The Lotte Lehmann Foundation Recitals Inaugural Concert Series Tami Petty, soprano ~ Matthew Boehler, bass Thomas Bagwell, piano Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 3:00pm Christ & St. Stephen's Church, 120 West 69th Street, New York, NY, 10023 $15 admission at the door / $10 students & seniors featuring Songs by Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Marx, Shostakovich, Barber, Bowles, Hageman, Vehar, Bolcom and others Duets by Purcell The next Lotte Lehmann Foundation Recitals in 2010/11: Sunday, May 15, 2011, 3:00pm:
About The Lotte Lehmann Foundation: Since 1997, the Lotte Lehmann Foundation has worked to continue Lotte Lehmann’s vision of the unifyingpower of music. In sponsoring the biennial ASCAP / Lotte Lehmann Foundation Art Song Competition, a major national prize for composers of art song, the LLF has awarded over $16,000 to composers under the age of 35 since 2005, extending commissions, sponsoring premiere and repeat performances, and procuring publication (with the prestigious E.C.Schirmer) of new works by these emerging artists. In the service of young singers, the Foundation's newest project, The Lotte Lehmann Foundation Recitals, showcases gifted emerging vocalists in the performance of art song. With a vibrant Board of Directors consisting of professional singers, collaborative pianists, composers, arts management professionals, conductors, academics, music journalists, and executives with a passion for the arts, the Lotte Lehmann Foundation continues to strengthen, extend, and expand its mission: To support emerging singers and composers of vocal music. For more information about the Lotte Lehmann Foundation please visit: www.lottelehmann.org Tami Petty recently debuted at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with great acclaim singing Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle as the Sorel Organizations’s inaugural recipient of the Emerging Artist Award. The New York Times praised her “powerful soprano” and Harry Rolnick from The Classical Music Network wrote, “such a beauty and purity of tone is so rare that I could only listen in ethereal pleasure.” Her soaring soprano has been featured in Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the Fort Collins Symphony, Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the Manchester Choral Society, as Leonore in Fidelio with Opera Fort Collins, and as Woglinde in Wagner’s Das Rheingold at Bard Summerscape with the American Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with San Francisco Opera Center, San Francisco Ballet Symphony, Voices of Ascension, Riverside Choral Society, Grace Church Choral Society, Five Burroughs Music Festival, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester Oratorio Society, Rochester Chamber Orchestra, Rochester Bach Festival, Finger Lakes Chamber Ensemble, and Canada’s London Fanshawe Symphonic Orchestra. Tami has received awards from the Richard Tucker Foundation, the Marilyn Horne Foundation, the Chautauqua Opera Guild, the Lotte Lenya Competition and the Connecticut Opera Guild. A Merola Opera Program alum, Tami has received Career Grants from the San Francisco Opera Center, where she performed as a guest in Lotfi Mansouri’s production of Albert Herring alongside the Adler Fellows. Other young artist programs include the Music Academy of the West, Cincinnati Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Central City Opera, the Cleveland Art Song Festival, and this summer she will attend the Daniel Ferro Program in Tuscany with a grant from the Sorel Organization. Upcoming engagements an appearance with the José Limón Dance Company, and the Brahms Requiem with the Manchester Choral Society. Hailed by The Washington Post as “an extraordinarily charismatic performer,” Matt Boehler has been critically acclaimed for his dramatic ability and his “supple, clarion bass.” With Wolf Trap Opera Company, Matt garnered much praise in the title role of Sweeney Todd. The Washington Post raved, “There are times, in fact, when this young man with a huge crossover career ahead of him is standing in a crowd of actors, and you’d swear he was the only person onstage.” He has appeared as Businello in Casanova’s Homecoming, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, and Colline in La bohème, with The Minnesota Opera, Spencer Coyle in Owen Wingrave with Chicago Opera Theater, and in Telemann’s Orpheus with Wolf Trap Opera Company, Samson et Dalila with Hawaii Opera Theater and at the Juilliard Opera Center, as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as well as Kecal in The Bartered Bride.. He has performed Leporello with Chicago Opera Theater, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Opera New Jersey and in the multimedia opera project Don Juan in Prague, Pooh-Bah in The Mikado with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Opera New Jersey. In concert he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic in Elektra, with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in Bernstein’s Mass, with Musica Sacra as Christus in Bach’s St. John Passion, and as bass soloist with the New York Choral Society in Messiah. He has appeared in concert with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Oratorio Society of New York, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, the New York Festival of Song, and Sacred Music in a Sacred Space. Mr. Boehler has had success in several competitions, winning prizes in the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, the National Opera Association’s competition and the Midwest Region of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He is a three-time first prizewinner of the Schubert Club vocal competition and a recipient of a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation. |
