Narcissus, set by Chicago composer Gregory Peebles to his own text, one of a series of projected songs inspired by various characters in Greek mythology.
These songs (with the exception of Hagen’s Whitman settings) received their world premiere on 29 September 2006 as the first concert in the 2006-07 season of The Phoenix Concerts of Saint Matthew and Saint Timothy in New York City. The program is to be repeated, along with the world premiere of We Two, on 19 November 2006 as part of the Voices! concert series at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, in Evanston, Illinois. Further information is available at Mr.Gundlach’s website, www.danielgundlach.com, as well as Mr. Crayton’s website at www.markcrayton.com.
Mark Crayton, the 2004 winner of Classical Singer’s International Competition Grand Prize performs on concert stages and in opera houses throughout the United States and Europe. Mr. Crayton created the roles of the First Minstrel in The Holland Festival's production of Peter Onnes opera/theatre piece Pantagruel et Gargantua, the Cardinal/Inquisitor in Phillip Glass’ opera Galileo Galilei (in Chicago, New York and London) and Louis Perch in the new Kander and Ebb musical The Visit starring Chita Rivera. The recital repertoire is important to Mr. Crayton. He has been heard at New York's Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, a live broadcast on Chicago’s WFMT that was also transmitted via the internet, an appearance at Northeastern Illinois University’s acclaimed Jewel Box Series with a simulcast on WFMT, and at the Ravinia Music Festival. His orchestral appearances have been highlighted by performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and at Washington DC’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Last season Mr. Crayton, made his debut with the San Diego Opera in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, toured Europe in recital including performances in both Amsterdam and London, as well as a return to the concert series of The Phillips Collection in Washington DC. This season Mr. Crayton will debut with Seattle Opera as Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, return to the Jewel Box Series as well as The Phillips Collection, Ars Musica Chicago and many other venues.
Daniel Gundlach has been hailed as a vivid singer and actor in his appearances throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He has sung with James Conlon, Helmuth Rilling, Marc Minkowski, John Nelson, Daniel Beckwith, Jeffrey Thomas, Alain Altinoglu, James Richman, Johannes Somary, Philip Brunelle, Gwendolyn Toth, and the late Newell Jenkins, among others. His operatic appearances include Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare, Arsamene in Xerxes, Arsace and Armindo in Partenope, Polinesso in Ariodante, Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ottone in L’Incoronazione Di Poppea, the Sorceress in Dido and Æneas and Zephyrus in Apollo et Hyacinthus with Chicago Lyric Opera, New York City Opera, Minnesota Opera, Skylight Opera, Edmonton Opera, the Broomhill Festival (UK), Les Musiciens du Louvre, the Dallas Bach Society and at the Mostly Mozart Festival. He has been a soloist in oratorios by Bach (St. Matthew Passion, Magnificat and the Mass in B Minor), Scarlatti (the modern premiere of La Vergine Addolorata), Handel (Solomon, Samson, Messiah, Saul and Judas Maccabaeus, among others), Purcell, Zelenka, Bernstein (Chichester Psalms) and Orff (Carmina Burana) with the Clarion Music Society, Artek, Concert Royal, Amor Artis, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Honolulu Symphony, and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He recently created the role of La Mendiante in the world premiere of Gualtiero Dazzi’s Le Luthier de Venise at the Théâtre du Châtelet. He also appeared in the joint world premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s Perelà, l’homme de fumée at the Opéra de Paris (as Le Perroquet) and at the Opéra de Montpellier (as L’Archevêque). A live recording of these latter performances has been recently released on the Naïve Classics label. In the spring of 2006, he sang leading roles in the world premiere of Hell: The Opera at PS122 in New York City. In addition to his performing career, Daniel Gundlach is active as a writer, teacher, and vocal coach.
James Janssen made his debut at age 13 with Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D with the Anderson Symphony Orchestra. A native of Indianapolis, he received his education from Indiana University and Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute, studying with Penelope Crawford, Patrick Allen, Webb Wiggins, and Lisa Goode Crawford. Janssen is the artistic director and a founding member of Haydn by the Lake, Chicagoland’s period instrument chamber ensemble specializing in the music of the 18th and 19th centuries. He tours regularly in recital with Mark Crayton. In 2001, he was featured in recital with Crayton on Chicago’s WFMT in a Live from WFMT broadcast. Janssen has appeared in the Chicago area with Ars Antigua, the St. Clement Orchestra, in recital with fellow fortepianist David Schrader, and on Northeastern Illinois University’s acclaimed Jewel Box series with Haydn by the Lake and also with Crayton. Outside the Chicago area, he has performed in Indianapolis, Washington DC at the Phillips Collection, and New York City, where he made his debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Internationally, he has performed on the Aemstelrande Concerten series in Amsterdam and at Grosvenor Hall in London. Engagements of the last season included Chicago performances of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 14 in E-flat, K.449 with Ars Antigua, Handel’s Messiah with the St. Clement Orchestra, a recital of Mozart four-hand sonatas on fortepiano with Thomas Gerber of Ensemble Voltaire, and recitals in London and Amsterdam. Janssen is the organist at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, Illinois.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Lehmann Tribute CD issued by Arabesque Records
On September 15, 2006, Arabesque Records released the first in a series of recordings in tribute to the artistic legacy of Lotte Lehmann. This unique document features spoken and sung tributes by students of Lotte Lehmann, as well as performances by advisors of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation.After retiring from the recital stage, Lotte Lehmann devoted her activities toward establishing the Music Academy of the West. Here she directed opera productions and taught master classes in opera and art song. Lehmann pioneered the phenomenon of the modern master class, which today has assumed such a central position in the training of young artists.
The recording features Lotte Lehmann in a live performance late in her career of a Mendelssohn song followed by a interpretive discussion of the same song from one of her master classes.
Many of the young singers who studied with her went on to significant musical careers. A good number of these singers, among them Marcella Reale, Mildred Miller, Lotfi Mansouri (who studied as a singer with Lehmann), Norman Mittelmann, Marni Nixon, Alice Marie Nelson, and Grace Bumbry, have contributed to this CD with reminiscences and/or songs recorded especially for this release which had a special significance in their work with Lehmann.
The recording also features performances by members of the advisory board of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation recently recorded specifically for this tribute. Performers include some of today’s most important interpreters of art song, including Nathalie Stutzmann, Christoph Prégardien, Wolfgang Holzmair, Jennifer Larmore, Juliane Banse, and others.
This recording came about through the efforts of Gary Hickling, founder and past president of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, who oversaw every aspect of the production. In his words, “saddened by the death of a number of former Lehmann students, I recognized the pressing need to preserve the reminiscences of those who remained.” So many artists responded to the invitation to participate that another release comprising further material is being planned. The complete spoken reminiscences are to be housed in the Lehmann Archives at the University of California Santa Barbara and in Perleberg, Germany, Lehmann’s birthplace, as well as being archived on the Lehmann Foundation’s website, www.lottelehmann.org.
Lotte Lehmann Foundation board president Daron Hagen greeted the release with these words: “As every musician knows, our mentors pass along to us the traditions of the past through oral history – the most important things never make it into textbooks. This recording not only memorializes a great musical artist, it also sketches a portrait of her world; it offers to music lovers and singers everywhere a glimpse into Lehmann’s teaching studio through recorded reminiscences and musical performances by many of the finest musical citizens of our time. It is both touching and instructive ... an important historical document.”
The release is available in most retail stores, may be purchased online through amazone.com, tower.com, and barnesandnoble.com; it may also ordered online directly from Arabesque Records by clicking here: http://www.arabesquerecordings.com/product_info.php?products_id=596
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Daron Hagen is Elected Lifetime Member of Yaddo
Saratoga Springs, NY (September 20, 2006) – The Corporation of Yaddo, which oversees one of the oldest and most prestigious artists’ retreats in the United States, has elected Daron Hagen, the renowned composer and President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, to the honor of lifetime membership in the Corporation. The election took place at the members’ annual meeting at Yaddo in September.Founded in 1900 by Katrina and Spencer Trask as a place to sustain artists and promote their work to new audiences, Yaddo is governed by 91 members, from which group it draws its board of directors. Members of the Corporation are elected to staggered terms, as are directors.
Occasionally, however, a member who has shown exceptional commitment and service to the Corporation is nominated for lifetime membership. “Part of the magic of Yaddo is the loyalty and love that it elicits among the artists who are transformed and inspired by their time here, and among those in the business community who understand, as the Trasks did, how valuable the gift of time and space is to artists” said Elaina Richardson, Yaddo’s president. “Yaddo couldn’t continue to provide this haven without many people’s hard work, especially among our members. And sometimes certain people’s efforts are so extraordinary, as with Daron Hagen, that they are elected to lifetime membership. It is the institution’s way of honoring its most beloved and vital members.”
Peter Gould, chairman of board of directors of the Corporation of Yaddo, said, “Daron Hagen, the noted contemporary composer, has been a tireless advocate for Yaddo and, as curator of the Yaddo/Copland Concerts, he has revivified a tradition of supporting contemporary American music that dates back to Aaron Copland’s famous American Festival of Music concerts held at Yaddo in the 1930s. This election to lifetime membership signifies the Corporation’s recognition of those efforts on both their parts. We are proud and honored to have Daron as part of the Yaddo family.”
Daron Hagen was a guest at Yaddo for the first time in 1984, and has been a member since 1994. The composer of four major operas (all of which are currently in revival internationally), as well as orchestral, chamber, choral, and lyric compositions, Hagen has been sought out and commissioned by leading performing artists and ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Gary Graffman, and the Kings Singers.