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
LLF Recitals Inaugural Concert Series Concert #2
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Inaugural Lotte Lehmann Foundation Recital
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation
presents
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation Recitals
Inaugural Concert
Martha Guth, soprano ~ Jonathan Michie, baritone
Thomas Bagwell, piano
Sunday, December 19, 2010 at 3:00pm
Christ & St. Stephen's Church, 120 West 69th Street, New York, NY, 10023
$15 admission at the door / $10 students & seniors
featuring
songs of
Schubert and Schumann
duets of
Cornelius and Brahms
and contemporary works:
Tom Cipullo — Late Summer (2001)
Juhi Bansal + — A Line-Storm Song (2008/9)
Stephen Paulus — A Heartland Portrait (2006)
+ Winner, ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Art Song Competition
The next Lotte Lehmann Foundation Recitals in 2010/11:
Sunday, March 13, 2011, 3:00pm:
Tami Petty, soprano, Matthew Boehler, bass, Thomas Bagwell, piano
Sunday, May 15, 2011, 3:00pm:
Heather Johnson, mezzo-soprano, Christopher Herbert, baritone, Thomas Bagwell, piano
About the Lotte Lehmann Foundation:
Since 1997, the Lotte Lehmann Foundation has worked to continue Lotte Lehmann’s vision of the unifying power of music. In sponsoring the biennial ASCAP / Lotte Lehmann Foundation Art Song Competition, a major national prize for composers of art song, the LLF has awarded over $16,000 to composers under the age of 35 since 2005, extending commissions, sponsoring premiere and repeat performances, and procuring publication (with the prestigious E.C. Schirmer ) of new works by these emerging artists. In the service of young singers, the Foundation's newest project, The Lotte Lehmann Foundation Recitals, showcases gifted emerging vocalists in the performance of art song. With a vibrant Board of Directors consisting of professional singers, collaborative pianists, composers, arts management professionals, conductors, academics, music journalists, and executives with a passion for the arts, the Lotte Lehmann Foundation continues to strengthen, extend, and expand its mission:
To support emerging singers and composers of vocal music.
For more information about the Lotte Lehmann Foundation please visit: www.lottelehmann.org
About the Lotte Lehmann Foundation Recitals:
The 2010-11 concert season sees the debut of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation Recitals. Pianist Thomas Bagwell curates the series, as well as accompanying six hand-picked young singers in three duo recitals at the Church of Christ and St. Stephen’s on New York’s Upper West Side. Featured are sopranos Martha Guth and Tami Petty; mezzo-soprano Heather Johnson; baritones Jonathan Michie and Christopher Herbert; and bass Matt Boehler. In keeping with the Foundation’s mission, the recitals will feature these artists in repertoire both old and new, including classic works from the Lieder repertoire as well as work by promising young composers, many of whom are laureates of the ASCAP / Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition.
About the performing artists:
Called by Marilyn Horne “a pioneer for his age,” pianist Thomas Bagwell is one of a handful of today’s most active pianists in the field of song recital. His appearances as a collaborative pianist have taken him to such venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Musikverein, the Concertgebouw, and numerous halls across the United States and Canada. Thomas Bagwell’s activities as a coach and teacher have led to invitations to give masterclasses for colleges and apprentice programs in opera companies. Mr. Bagwell was an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera for nine seasons, and has served in the same capacity for many seasons at the Washington National Opera, the Santa Fe Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Thomas Bagwell has partnered in recital such singers as Marilyn Horne, Susan Graham, Denyce Graves, Frederica von Stade, Andrea Rost, Kristine Jepson, James Morris and Roberta Peters. His recital partnerships with the rising generation of singers include Elaine Alvarez, Gregory Turay, Rinat Shaham, Eric Cutler, Thomas Meglioranza and Jesse Blumberg. Under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation he has performed numerous recitals and galas. For his accompanying, Peter G. Davis in New York magazine wrote, “Thomas Bagwell’s bejeweled playing showed that the art of the accompanist is alive and well.” At the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, Mr. Bagwell presented a series of seven all Hugo Wolf Lieder recitals to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of the great Austrian composer. This series, which involved thirty singers from the rosters of the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera and many prestigious art song competition winners, was followed by a Mahler Lieder series again at the Austrian Cultural Forum. As a teacher and coach, Thomas Bagwell has taught at Yale University and is on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music.