Recent premières include Romeo and Juliet with soloists Jeffrey Khaner and Sara Sant'Ambrogio and the Albany Symphony; Susurrus with the National Symphony; The Antient Concert, an opera with the Princeton Atelier; Gesture Drawings with the Vermont Youth Orchestra; Flight Music with the Milwaukee Choral Artists and Present Music; two works for the Elements String Quartet; one for the Amernet Quartet; and Figments, a song cycle for tenor Paul Sperry.
Over forty Hagen compositions have appeared on compact disc on the Albany, Arabesque, Arsis, CRI, Klavier, and Sierra labels, most recently the complete, two-disc recording of the opera Bandanna under the composer's baton for Albany Records. Awards and fellowships include two Rockefeller Fellowships, the Camargo Foundation Fellowship, Charles Ives scholarship, ASCAP-Nissim Prize, Barlow Prize, Bearns Prize, and the Kennedy Center Friedheim Prize. Hagen attended the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Juilliard School, and the Curtis Institute of Music.
Famed Soprano Carol Neblett Joins Board of Advisors
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation Board of Directors are proud to announce that famed soprano Carol Neblett has been elected to the Foundation's Board of Advisors.A leading soprano with the Metropolitan, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Buenos Aires, Salzburg, Hamburg, and Covent Garden opera companies, Miss Neblett has been acclaimed the world over by both critics and audiences. Extraordinarily personable, intelligent and beautiful she is a singing star equally at home in opera, recital, concerts, radio, television, recordings and films. In recent season she opened the Maggio Musicale in Florence as the Prima Donna in Hindemith's Cardillac, Didon in Les Troyens for the Los Angeles Opera, Tosca, Musetta in La Boheme and Minnie in La Fanciulla del West at the Met, The Merry Widow for Baltimore Opera and the title role in Opera Pacific's production of Regina. She returned to the SanFrancisco Opera for performances of Helen of Troy in Mefistofele.
Carol made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1979 as Senta in the Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production of Der Fliegende Hollander and has sung regularly with the Met in Tosca, Don Giovanni, Manon Lescaut, Un Ballo in Maschera, Falstaff, and La Fanciulla del West. In the 1993-94 Metropolitan Opera season Carol celebrated her 25th operatic anniversary as Musetta in La Boheme.
She made her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in 1976 as Tosca with Luciano Pavarotti, and has sung this role more than 400 times! Subsequently, she was invited to sing Minnie with Placido Domingo for Queen Elizabeth's 25th Jubilee Celebration at Covent Garden, which was filmed live and recorded.
Since her 1969 debut with the New York City Opera as Musetta, Miss Neblett has sung many leading roles with the company, including La Traviata, Manon, Louise and Ariadne auf Naxos, Le Coq d'Or and Faust. Her critical triumph in the dual roles of Marguerita and Helen of Troy in Boito's Mefistofele with famed bass Norman Treigle created a sensation world-wide. Miss Neblett revealed her unique dancing, acting and singing skills with her performance of Korngold's Die Tote Stadt which she subsequently recorded.
Impresarios and directors have always looked to Ms. Neblett as an artist who could bring life to operas which are rarely performed. She has been heralded for her performances in L'Incoronazione di Poppea, La Wally, L'Amore dei Tre Re, Idomeneo Le Cid and La Vestale. In 1987, European critics hailed her performance in Palermo, Italy, in the title role of Respighi's Semirama, and in 1989 she sang an equally acclaimed performance of Bellini's La Straniera at the Spoleto Festival.
Carol Neblett's extensive orchestral repertoire includes more than one hundred oratorios and symphonic works, many of which have bee documented. Her recordings include Musetta in La Boheme for Angel/EMI, James Levine conducting, La Fanciulla del West, with Placido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes, Zubin Mehta conducting (DGG); Marietta in Korngold's Die Tote Stadt, Erich Leinsdorf conducting (RCA); Mahler's Symphony No.2 with Claudio Abbado and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and a special recording with Roger Wagner on Angel/EMI entitled Magnificat. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a compact disc was issued of Miss Neblett singing Soprano #1 in Mahler's Symphony No. 8, James Levine conducting. Miss Neblett is featured in "James Levine's 25th Anniversary with the Metropolitan Opera" recording singing the role of Alice Ford in Falstaff with Giuseppe Taddei.
Further triumphs include an international broadcast of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, under Maestro Carlo Maria Giulini. Miss Neblett performed in the television broadcast of a tribute to George London, featuring an illustrious group of singers at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. A recording of this performance, "A Tribute to George London," has been released by RCA.
Famed Tenor Damien Top Joins Board of Directors
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation is proud to announce that famed singer Damien Top has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Foundation. Mr. Top has served as a member of the Board of Advisors since the Foundation's founding.
Mr. Top will serve as Editor of the French Catalogue of vocal works currently being prepared for publication by the Foundation's VoxNova Media Divison, and as a member of the VoxNova Editorial Committee.
After studying Literature and Philosophy in Lille and graduating in Germanic Studies at the University of Paris, Damien Top studied Singing and Dramatic Art at the Conservatoire in Lille. Later, at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, he joined the classes of Nicole Broissin (Atelier Lyrique-Opérette) and Corazza (Vocal Technique), Isabelle Aboulker (Musical Theory), and studied with Galina Vischnievskaya, Jean-Christophe Benoit, and Jacques Pottier (Melbourne University).
His dual training as a singer and an actor enables him to appear in opera, operetta, and sacred works, as well as perform the difficult repertoire of French mélodie — his favorite genre. He has given recitals at Flaneries Musicales de Reims for the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, Musicales en Valois, Festival des Grands Crus de Bourgogne, Festival de la Mélodie Française de Toulouse, etc. As a renowned interpreter of French song, Damien Top frequently gives recitals abroad, including performances in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Macedonia, New Zealand, and the United States. In Diapason, critic Jean Roy wrote of Top, "one will not reproach him error of taste."
In 1993, he was engaged by the Opera de Paris-Bastille to sing in a new production of Benvenuto Cellini by Berlioz. In 2000, he performed in Heloise and Abelard by Australian composer Peter Tahourdin, toured France and Poland with Mozart's Requiem, sung at the Bitola International Festival and gave a recital of operatic arias with the Hawaii Youth Symphony Orchestra. In 2002, Damien Top took part at "Musica in Mostre" a festival of contemporary music in Torino, sang and conducted the cantata L'oiseau a vu tout cela by Sauguet at the Institut de France-Académie Française for the celebration of the Centenary of Vercors. In 2006, he sang in Torino, Palermo, Paris, Bailleul, Cassel, Tournus, Honolulu, Sherbrooke, etc.
Damien Top has studied Analysis, Harmony and the History of Music at the Paris Conservatoire with Michel Qu´val. Under the guidance of Sergiu Celibidache, he began research into musical aesthetics and attended seminars in the phenomenology of music. With these two master teachers, he was introduced to orchestral conducting. He has conducted the Orchestre du Festival Roussel, Joseph Jongen Ensemble, Czech Chamber Soloists, and Prague Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, among others. In his programs, he particularly focuses on the music of our time (Roussel, d'Indy, Delvincourt, Enesco, Jersild, Martinet, Sandagerdi, Martinu, Looten, Macha, Ratovondrahety, Tahourdin, etc.).
Son of the poet Andrée Brunin, Damien Top has given poetry recitals (Alliance Française de Sydney, Université de Melbourne, Société d'Honneur Pi-Delta-Phi d'Hawaii, Wo International Center, etc.) He explores a wide range of the repertoire and introduces the audience to the poetry of our time (Anthologie de la poesie française, Poetes féminins contemporains, Centenaire Verlaine,etc.)
Biographical and musicological work on Albert Roussel has been a particular feature of Damien Top's research and in 1989, in the composer's birthplace, he devoted an entire recital to Roussel's mélodies. His biography of Albert Roussel was published in 2000 by Editions Seguier and he has also written full length studies on Sergei Rachmaninov and Rene de Castera, for which he was awarded the Prix du Salon du Livre d’Hossegor. Consequently, he is frequently invited to speak on radio and television (France Musique, France Culture, Hawaii Public Radio, Radio Suisse Romande, FR3, NPS Dutch TV); to present papers on French music at international conferences and to give masterclasses in French art song at University of Melbourne, Monash University, La Trobe University, University of Performing Arts at Wollongong, Wellington University, James Maddison University, Université de Sherbrooke, Université de Montreal.
In response to his fine talents as a singer, several composers have written music especially for him: Aboulker, Carr, Choveaux, Cox, Dunleavy, Feron, Flament, Joly, Pinchard, Surianu, Tahourdin, Trumble, Werder, and Jacques Chailley who considers "l'art de Damien Top est exemplaire." Among others, Top recorded Massenet song's cycles (BNL), De Coussemaker's romances (RCP), Goue’s songs (Recital)
Damien Top writes the musical chronic in the monthly "Politique Magazine." Member of the SACEM, his compositions have been played in France, Belgium, Italy, United States. Involved in many organizations, he is at the head of the "Centre International Albert-Roussel" which he founded in 1992 and the director of the "Albert-Roussel International Festival."
In 2002 Damien Top was awarded with the "Prix Charles Oulmont — Fondation de France" for his outstanding career.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
New Book by Mary Dibbern is Published
Mary Dibbern, a member of the board of advisors of the Lehmann Foundation, has published Faust/Roméo et Juliette - A Performance Guide. The new volume joins Mary's previous books, The Tales of Hoffmann: A Performance Guide, Carmen: A Performance Guide, and Interpreting the Songs of Jacques Leguerney (in collaboration with Carol Kimball and Patrick Choukroun).
In 1850, the French mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot wrote to her friend Turgenev-- "Among that mass of talented composers who are witty in a vulgar sort of way, intelligible not because of their clarity but because of their trivilaity, the appearance of a musical personality such as Gounod's is so rare that one cannot welcome him heartily enough." The title joins Pendragon Press' Vox Musicae Series of Operatic Performance Guides. The libretti and literary sources of Gounod's two masterpieces are studied in depth. The libretto section includes word-by-word translations into English and IPA transcriptions of both libretti in their final, opéra-comique versions. Dibbern explains how the literary source materials were converted into libretti, as well as the history of the various musical editions and versions. Numerous illustrations have been provided by a member of Gounod's family.
The American pianist Mary Dibbern has resided in France since 1978. She is appreciated as an accompanist and vocal coach for operatic productions, recordings, recitals and competitions.
Mary has music diplomas from the University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) and Southern Methodist University (Dallas) where she graduated summa cum laude with a Master of Music in accompaniment under the direction of Maestro Paul Vellucci. She studied vocal recital repertoire in Paris and Vienna with Nadia Boulanger, Dalton Baldwin, Gérard Souzay, Pierre Bernac, Erik Werba, Jörg Demus and Hans Hotter. In Vienna, she received the Franz Schubert Prize for Lieder Accompaniment. In 1987 she received a grant from the Fondation Internationale Nadia and Lili Boulanger that allowed her to undertake an extensive study of French opera with Janine Reiss, who later chose her as assistant for productions at the Thêtre Musicale de Paris-Chátelet, at the CNIPAL (Marseille) and in Toulouse.
She works internationally as a free-lance vocal coach and accompanist. She is a frequent guest at the Théatre des Champs-Elysées, Centre de Formation Lyrique of the Opéra National de Paris as well as on the main stage of the Opéra National de Paris and at the operas of Nice, Bordeaux, Lyons, TMP-Chatelet, the Opéra-Comique, the Opera of Toulouse, the Festival de Radio France & de Montpellier Languedoc-Rousillon, the Théatre Municipal de Lausanne (Switzerland), the Hawaii Opera Theatre and the Shanghai Opera House (PRC). She was in charge of musical and language preparation for the first French-language productions in China of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette and Bizet's Carmen.
She has worked on the musical preparation of French, Italian and German operas and recordings in close collaboration with the world's finest conductors. She has accompanied vocal recitals in the USA, Europe and Japan—notably at La Scala, the Théatre des Champs-Elysées, the Opéra-Comique, Radio France and the Opéra Royal de Versailles. Her recital recordings include Mélodies de Jacques Leguerney released by Claves (Switzerland), a CD produced to honor the composer's 90th birthday celebration in Paris and which won the Grand Prix du Disque; Offenbach au Menu on the Maguelone label and Mélodies de Jacques Leguerney, Vols. I and II (LPs) for Harmonia Mundi France. After the success of her world premier recordings of Leguerney's songs, she was chosen to edit eight volumes of the composer's previously unpublished works.
She has been guest master class teacher for both singers and accompanists at the Hawaii Opera Theater, the University of Minnesota—Minneapolis, North Dakota State University Fargo, the University of Nevada Las Vegas (Artist in Residence), the University of Texas Austin, Coe College, Oregon State University Corvallis. She was also guest teacher and performing artist for the National Association of Teachers of Singing 1999 Summer Workshop: French Art Song in Study and Performance at Rutgers University as well as the following NATS chapters: Iowa Chapter, Las Vegas Chapter, San Diego Chapter, Cascade Chapter (Oregon), Puget Sound Chapter (Seattle), Georgia Chapter in collaboration with the Georgia Music Teachers Association, and the Dallas Ft. Worth Chapter.
Publication Information:
ISBN: 1-57647-101-2
Sale Price (US Funds): $48.00 paper
Published: August, 2006
Series: Vox Musicae Series No. 6
Pendragon No.: 564
For more information: http://www.pendragonpress.com/newtitles.php
Friday, August 25, 2006
Marni Nixon Autobiography is Published
Marni Nixon, active and valued member of the Board of Advisors of the Lehmann Foundation, has published her memoirs, co-penned with Stephen Cole.
Film critic Roger Ebert writes, "Marnie Nixon is the unacknowledged star of some of the greatest Hollywood musicals of all time. Those who loved Anna in The King and I, Maria in West Side Story, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, and Grandmother Fa in Mulan were responding to her wonderful voice and talent, and at last in her autobiography she comes out from behind the screen and takes a richly deserved bow."
Blythe Danner writes, "Working with the brilliantly talented Marni Nixon on Broadway did not prepare me for the rich and wonderfully written memoir that she has given us. I Could Have Sung All Night is not to be missed by anyone who loves music, theater, movies, or the follies of life itself. Read it now!"
Hal Prince writes, "Some of us have always know that Marni Nixon is the quintessential musician, having worked with Stravinsky and Bernstein and Rodgers as well as having sung for Kerr and Hepburn and Wood. Marni is as successful delivering "I Feel Pretty" as she is Schoenberg’s one-woman epic opera, Pierrot Lunaire. Her autobiography covers a golden period in modern music. Read This Book!"
Frances MacDormand writes, "Marni has the voice that every actress wishes she had herself. Her story is every bit as eloquent and moving as the music she creates."
Polly Bergen writes, "Marni Nixon writes of her life and illustrious career; joyous, humorous, honest, informative, and lyrically detailed. The only thing missing in I Could Have Danced All Night is that the reader is being denied the sound of her glorious voice...and what voice."
Zubin Mehta writes, "All through my tenure as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic one name stood out whenever singing in the movies or engaging a soprano of real professional caliber was concerned: Marni Nixon! Any aspiring professional singer reading this book will have tremendous insight into the life of a singer with a deep understanding of musical life in Hollywood."
Celeste Holm writes, "What a delicious book! Marni tells her story straight from the heart with great candor and personal courage. It made me laugh and it made me cry. A "must read" for anyone interested in the inner working sof some of Hollywood’s most famous musicals."
Marni's autobiography may be ordered safely online at amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0823083659.
Born in Altadena, California, Marni Nixon's career includes Opera, (Seattle, San Francisco, Ford Foundation TV Opera Cameos, the former Los Angeles Guild Opera and Cosmopolitan Opera), Chamber and Symphony Orchestra, Oratorio soloist and Grammy Nominated recordings both Popular and Classical (Boulez, Villa-Lobos, Ives, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Copland) including conductors Von Beinum, Wallenstein, Previn, Mehta, Stravinsky, Stokowski, Mauceri, Slatkin and Bernstein. Awards include Four Emmys for Best Actress on her children's TV show Boomerang and two Gold Records for Songs for Mary Poppins and Mulan (voice of Grandma Fa), and 2 Classical Grammy Nominations. Broadway appearances include Heidi Schiller in Sondheim's Follies, and originating the roles of Sadie McKibben in Opal, and Edna in Taking My Turn, and Aunt Kate in James Joyce's the Dead. In Regional and Off-Broadway her roles have included Nurse in Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret, and recently Eunice Miller in Kander and Ebb's "70, Girls, 70". In the recent premiere of Richard Wargo's Opera Ballymore at Skylight Opera in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (taped for PBS) she originated the role of Mrs. Willson . She is a popular favorite on Garrison Keillor's MPR radio show A Prairie Home Companion. A much sought after judge of Metropolitan Opera Auditions, National Association of Teachers of Singing, etc. Miss Nixon presents Master Classes in both Classical and Music theater repertoire, in Colleges and Universities and teaches privately throughout the USA. Miss Nixon is the singing voice for Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn in the Motion Pictures and on the Soundtracks of The King and I, An Affair to Remember, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and Grandma Fa in The Legend of Mulan.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
WFMT Lotte Lehmann Radio Documentary Premieres
LOTTE LEHMANN – HER LIFE AND HER LIVING LEGACY
PREMIERE BROADCAST DATE: 27 August 2006
At the 30th anniversary of her death, a commemoration of the life and work of the legendary soprano and greatly influential teacher Lotte Lehmann, featuring rarely heard interviews and masterclasses with Madame Lehmann, specially recorded conversations with distinguished performers, scholars and others who knew and experienced her, and recordings spanning her performing career
Hosted and produced by documentary specialist Jon Tolansky for WFMT and the WFMT Radio Network. The Executive Producer is Steve Robinson, Senior Vice-President and General Manager of WFMT and The WFMT Radio Network
The biographical profile is underwritten by a grant from the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, which is also providing rare materials of interviews, masterclasses and performances from its exhaustive archive of Madam Lehmann’s career.
At the 30th anniversary of her death, the WFMT Radio Network presents a two hour biographical profile of Lotte Lehmann, one of the most vibrant and powerful figures in the history of opera and lieder singing and a uniquely influential pedagogue through her strongly imaginative teaching and dynamically charismatic masterclasses that were internationally televised.