Acclaimed for her “intuitive sensitivity” (Montreal Gazette) and her “thrilling top range, rare breath control and an awesome legato” (Globe and Mail), soprano Martha Guth has emerged onto the international classical music scene as a finely developed and persuasive artist, traits which earned her the first prize in the Wigmore Hall International Competition in 2007, a career grant from the Canada Council, and 2nd Prize in the the CBC’s Young Musicians Competition. Concerts and recitals are an important part of Ms. Guth’s activities. She recently performed with Graham Johnson’s Young Song Makers concert series in London which was also recorded for the BBC. Other recitals and concerts have included the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Windsor Symphony, The Hamilton Philharmonic, the Calgary Philharmonic, The Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Debut Series in Ottawa (CBC radio), Jeunesses Musicales recitals in Montreal, the Offcentre Music Salon in Toronto (CBC radio), and various recitals throughout Europe, U.S.A., and Canada. She also appeared with the Santa Fe Symphony as soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ah, Perfido. She recently appeared in world premieres of songs and cycles by Thomas Pasatieri, Tom Cipullo and Clint Borzoni. On the operatic stage, she has attracted notice for her interpretations of Mozart and Handel, including as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro with Opera Lyra Ottawa and Mallorca, Spain; Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at Opera Lyra Ottawa, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte in Augsburg, and the title role of Handel’s Alcina in Lucca, Italy. Martha has also created a new podcast that she co-hosts with pianist Erika Switzer on classical song entitled Sparks and Wiry Cries which is available for free download from itunes or directly from her website. The podcast features discussions of repertoire, collaboration, performance practice, historical context and poetry, often including conversations and interview with composers and performers, and live performances by artists active in this art form.
Praised as “suavely elegant” and “possessing a lustrous, unforced tone and equally easy stage presence,” American baritone Jonathan Michie is pursuing a versatile performing career. He is currently in residency with The Florida Grand Opera where he is singing roles in Carmen, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia. This summer brings an Apprenticeship with The Santa Fe Opera where he will cover roles in Die Zauberflöte, Albert Herring, Les contes d’Hoffmann, and the world première of Lewis Spratlan’s Life is a Dream. Highlights of Michie’s recent work include his solo debut at Alice Tully Hall singing Bach’s Ich habe genug, Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel with Maestro James Conlon, premiering the role of FDR in Vehar’s Eleanor with Lake George Opera, Carmina Burana, A Little Night Music, and Kern & Hammerstein’s Music in the Air. Other credits include the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute for Young Artists and two seasons with the Chautauqua Opera. He has been featured in concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Spoleto Festival USA, the Ravinia Festival, and with orchestras throughout North America. Favorite past roles include Danilo in The Merry Widow, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, John Wilkes Booth in Assassins, Robert in Company, Pandolfe in Cendrillon, and Strephon in Iolanthe. Michie is the youngest first prize winner in the history of the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya competition. He is the recipient of awards from the Licia Albanese/Puccini Foundation, the Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges, the Palm Beach Opera Competition, the Charles A. Lynam Competition, the National Orpheus Competition, the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, the Liederkranz Foundation, and was a Regional Finalist in the MET National Council Auditions.
###
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Craig Urquhart in Berlin
While visiting Germany this past September I made my usual pilgrimage to Berlin, beloved city of composers and performers, opera-goers and drama enthusiasts for many generations. On this mild Saturday evening I took the Berlin underground to Neu-Westend and made my way to St. George’s Church, the Anglican church that was famously destroyed by the RAF in an accidental bombing during the Second World War. The present church houses an English-speaking congregation and features “Music at St. George’s,” a monthly concert series. On this night, Craig Urquhart was performing a piano recital of his own compositions. The concert began with an introspective soliloquy, “In the Afternoon,” and progressed through moving renditions of (among others) “Before the Canvas,” the picturesque “Along the Seine,” and the stately and impressionistic “Cathedral Pines.” I felt privileged to be there, enjoying Craig’s performance and hearing his soul speak to us through his music. This was a special evening of shared experience for audience and performer.
Letter from the President
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation has a dual mission: to support singers of art song and the composers who write for them. In alternate years since 2005, the Foundation has awarded over $16,000 in prizes to composers under the age of thirty for art song composition; the 2009 competition was judged by distinguished composer board members Larry Alan Smith, Daron Hagen, and Stephen Dembski, along with a guest judge, the noted song and opera composer John Musto.Our partner in this effort is ASCAP, which provides administrative support and hosts in their New York offices the day-long judging. Since this collaborative effort began, the competition has become a prominent source of support for American composers under thirty, and announcements for the competition are received by over 1,600 academic music departments around the country. As Frances Richard, ASCAP Vice President and Director of Concert Music has said, "It is in the great tradition of ASCAP to encourage gifted young composers to set inspiring texts for voice, and we are proud to join with the Lotte Lehmann Foundation in this exciting biannual commissioning program.”