Lotte Lehmann – Her Life and her Living Legacy comprises an appreciation of Madame Lehmann’s artistry in opera and lieder and an assessment of her impact and influence as a singer, teacher and guide both in her own time and posthumously. The documentary utilizes unique historic and contemporary resources from the Lotte Lehmann Foundation and new materials specially recorded for this feature by the WFMT Radio Network. It includes extracts from the Lotte Lehmann Foundation's vast preservation program of recorded performances, masterclasses and interviews given by Madame Lehmann as well as interviews the Foundation has recorded with performers and others who recall her. Also from the Foundation’s archives are extracts from interviews and recitals by young artists who have benefited from educational and performing operations and awards the Foundation has set up, which introduce these highly gifted musicians to Lotte Lehmann's interpretations, teaching and philosophies in their own times.
Amongst those contributing to Lotte Lehmann – Her Life and her Living Legacy are soprano Carol Neblett, mezzo-sopranos Grace Bumbry, Marilyn Horne and Valerie Komar, baritone Thomas Hampson, musicologists Beaumont Glass (her biographer) and Charles Osborne, accompanist Graham Johnson, stage director and intendant Lotfi Mansouri, film maker Christopher Nupen, Gary Hickling, and President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation Daron Hagen.
Amongst studio and live performances of Lotte Lehmann included in the feature are extracts from operas by Richard Strauss (who, like Toscanini, championed her), Beethoven, Wagner, Korngold, Massenet and Puccini, as well as lieder and songs by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Strauss and Duparc.
Lotte Lehmann – Her Life and her Living Legacy is produced by the team that made WFMT’s special documentary profiles of Carlo Maria Giulini, Renata Tebaldi, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Luciano Pavarotti – host and producer Jon Tolansky and Executive Producer Steve Robinson.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Mary Dibbern to Perform on Beijing Benefit Concert
Mary Dibbern, treasured Paris-based member of the LLF Board of Advisors, will appear on a 4 November 2006 Gala Benefit Concert at the Grand Ballroom of the Kerry Centre Hotel in Beijing, along with Lea Woods Friedman, Jennifer Hines, Scott Scully, Ryan Taylor and Joshua Winograde (the group calls itself SINGERS BEYOND BORDERS, and last performed in Manila in December 2005 for the charity Gift of Life benefiting young children in need of cardiac care). The evening will begin with cocktails in the second floor foyer of the Ballroom at 7:00 PM, followed by a gourmet dinner and the recital.
Tables are available at two levels:
VIP (stage side) tables at 12,800 RMB for ten per table And regular tables at 8,800 RMB for ten per table.
If you are able to join us at the gala and require rooms at the Kerry Centre Hotel, a special rate has been formulated for the event. Please quote "Opera Package" when making your reservations at the hotel. Car transfers with airport butler service from and to Beijing airport are also available at RMB 470 net each way.
Proceeds will be donated to CARE FOR CHILDREN. With its goal of 'strategically training people to empower children's lives,' Care for Children is a registered charity working in partnership with National and Local Governments in China to introduce Foster Care and other strategic initiatives to relieve hardship, distress and sickness and to enrich the lives of orphans and other needy children.
Care for Children began work on its first Foster Care pilot project with the Shanghai Civil Affairs in 1998. Following the initial success in Shanghai, 3 other projects were started in Kunming, Yinchuan and Chengdu.
In 2003 Robert Glover, the Executive Director of Care for Children received the White Magnolia award from the Shanghai government in recognition for his service to the city. By this date, a total of 1400 children had been placed into families. Recognizing the value of Care for Children's project work, the Ministry of Civil Affairs invited Care for Children to partner CSWA on a nationwide project in the poorest provinces of China.
In the 2005 New Year's Honors List, Robert Glover was awarded the O.B.E. for services to disadvantaged children. He will receive his award from Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace in April 2005.
Working in partnership with the China Social Work Association (CSWA), under the authority of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in Beijing, Care for Children works to establish, train and monitor professional Foster Care programs of international standard, in the 15 poorest provinces of China. Care for Children has a vision to see a million disadvantaged children in families by 2010
For more information on Care for Children, please go to http://www.careforchildren.com.cn/home.htm.
For more information on tables / tickets please contact Jill Friedman at jmkf98@aol.com.
For more information about Mary Dibbern, please visit www.Mary-Dibbern.com.
For information on hotel rooms at the Kerry Centre Hotel
please contact Mr. Kieran Twomey,
General Manager at the Kerry Centre
The Kerry Centre Hotel
1 Guang Hua Road, Chao Yang District
Beijing 100020
Tel: 86 10 8529 8310
FAX: 86-10 6561 2626
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Troy Peters Joins Board of Advisors
American composer, conductor, and educator Troy Peters was elected by unanimous vote of the Board of Directors of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation to the Board of Advisors at the foundation's annual spring meeting on 31 April 2006 in New York City. "Working as I do with young musicians, I am especially excited to be involved in the Lotte Lehmann Foundation's work to bring art song into the lives of as many people as possible," noted Peters in a recent interview. "I hope that my skills and experience will be useful as the LLF expands its reach to more of the next generation."
Noted for his committed performances in a wide range of repertoire, in the fall of 2004, he was appointed Conductor of the Middlebury College Orchestra. As Music Director and Conductor of the Vermont Youth Orchestra since 1995, he has overseen a period of tremendous growth and received national acclaim for innovative programming. He is equally respected for his work with professional orchestras, and he has been a frequent and popular guest conductor with many groups including the Vermont Mozart Festival, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and the Vermont Philharmonic. Peters has also gained international attention for his orchestral collaborations with Trey Anastasio, guitarist and composer from the rock band Phish.
Under the leadership of Troy Peters, the Vermont Youth Orchestra received four ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music and has grown from two orchestras to four, nearly tripling its student population. Peters was also a key player in the $2 million renovation of the VYO’s new home, the Elley-Long Music Center at Saint Michael’s College. Before coming to Vermont in 1995, he worked with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra for seven years, serving as Assistant Conductor and Director of Chamber Music and conducting the orchestra on international tours to Austria, Germany, France, Switzerland, England, Wales, Jordan, Israel, and Spain. He is the former Artistic Director and Conductor of the Pacific Chamber Soloists (Tacoma, Washington) and the former Artistic Director of Perpetuum Mobile (Philadelphia). A graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and the University of Pennsylvania, he has also participated in numerous conducting workshops and clinics.
Throughout his career, Peters has been consistently committed to music education. He has become a popular clinician and conductor for district, regional, and All-State orchestras around the U.S. He also has extensive experience with other youth orchestras, college and university orchestras, and community orchestras. A popular lecturer and teacher, he has presented pre-concert lectures and music appreciation classes for many groups, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.
Peters is also busy as a composer, where his work ranges from orchestral and chamber music to a large body of songs and an opera for hand puppets. Among his honors are the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and grants from Meet the Composer and the Rockefeller Foundation. His composition teachers included Ned Rorem and George Crumb. A versatile instrumentalist, Peters not only plays the viola, but has also performed on tenor banjo and electric guitar with symphony orchestras. He was born in 1969 in Greenock, Scotland, of American parents.
More information about Troy Peters: www.troypetersmusic.com
Friday, June 23, 2006
Spring / Summer 2006 SongScape Published
The latest issue of the official Lotte Lehmann Foundation newsletter SongScape is now available online. Content includes articles about:The ASCAP / LLF Song Cycle Competition
2006 World of Song Award Recipient Dominick Argento
CyberSing 2006
Board News
A tribute to Birgit Nilsson, Member of the Board of Advisors
'For Phyllis Curtin' — a tribute by Ned Rorem
VoxNova Media — the LLF's new division
Latest Lotte Lehmann News
Donor List as of May 2006
To view the newsletter online: http://lottelehmann.org/lehmann/llf/images/spring2006.pdf
Members of the LLF Board of Directors (Craig Urquhart, Managing Editor; Russell Platt, Senior Editor; Daniel Gundlach and Gary Hickling, Contributing Editors) produce the newsletter, which is distributed worldwide to friends of the foundation, music lovers, and music industry professionals.
This issue also introduces the foundation's new logo, designed by Jennifer Wolfe Design in Rochester, New York.
VoxNova Submission Guidelines Posted
Stephen Dembski and William Rhoads, members of the Board of Directors of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, and co-directors of VoxNova Media, the media production and distribution arm of the LLF, announced today that the VoxNova Media Submission Guidelines have been posted online at the VoxNova Media Website: http://voxnovamedia.com/guidelines/index.html.
Vox Nova Media (VNM), the media production and distribution arm of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, was organized to further the Foundation's two central missions: to preserve and perpetuate Lehmann's legacy, and to honor her dream of bringing art song into the lives of as many people as possible.
The specific mission of VoxNova Media is to reveal and enrich the legacy of Lotte Lehmann in a variety of forms, including audio recordings, video recordings, printed materials, and any other media appropriate to furthering that mission. Taking on roles of both curator and disseminator, VNM will reissue historical audio recordings by Lehmann and her colleagues, present new recordings of contemporary vocal repertoire and of the vocal art of contemporary interpreters, and develop and distribute scholarly resources and educational materials relevant to cultivating the vocal art in which Lotte Lehmann's legacy lives on.
All proposal submissions will be reviewed by the LLF Recording Committee-appointed "Editorial Review Board," which is currently chaired by Su Lian Tan, a member of the LLF Board of Directors, and include at least two other individuals, who may or may not be members of the LLF board. Project proposals must include a production-ready master and indicate sources of secured funding for post-production and manufacture of recordings. Submissions will be evaluated based on the relevance of the project to VNM's core mission, on the overall artistic merit of the programming and performance, and on the technical quality of the proposed recording.
Deadlines are open and submissions are accepted year-round. Materials will be reviewed within six months of Vox Nova's receipt of a complete submission packet.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
NewMusicBox Profiles ASCAP/LLF Competition Winners
Triple Win in Lehmann Song Competition: Commission, Publication, Multiple Performances
By Anna Reguero
Published: April 12, 2006
Reprinted from NewMusicBox, the online magazine of the American Music Center. Click here to see the article in its original context.
First Prize Winner Scott Gendel
Winning composers of the ASCAP and Lotte Lehmann Foundation's first Song Cycle Competition have good reason to exercise their vocal cords. First prize winner Scott Gendel will receive a $3,500 commission to write a song cycle for voice and piano. And there's more...the competition is unique in that it also includes publication and performance as a component. Gendel's piece will be published by E.C. Schirmer. Plus, the work will receive performances in three major American cities.
Second and third prize winners, Mark Buntag and Michael Djupstrom, will receive a $1,000 and $500 commission, respectively, to compose an art song for voice and piano. There is an additional prize, the Damien Top Prize, for which winner Eli Marshall will receive a $500 commission to set a poem by Andrée Brunin. The piece will be premiered at the 2006 Albert Roussel International Festival in France.
The competition was established to encourage and recognize gifted young vocal composers under the age of 30 and was named after legendary soprano, Lotte Lehmann. Judging this year's competition were composers Richard Rodney Bennett and Russell Platt, soprano Judith Kellock, and conductor Michael Morgan.
Full List of Winners:
First Prize: Scott Gendel, 28, Madison, WI
Second Prize: Mark Buntag, 29, Bloomington, IN
Third Prize: Michael Djupstrom, 25, White Bear Lake, MN
Damien Top Prize: Eli Marshall, 28, Montville, ME
Honorable Mentions: Ola Gjeilo, 28, New York, NY; Jocelyn Hagen, 25, Minneapolis, MN
A Closer Look at Scott Gendel
Scott Gendel received a DMA in composition last May from UW-Madision with a minor in opera accompanying and vocal coaching. He is currently applying for academic teaching positions but wants to continue his work as a performer and composer. His music has been published once before by Tuba-Euphonium Press.
At this stage in his career, Gendel is particularly excited by the opportunities the ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation award provides. "The performance opportunities are great and the prizes are so forward thinking," he says. "Most competitions, you just get a check, but with this one, you get a commission, publication, and three performances. It really seems well-designed."
Gendel wrote his winning composition, Forgotten Light, for the soprano Julia Faulkner, a Madison-area singer who he admired. When she mentioned she was planning a recital of songs based on Emily Dickinson poetry, Scott jumped at the chance to write her a cycle.
"I chose a set of seven poems which loosely progresses from the giddy start of a love affair through its demise and then into grief, ending with a lesser-known Dickinson work that simply blows my mind, 'After Great Pain,'" he explains. He describes the music as "unabashedly romantic, yet also incorporating elements of 12-tone writing and extreme chromaticism."
For his commissioned song cycle, he is considering poetry by Wendell Berry or Kenneth Rexroth.
"Scott Gendel's art songs combine superb craftsmanship, a sophisticated and well-honed sense of prosody, texts of excellent literary quality, and a sure heart with years of experience as a vocal coach and accompanist," notes Daron Hagen, president of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation. "He knows the repertoire and has performed it; he knows singers and has performed with them. The Lehmann Foundation judges were unanimous in their choice of Scott for the first prize commission based entirely on the recording and score that he submitted to the competition."
The ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition, a major national competition, takes place only in even numbered years. Another competition sponsored by the Lotte Lehmann Foundation is the international Internet-based Art Song Performance Competition for singers and pianists called CyberSing. The competition reaches over sixty countries each cycle. Submissions for CyberSing will open on January 1, 2007.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Board Member Peter Kazaras Directs 'Turn of the Screw'
A Perfect Show for Young Artists: Kazaras on Directing The Turn of the Screw
By Ed Hawkins
Click here to see the article in its original context.
With more than twenty years on international opera stages, tenor Peter Kazaras has become a skilled teacher and will be working with the current Young Artists throughout their training at Seattle Opera. As a singer, Kazarasmade his Seattle Opera debut as Steva in Janacek’s Jenufa in 1985 and has since appeared in numerous roles here, including Loge in Seattle Opera’s Ring, a role that he reprised in August 2005. As a director, Kazaras made his mainstage debut in 2003 with Seattle Opera’s new production of Bellini’s Norma. He also directed last year’s Young Artists production of Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro). Other recent directing projects for Kazaras include Handel’s Acis and Galatea for Santa Fe Pro Musica and both Menotti’s Medium and Ibert’s Angélique for San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program. Kazaras spoke with Ed Hawkins at Seattle Opera’s administrative offices on July 7, 2005, between rehearsals for the Ring.
Ed Hawkins: Tell me about your history with The Turn of the Screw.
Peter Kazaras: I’ve been in a number of productions. The first one was directed by Stephen Wadsworth in Omaha. I did a production in Tel Aviv that was the first opera that New Israeli Opera ever toured to Europe — we went to Frankfurt and it was repeated three times. I’ve done it at New York City Opera, in Miami, in Seattle, and in several other places. It was also the first opera that I directed in full.
EH: Did the primary impetus to do The Turn of the Screw with the Young Artists come from you?
PK: No, it actually came from Perry Lorenzo, who knew I wanted to do something a little off the beaten track. It’s a perfect show to do with Young Artists. The vocal demands of The Turn of the Screw are encompassable by less mature singers, and its structure is pretty near perfect. It also is a great piece for getting people to talk about stuff that’s really important. No matter how you define it, opera is about life and death. And The Turn of the Screw is deadly serious.
EH: I know that historically we’ve done a lot of Mozart with the Young Artists, and the occasional Rossini or Puccini’s Bohème. How would you respond to people who suggest that, in terms of long-term career considerations, adding an “off-the-beaten-path” title like The Turn of the Screw to a young artist’s repertoire is not serving them as well as a more commonly presented work?
PK: The Turn of the Screw is done all over nowadays: Kansas City, Kentucky, Fort Worth... This is going to put ten singers out into the world who know how to sing in English. Who know how to tell a story, using their voices, in our language. And that is never a bad thing.
EH: What do you hope to accomplish in working with the Young Artists this year?
PK: This year’s curriculum is going to be very heavily text-oriented. Not just because of The Turn of the Screw but because we frankly acknowledge that a lot of people who are in this or any other young artist or apprentice program will go on to audition for musical theater pieces which can use operatic voices. Perry and I also want to deal with the notion of getting the singers to connect with text. I believe pedagogically it is easiest to make that connection in English; and if you ignore Britten when talking about English opera, there’s something wrong with you, because no one did it better.
EH: How do you go about making that connection?
PK: I’ve developed a technique which involves stripping the text from the music and really looking at what it says. Once you do that, whether it is poetry or a libretto or a play set to music, you suddenly find meaning. And once you as a performer start to find meaning, then you are getting into the mind of a composer who worked very diligently to create something meaningful. In the past eight years of teaching, I’ve seen amazing things happen when you get people to connect with what the words are, with what is actually going on. And then when you add fantastic music, whether it’s by Verdi, Puccini, Blitzstein, or whomever, you’re suddenly able to go someplace you never believed possible.
We all have a pair of ears; otherwise we wouldn’t be musicians, right? Most singers are really smart but their brains are underutilized. The resources that free creativity and really count are underutilized, I find. I’m interested in getting people to use their ears, their hearts, and their minds. Ultimately, all I’m there to do is be a guide. If somebody is making a personal connection with what happens between Quint and Miles — whether it’s due to something that happened between them and an older guy in their life, issues they have with a younger brother, or even something as simple as missing somebody who’s dead — that’s not something I’ve done. I can’t. I can just lead them to a place where they make that kind of connection on their own. And The Turn of the Screw is incredibly fertile for that.
Ed Hawkins, a Seattle Opera staff member, is active in Seattle’s fringe theatre community as a director, actor, and sound designer. His artist interviews are a regular feature of Seattle Opera’s publications.
Friday, February 10, 2006
ASCAP AND LOTTE LEHMANN FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF NEW SONG CYCLE COMPETITION FOR YOUNG COMPOSERS
Click here to see the feature on ASCAP's website.
New York, NY, February 13, 2006: Frances Richard, ASCAP Vice President and Director of Concert Music and Daron Hagen, President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation (LLF) announced today the winners of the first ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition. The competition, named for legendary soprano Lotte Lehmann, was established to encourage and recognize gifted young composers who write for voice. The winning works were selected via a juried national competition from more than 100 entries received from eligible composers under the age of thirty.
The First Prize ($3,500) has been awarded to Scott Gendel, age 28, of Madison, WI. Gendel will receive a commission to write a song cycle for voice and piano, to be published by E.C. Schirmer. The commissioned song cycle will be performed in three major American cities, including New York.
Second Prize ($1,000) was awarded to Mark Buntag, age 29, of Bloomington, IN and Third Prize ($500) was awarded to Michael Djupstrom, age 25, of White Bear Lake, MN. Both Second and Third Prize winners receive commissions to compose an art song for voice and piano. The Damien Top Prize ($500) was awarded to Eli Marshall, age 28, of Montville, ME. The Damien Top Prize is a commission to set a poem by Andrée Brunin to be premiered at the 2006 Albert Roussel International Festival in France.
The jury selected two composers for Honorable Mention: Ola Gjeilo, age 28, of New York, NY; and Jocelyn Hagen, age 25, of Minneapolis, MN.
The competition judges were composers Richard Rodney Bennett and Russell Platt, soprano Judith Kellock, and conductor Michael Morgan.
Bios and photos of the winners are available at: http://www.lottelehmann.org/llf/programs/ascapllf/2005.html
Commenting on the ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition, Frances Richard, ASCAP Vice President and Director of Concert Music said, “Founded in 1914 by great American songwriters, ASCAP welcomes the opportunity to encourage today’s young composers to perpetuate the classical art song tradition in memory of the great Lotte Lehmann”.
Daron Hagen, Composer and President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation said: “Lotte Lehmann, the legendary opera singer and performer of art song, believed passionately in the potential for the union of excellent music and poetry of high literary quality to profoundly move music lovers. Encouraging young composers to create these works is central to the Lotte Lehmann Foundation’s mission. The quality of submissions was high, and the applicants were many. We look forward very much to the next round of commissions in 2007.”
World famous soprano Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976) was one of the great musical artists of the 20th Century. Lehmann's glorious, expressive voice and interpretive talent enthralled audiences with repertory ranging from opera to Lieder (classical German song). Lehmann fled her native Germany for the US in 1938, and became an American citizen. After her singing career ended she continued to write books, give master-classes and helped found the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA. Her influence in the world of opera, art song and education was enormous.
Founded in 1998, The Lotte Lehmann Foundation is devoted to the preservation of the magnificent Lehmann artistic and teaching legacy, and to her commitment to educating the public to appreciate art song. Art song, (also called classical song, solo song, Lieder or mélodie) is music written for classically trained voice and piano, set to pre-existing poetry. http://www.lottelehmann.org/
Established in 1914, ASCAP is the first and leading U.S. Performing Rights Organization representing the world's largest repertory totaling over 8 million copyrighted musical works of every style and genre from more than 225,000 composer, lyricist and music publisher members. ASCAP also represents the repertories created by the international affiliates of 70 foreign performing rights organizations. ASCAP protects the rights of its members and foreign affiliates by licensing the public performances of their copyrighted works and distributing royalties based upon surveyed performances. ASCAP is the only American Performing Rights Organization owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. www.ascap.com
New York, NY, February 13, 2006: Frances Richard, ASCAP Vice President and Director of Concert Music and Daron Hagen, President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation (LLF) announced today the winners of the first ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition. The competition, named for legendary soprano Lotte Lehmann, was established to encourage and recognize gifted young composers who write for voice. The winning works were selected via a juried national competition from more than 100 entries received from eligible composers under the age of thirty.
The First Prize ($3,500) has been awarded to Scott Gendel, age 28, of Madison, WI. Gendel will receive a commission to write a song cycle for voice and piano, to be published by E.C. Schirmer. The commissioned song cycle will be performed in three major American cities, including New York.
Second Prize ($1,000) was awarded to Mark Buntag, age 29, of Bloomington, IN and Third Prize ($500) was awarded to Michael Djupstrom, age 25, of White Bear Lake, MN. Both Second and Third Prize winners receive commissions to compose an art song for voice and piano. The Damien Top Prize ($500) was awarded to Eli Marshall, age 28, of Montville, ME. The Damien Top Prize is a commission to set a poem by Andrée Brunin to be premiered at the 2006 Albert Roussel International Festival in France.
The jury selected two composers for Honorable Mention: Ola Gjeilo, age 28, of New York, NY; and Jocelyn Hagen, age 25, of Minneapolis, MN.
The competition judges were composers Richard Rodney Bennett and Russell Platt, soprano Judith Kellock, and conductor Michael Morgan.
Bios and photos of the winners are available at: http://www.lottelehmann.org/llf/programs/ascapllf/2005.html
Commenting on the ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition, Frances Richard, ASCAP Vice President and Director of Concert Music said, “Founded in 1914 by great American songwriters, ASCAP welcomes the opportunity to encourage today’s young composers to perpetuate the classical art song tradition in memory of the great Lotte Lehmann”.
Daron Hagen, Composer and President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation said: “Lotte Lehmann, the legendary opera singer and performer of art song, believed passionately in the potential for the union of excellent music and poetry of high literary quality to profoundly move music lovers. Encouraging young composers to create these works is central to the Lotte Lehmann Foundation’s mission. The quality of submissions was high, and the applicants were many. We look forward very much to the next round of commissions in 2007.”
World famous soprano Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976) was one of the great musical artists of the 20th Century. Lehmann's glorious, expressive voice and interpretive talent enthralled audiences with repertory ranging from opera to Lieder (classical German song). Lehmann fled her native Germany for the US in 1938, and became an American citizen. After her singing career ended she continued to write books, give master-classes and helped found the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA. Her influence in the world of opera, art song and education was enormous.
Founded in 1998, The Lotte Lehmann Foundation is devoted to the preservation of the magnificent Lehmann artistic and teaching legacy, and to her commitment to educating the public to appreciate art song. Art song, (also called classical song, solo song, Lieder or mélodie) is music written for classically trained voice and piano, set to pre-existing poetry. http://www.lottelehmann.org/
Established in 1914, ASCAP is the first and leading U.S. Performing Rights Organization representing the world's largest repertory totaling over 8 million copyrighted musical works of every style and genre from more than 225,000 composer, lyricist and music publisher members. ASCAP also represents the repertories created by the international affiliates of 70 foreign performing rights organizations. ASCAP protects the rights of its members and foreign affiliates by licensing the public performances of their copyrighted works and distributing royalties based upon surveyed performances. ASCAP is the only American Performing Rights Organization owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. www.ascap.com
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Birgit Nilsson, Member of the Board of Advisors, Dies
Birgit Nilsson, one of the greatest helden sopranos of the 20th century, and from the beginning a valued member of the Board of Advisors of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, died in December 2005 at the age of 87.
Nilsson attended music school in Stockholm and eventually became a global star admired for her interpretations of composer Richard Wagner. Her voice was so powerful that she actually could shatter wine glasses, windows and supposedly a turquoise gemstone. Her sense of humor was also legendary.
You may hear the Memorial Tribute that was broadcast on Great Songs, the radio program devoted to art song hosted by Lehmann Foundation Founder Gary Hickling, by clicking here.
Rarely heard peformances of Schubert Lieder as well as Scandinavian songs make up this special program.
Nilsson attended music school in Stockholm and eventually became a global star admired for her interpretations of composer Richard Wagner. Her voice was so powerful that she actually could shatter wine glasses, windows and supposedly a turquoise gemstone. Her sense of humor was also legendary.
You may hear the Memorial Tribute that was broadcast on Great Songs, the radio program devoted to art song hosted by Lehmann Foundation Founder Gary Hickling, by clicking here.
Rarely heard peformances of Schubert Lieder as well as Scandinavian songs make up this special program.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Dominick Argento Receives 2006 World of Song Award
Dominick Argento, the distinguished American composer, has been chosen by the Board of Directors of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation as recipient of its 2006 World of Song Award.
The award, presented annually by the Foundation, alternates among composers, singers, and collaborative pianists. It serves to raise public consciousness of art song and to honor those who have devoted their creative lives to this enriching form of music.
In acknowledging the prize, Dr. Argento wrote: "I am highly honored and grateful to have been selected as the 2006 recipient of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation's World of Song Award. To have one's name even distantly linked with Lotte Lehmann is a great satisfaction in itself. To realize that the selection was made by one's most esteemed colleagues greatly increases that satisfaction."
Russell Platt, Secretary of the Lehmann Foundation, and a former student of Argento’s who nominated him for the award offered this tribute: "When it came to setting the English language, Dominick’s own scores were the best teachers. Argento has used both an instantaneously accessible lyrical gift along with a firmly intellectual style of craftsmanship to create a body of music that is both deeply traditional and strikingly innovative… [H]e has merged the forms of song cycle and one-act opera to make a persuasively dramatic hybrid genre—as valuable, in their way, as Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Schoenberg’s Erwartung."
Daniel Gundlach, chairman of the World of Song committee, summed up the feelings of the entire Board of Directors: "We are particularly pleased that this award coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of the first performance of one of his undisputed masterpieces, the Virginia Woolf cycle, for which he was also awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1975."
Foundation president Daron Hagen stated: "As President of the Lehmann Foundation, it is my honour to salute Maestro Argento: his status as one of America’s truly great composers of vocal music is unquestioned. I am also personally moved to salute his generosity and humanity: his handful of words of support and encouragement to me on a postcard twenty seven years ago when I was a sixteen year old fledgling composer in Wisconsin helped me to believe in myself at a crucial stage of my development."
The citation consists of a beautifully framed document designed by noted calligrapher Denis Lund. It can be viewed here.
Previous World of Song Awards have been awarded to collaborative pianists Dalton Baldwin and Graham Johnson, tenor Hugues Cuénod, baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and composer, author and pianist Ned Rorem.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
CyberSing 2006 Receives First $4000 in Underwriting
CyberSing 2006, the Lotte Lehmann Foundation's bi-annual Internet-based Art Song Performance Contest, is set to begin on 1 January 2006. The first prizes of this season's competition have been announced, and the Lehmann Foundation acknowledges them with gratitude and excitement:
Without leaving their home country, singers and their collaborative pianists from around the world are able to participate by submitting recordings of songs in compact disc format -- including one new 'required' song commissioned by the Foundation from a major internationally-known composer and made available for download from the Foundation's website. Performers from Zimbabwe to New Zealand have responded enthusiastically. Semi-finalists' recordings are posted on this website, and Internet listeners are invited to vote for an 'Audience Favourite.' A panel of distinguished music professionals select the winners, and cash prizes are awarded to both the singers and their pianists.
The winner's audio performances are posted on the Lotte Lehmann Foundation website for about sixteen months. Given the website's daily activity (roughly 5000 visitors per month), the exposure for the performers and the newly-commissioned Art Song is a meaningful component of the prizes.
In Division I (singers below the age of 23), Violent Chang has underwritten the Violet Chang Lieder Prize in Memory of Her Professor Dr. Erik Werba (Vienna) $1000; Mary Dibbern has underwritten the $250 Pianist Prize; Dwight & Louise Emery have underwritten the $250 Required Song Prize; Albert Schütz has underwritten the $250 American Song Prize; and Ruth Ballard has underwritten the $250 Audience Prize.
In Division II (singers above the age of 23), Nancy Bannick has underwritten the $500 Piano Prize; Natalie Limonick has underwritten the $500 Lieder Prize; Lindsey Christensen has underwritten the $500 Collaborative Pianist Prize in Honour of Dalton Baldwin; and Paul Sperry and Daron Hagen have jointly underwritten the $500 American Song Prize.
Sponsors are still stepping forward to underwrite the other CyberSing 2006 prizes. Please check the official rules page http://lottelehmann.org/llf/programs/cybersing/ for updates.
To further the Lotte Lehmann Foundation's mission to broaden global appreciation of Art Song, and to recognise, encourage, and help bring to the attention of the world the many fine performers of this genre, in 2002 the Foundation developed CyberSing, a bi-annual, Internet-based, art song performance competition.Without leaving their home country, singers and their collaborative pianists from around the world are able to participate by submitting recordings of songs in compact disc format -- including one new 'required' song commissioned by the Foundation from a major internationally-known composer and made available for download from the Foundation's website. Performers from Zimbabwe to New Zealand have responded enthusiastically. Semi-finalists' recordings are posted on this website, and Internet listeners are invited to vote for an 'Audience Favourite.' A panel of distinguished music professionals select the winners, and cash prizes are awarded to both the singers and their pianists.
The winner's audio performances are posted on the Lotte Lehmann Foundation website for about sixteen months. Given the website's daily activity (roughly 5000 visitors per month), the exposure for the performers and the newly-commissioned Art Song is a meaningful component of the prizes.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Phyllis Curtin and Su Lian Tan Join Board of Directors
The esteemed American soprano and teacher PHYLLIS CURTIN studied at Wellesley College (B.A., 1943) and received vocal instruction from Olga Avierino, Joseph Regnaeas, and Goldovsky.
In 1946 Phyllis Curtin made her operatic debut as the Countess in Figaro with Goldovsky's New England Opera Theater. Her recital debut followed in 1950 at New York’s Town Hall. In October 1953 she made her first appearance with the New York City Opera, as Fräulein Burstner in Gottfried von Einem's The Trial; where she remained on the roster until 1960; then returned in 1962, 1964, and 1975-76. She also made appearances at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (1959), the Glyndebourne Festival (1959), the Vienna State Opera (1960-1961), and at La Scala in Milan (1962). In November 1961 she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York as Fiordiligi; she sang every season at the MET from 1961 to 1973. Her tours as a soloist with orchestras and as a recitalist took her all over the globe until her retirement in 1984.
Phyllis Curtin taught at the Aspen School of Music; she continues to teach at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood — next year will be her 42nd season on the faculty. She taught in the Beijing Conservatory for a month in 1988, and in the Moscow Conservatory for three weeks in 1989. After serving as professor of voice at the Yale University School of Music (1974-1983), she was professor of voice and Dean of the School of the Arts at Boston University (from 1983); in 1992 she retired as its dean but continues to teach there.
Phyllis Curtin became well known for such roles as Mozart's Countess, Donna Anna, Rosalinde, Eva, Violetta, Alice Ford, Salome, and Ellen Orford. She also created Floyd’s Susannah (1955) and Cathy in Wuthering Heights (1958).
SU LIAN TAN is a composer and flutist of Chinese-Malaysian descent. Forthcoming commissions include a piece for Christine Schadeberg and piano trio. Recent commissions include a work for the Takacs String Quartet (Life in Wayang), a song cycle written in collaboration with author Jamaica Kincaid for the bicentennial celebrations of Middlebury College (Jamaica's Songs), a work for the Genkin Philharmonic, and performances and solo appearances with the Albany Symphony Orchestra. Other premieres and concerts include commissioned works for the Da Capo Chamber Players (Invention and Sinfonia), the New Juilliard Ensemble at Lincoln Center (Couture, a fashion show for mixed ensemble), the Meridian Arts Ensemble, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and The Core Ensemble. Moo Shu Rap Wrap, written for the Meridian Arts Ensemble, was performed on their tours throughout the U.S., Europe, and South America and recorded. Ms. Tan has performed with them in Amsterdam, The Hague, Germany, and at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Other compositions have been premiered or performed by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Krijoso Trio, Mosaic, members of the San Francisco Symphony, members of the International Women's Brass Conference, Cassatt Quartet, Chicago Ensemble, Perpetuum Mobile Ensemble, Juilliard Ensemble, ALEA III, Amici Musici, Princeton Chamber Ensemble, and Princeton University Orchestra. Her work has been featured numerous times at Summergarden at MOMA, on the Focus! Festival (1996), the Wet Ink Concert Series, and many times at Lincoln Center and Merkin Hall.
She has garnered numerous distinctions, including an ASCAP award, Meet the Composer grant, Irving Berlin Scholarship award, and several residency fellowships at the Yaddo and McDowell colonies. She has been Composer-in-Residence at Bennington College, the Composer's Forum of the East, the Warebrook Festival, and named Vermont Composer of the Year. Other awards include a Naumburg Fellowship Award and a Vermont Music Teachers Association Award. Two Scenes was a prize-winner of the International Women's Brass Conference composition competition. She was a Finalist in the Kucyna International Competition and the International Composer's Competition (NEM). She has appeared as a convocation speaker and lecturer at the School of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder, lecturer at Darmouth College and SUNY Fredonia, and given master classes at Bard College and SUNY Fredonia. In addition, she has been part of numerous successful pre-concert lectures and panels, including a presentation on Bach's Art of the Fugue with the Brentano String Quartet.
As Associate Professor and former Chairman of the Music Department at Middlebury College, her contributions have taken many forms. In addition to teaching all levels of composition she has continued and greatly expanded the visiting performing artist residency program to include larger and recognized ensembles (Takacs String Quartet, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Brentano String Quartet, the Core Ensemble, Mosaic) and greatly increased their involvement with students. She regularly coaches, conducts, and coordinates numerous student and professional concerts (including operas) and inter-departmental enterprises. She has produced the Festivals of the Human Voice I and II, the Middlebury Chamber Soloist series, and advises the Performing Arts Series. She has also been curator of panels and concerts for the Clifford Symposium (featuring keynote speaker Edward Albee).
As a flutist, Ms. Tan's gifts were recognized early on. At age 14, she was recording for radio and television. At 17, she became both a Fellow and Licentiate of the Trinity College, London. Her performances have been broadcast on WXQR Radio (New York) and Morning Pro Musica, and she has performed at Lincoln Center with the Perpetuum Mobile, Juilliard ensembles, and at Princeton University. She has been a soloist with orchestras both here and abroad, including an eleven-performance tour with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra in her work, Autumn Lute Song. She has had numerous pieces written for her, including works by Daron Hagen and Allen Shawn's Song of the Tango Bird, the latter which she both premiered and recorded for the Northeastern label, and produced a CD of piano music for the Albany label. She has appeared at the SEAMUS National Conference and performs regularly with the Middlebury Chamber Soloists. A recent recital at Middlebury included premieres of works by Chris Molina and Tom Geogehan.
Ms. Tan received her extensive musical training at Princeton University, the Juilliard School, and Bennington College where she studied with Vincent Persichetti, Milton Babbitt, Bernard Rands, Lou Calabro, and James Randall. She is Associate Professor of Music and former Chairman of the Music Department at Middlebury College. Moo Shu Wrap-Rap, recorded by the Meridian Arts Ensemble for their CD Ear Mind I, is released by Channel Records. Her music is published by the Theodore Presser, Co.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
ASCAP Lehmann Foundation Composition Contest Deadline of September 15th Approaches
September 15th is the submission deadline for the ASCAP Lotte Lehmann Foundation Composition Contest.
The competition was established to recognize talented young composers who write for the human voice. Winning works will be selected via a juried national competition from among eligible composers under the age of thirty.
First Prize is a $3,500 commission for a song cycle for voice and piano, publication by E.C. Schirmer of the completed work, and performances of the song cycle in three major American cities, including New York. Second Prize ($1,000) and Third Prize ($500) will be awarded to commission two new songs for voice and piano. The deadline for entries is September 15, 2005. Applicants must be US citizens, permanent residents of the US, or enrolled students with student visas. One original work per composer may be submitted. A panel of professionals will be convened to select the composers to be commissioned. Guidelines and application can be found at: http://www.ascap.com/press/2004/lehmann_121704.html
Frances Richard, commented, “Founded in 1914, by great American songwriters, ASCAP welcomes the opportunity to encourage today's gifted young composers to perpetuate the tradition of the classical art song, in memory of the great Lotte Lehmann.”
Composer and President of the Lehmann Foundation Daron Hagen, said, “The Lehmann Foundation is proud to launch this important competition in partnership with ASCAP. We are grateful to Lehmann Foundation board member Margo Garrett for generously underwriting the commission prizes, and to EC Schirmer for pledging to publish the Song Cycle created through this initiative.”
The competition was established to recognize talented young composers who write for the human voice. Winning works will be selected via a juried national competition from among eligible composers under the age of thirty.
First Prize is a $3,500 commission for a song cycle for voice and piano, publication by E.C. Schirmer of the completed work, and performances of the song cycle in three major American cities, including New York. Second Prize ($1,000) and Third Prize ($500) will be awarded to commission two new songs for voice and piano. The deadline for entries is September 15, 2005. Applicants must be US citizens, permanent residents of the US, or enrolled students with student visas. One original work per composer may be submitted. A panel of professionals will be convened to select the composers to be commissioned. Guidelines and application can be found at: http://www.ascap.com/press/2004/lehmann_121704.html
Frances Richard, commented, “Founded in 1914, by great American songwriters, ASCAP welcomes the opportunity to encourage today's gifted young composers to perpetuate the tradition of the classical art song, in memory of the great Lotte Lehmann.”
Composer and President of the Lehmann Foundation Daron Hagen, said, “The Lehmann Foundation is proud to launch this important competition in partnership with ASCAP. We are grateful to Lehmann Foundation board member Margo Garrett for generously underwriting the commission prizes, and to EC Schirmer for pledging to publish the Song Cycle created through this initiative.”
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Lehmann Website Goes Live on 1 September
Created by Founder and Past President Gary Hickling, the site has over the past decade grown to over 2000 pages, with numerous sound, graphics and video files. It has included not only the Lotte Lehmann pages, but also 'Song!, the popular online repository for information on classical song,' as well as pages devoted to Hickling's popular Hawaii-based radio program, 'Great Songs.'
The new website design reflects the assumption by the Foundation's Board of Directors of the responsibility for maintaining and extending a variety of programs, old and new.
Burning Sled Design has been engaged to redesign the Foundation's official website.
The new website is currently in development and will formally launch on 1 September 2005.
The new website design reflects the assumption by the Foundation's Board of Directors of the responsibility for maintaining and extending a variety of programs, old and new.
Burning Sled Design has been engaged to redesign the Foundation's official website.
The new website is currently in development and will formally launch on 1 September 2005.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
News Brief: Hawaii Art Song Contest Semi-Finalists
You may hear the 13 semi-finalists in the Eighth Annual Hawaii Art Song Contest.
Four winners will be selected from this group to share a recital in Orvis Auditorium on the University of Hawai’i Manoa campus on 10 September 2005 at 7:30pm.
1. Georgia Boyd sings Pilkinton’s Rest Sweet Nymphs (Beebe Freitas, piano)
2. Rosanna Perch sings Barber’s Solitary Hotel (Beebe Freitas, piano)
3. Winnie So sings Strauss’ Die Nacht (Michelle Alexander, piano)
4. Kawika McGuire sings Bellini’s Malinconia (Tony Cho, piano)
5. Stephanie Conching sings Liza Lehmann’s There are Fairies at the Bottom of our Garden (Beebe Freitas, piano)
6. Karen Stavash sings Marzullo’s I hid my Love (Angie Carr, piano)
7. Carla Waterfield sings Schubert’s Lachen und Weinen (Tony Cho, piano)
8. Bill Lyman sings Fauré’s Lydia (Eric Schank, piano)
9. Katherine Saik sings Schubert’s Gretchen am Sprinnrade (Greg Shepherd, piano)
10. Kate Sarff sings Obradors’ Del Cabello mas sutil (Tony Cho, piano)
11. Amy Healy sings Grieg’s Zur Rosenzeit (Tony Cho, piano)
12. Noelle Shiozaki sings Foster’s Some Folks (Beebe Freitas, piano)
13. Leolani De Lima sings Pa’auau Waltz (Beebe Freitas, piano)
Four winners will be selected from this group to share a recital in Orvis Auditorium on the University of Hawai’i Manoa campus on 10 September 2005 at 7:30pm.
1. Georgia Boyd sings Pilkinton’s Rest Sweet Nymphs (Beebe Freitas, piano)
2. Rosanna Perch sings Barber’s Solitary Hotel (Beebe Freitas, piano)
3. Winnie So sings Strauss’ Die Nacht (Michelle Alexander, piano)
4. Kawika McGuire sings Bellini’s Malinconia (Tony Cho, piano)
5. Stephanie Conching sings Liza Lehmann’s There are Fairies at the Bottom of our Garden (Beebe Freitas, piano)
6. Karen Stavash sings Marzullo’s I hid my Love (Angie Carr, piano)
7. Carla Waterfield sings Schubert’s Lachen und Weinen (Tony Cho, piano)
8. Bill Lyman sings Fauré’s Lydia (Eric Schank, piano)
9. Katherine Saik sings Schubert’s Gretchen am Sprinnrade (Greg Shepherd, piano)
10. Kate Sarff sings Obradors’ Del Cabello mas sutil (Tony Cho, piano)
11. Amy Healy sings Grieg’s Zur Rosenzeit (Tony Cho, piano)
12. Noelle Shiozaki sings Foster’s Some Folks (Beebe Freitas, piano)
13. Leolani De Lima sings Pa’auau Waltz (Beebe Freitas, piano)
Friday, June 10, 2005
News Brief: Spring Benefit a Triumph
View photo gallery from the Benefit.
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation held its first annual Benefit on 10 May at the Century Association in New York City. Scott Dunn (Board Member & Co-Chair of Benefit Committee), Valerie Komar (Winner of CyberSing 2004), Lukas Foss (Advisor), Ned Rorem (Board Member), Phyllis Curtin (Honoree), Brian Zeger (Lehmann Foundation Vice President) and Ralph Jackson (President of the BMI Foundation) at the Lehmann Foundation's Spring 2005 Tribute to Phyllis Curtin at the Century Association in New York City in the Spring of 2005.
The evening was a tremendous success. The event’s special honoree was the great American soprano – Phyllis Curtin – an artist who, both as a performer and as master teacher, has been an elegant yet forceful advocate for American art song.
The benefit took place in the stunning art gallery of the Century Association - a cocktail reception preceded a sumptuous dinner, which was followed by champagne and desert. After a few post-dinner comments and acknowledgements by Foundation president Daron Hagen, board member Ned Rorem delivered a touching tribute to Phyllis Curtin.
He eloquently acknowledged her unparalled artistry and recognized the absolute devotion to song which has characterized her life’s work. Ms. Curtin then shared with those present some spontaneous comments and reminiscences in which she recognized her many former students present at the gala and also paid tribute to her tablemates, composers Lukas Foss and Ned Rorem - colleagues and friends for many years. She stressed how absolutely blessed she feels to have had a career and life devoted to music and song and she thanked the Lehmann Foundation for honoring her work in such a convivial fashion.
A short musical program then followed. Foundation board member and distinguished accompanist Brian Zeger joined Valerie Komar, CyberSing 2004 winner, to present Berstein’s “Silhouette” and the Debussy “Chevaux de bois.” This year’s Joy in Singing winner, Alexander Hurd, then sang Ned Rorem’s “For Poulenc” and ended the short program with Bill Bolcom’s “Black Max” - again with Mr. Zeger collaborating at the piano.
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation would like to thank all those who helped make this event such a success – to those who attended, as well as those who contributed time, material, personal and financial support. Special acknowledgement also goes to Daron Hagen for his exhaustive and effective efforts.
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation held its first annual Benefit on 10 May at the Century Association in New York City. Scott Dunn (Board Member & Co-Chair of Benefit Committee), Valerie Komar (Winner of CyberSing 2004), Lukas Foss (Advisor), Ned Rorem (Board Member), Phyllis Curtin (Honoree), Brian Zeger (Lehmann Foundation Vice President) and Ralph Jackson (President of the BMI Foundation) at the Lehmann Foundation's Spring 2005 Tribute to Phyllis Curtin at the Century Association in New York City in the Spring of 2005.
The evening was a tremendous success. The event’s special honoree was the great American soprano – Phyllis Curtin – an artist who, both as a performer and as master teacher, has been an elegant yet forceful advocate for American art song. The benefit took place in the stunning art gallery of the Century Association - a cocktail reception preceded a sumptuous dinner, which was followed by champagne and desert. After a few post-dinner comments and acknowledgements by Foundation president Daron Hagen, board member Ned Rorem delivered a touching tribute to Phyllis Curtin.
He eloquently acknowledged her unparalled artistry and recognized the absolute devotion to song which has characterized her life’s work. Ms. Curtin then shared with those present some spontaneous comments and reminiscences in which she recognized her many former students present at the gala and also paid tribute to her tablemates, composers Lukas Foss and Ned Rorem - colleagues and friends for many years. She stressed how absolutely blessed she feels to have had a career and life devoted to music and song and she thanked the Lehmann Foundation for honoring her work in such a convivial fashion.
A short musical program then followed. Foundation board member and distinguished accompanist Brian Zeger joined Valerie Komar, CyberSing 2004 winner, to present Berstein’s “Silhouette” and the Debussy “Chevaux de bois.” This year’s Joy in Singing winner, Alexander Hurd, then sang Ned Rorem’s “For Poulenc” and ended the short program with Bill Bolcom’s “Black Max” - again with Mr. Zeger collaborating at the piano.
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation would like to thank all those who helped make this event such a success – to those who attended, as well as those who contributed time, material, personal and financial support. Special acknowledgement also goes to Daron Hagen for his exhaustive and effective efforts.
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