This year’s winners are already scouting around for texts. Zhou Tian, 27, won the $3500 First Prize, a commission to write a song cycle for publication by E.C. Schirmer. “I’m extremely honored to be the winner of the competition. I have always have a passion for vocal music. My dad is a composer (mainly a songwriter) in China and when I was studying at the Curtis Institute I had the opportunity to have many composers meetings with legends such as Ned Rorem in his New York apartment.” For the commission he will compose a cycle of songs based on old Chinese love poems. “Reading them now is like seeing lost treasures. Many old Chinese love poems are incredibly imaginative, subtle, simple and beautiful.”
Like Zhou, Eric Guinivan and Juhi Bansal (both 25), the competition’s second and third-prize winners, respectively, are doctoral students in the composition at the University of Southern California, where they have participated in “Writer and Composer,” a class taught by the composer Frank Ticheli and the poet David St. John. The text for Zhou’s prize-winning song, A Crown for Sonia, concerns the military killings in Argentina during the political turbulence of the 1970s; the text was by a poem by the young poet Seth Michaelson, who is a Ph.D student at USC. Both Guinivan and Bansal (who have also been commissioned to write songs) plan to choose texts that they’ve discovered as part of their in-class collaborations. Joni Greene, 28, was the winner of the Damien Top Prize, a commission to set a poem by the French writer Andrée Brunin.
ASCAP-LLF Song Cycle Competition Update
Our partner in this effort is ASCAP, which provides administrative support and hosts in their New York offices the day-long judging. Since this collaborative effort began, the competition has become a prominent source of support for American composers under thirty, and announcements for the competition are received by over 1,600 academic music departments around the country. As Frances Richard, ASCAP Vice President and Director of Concert Music has said, "It is in the great tradition of ASCAP to encourage gifted young composers to set inspiring texts for voice, and we are proud to join with the Lotte Lehmann Foundation in this exciting biannual commissioning program.”
This year’s winners are already scouting around for texts. Zhou Tian, 27, won the $3500 First Prize, a commission to write a song cycle for publication by E.C. Schirmer. “I’m extremely honored to be the winner of the competition. I have always have a passion for vocal music. My dad is a composer (mainly a songwriter) in China and when I was studying at the Curtis Institute I had the opportunity to have many composers meetings with legends such as Ned Rorem in his New York apartment.” For the commission he will compose a cycle of songs based on old Chinese love poems. “Reading them now is like seeing lost treasures. Many old Chinese love poems are incredibly imaginative, subtle, simple and beautiful.”
Like Zhou, Eric Guinivan and Juhi Bansal (both 25), the competition’s second and third-prize winners, respectively, are doctoral students in the composition at the University of Southern California, where they have participated in “Writer and Composer,” a class taught by the composer Frank Ticheli and the poet David St. John. The text for Zhou’s prize-winning song, A Crown for Sonia, concerns the military killings in Argentina during the political turbulence of the 1970s; the text was by a poem by the young poet Seth Michaelson, who is a Ph.D student at USC. Both Guinivan and Bansal (who have also been commissioned to write songs) plan to choose texts that they’ve discovered as part of their in-class collaborations. Joni Greene, 28, was the winner of the Damien Top Prize, a commission to set a poem by the French writer Andrée Brunin.
(Russell Platt, Secretary of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, is a well-known composer and music editor for the New Yorker.)
Letter From Vienna
Composer Larry Alan Smith wrote the following on January 16, 2010 while in Vienna: 
Art Song Forward:unplugged
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
AMELIA Vocal Score Released
Daron Hagen, current board member and past Lotte Lehmann Foundation president, has published Amelia, A Two Act Opera in Six Scenes. To order the vocal score, click here.
An exquisite, library-grade limited first edition, 9 x 12, 242 pages, full-color cover 4/0 on 12pt C1S with a gloss laminate, internal pages 60 lb. paper, perfect bound with hindge so that it will open comfortably on a piano rack. Includes synopsis, cast credits, complete score and acknowledgements.
Commissioned by Seattle Opera for premiere in May 2010, the story of Amelia is strikingly contemporary: A first time mother-to-be, whose psyche has been scarred by the loss of her pilot-father in Vietnam, must break free from anxiety to embrace healing and renewal for the sake of her husband and child in this original story unfolding over a 30-year period beginning in 1966. Amelia interweaves one woman’s emotional journey, the American experience in Vietnam, and elements of the Daedalus and Icarus myth to explore man’s fascination with flight and the dilemmas that arise when vehicles of flight are used for exploration, adventure, and war. With an intensely personal libretto by American poet Gardner McFall (The Pilot’s Daughter), whose father was a Navy pilot lost during Vietnam, this new American opera moves from loss to recuperation, paralysis to flight, as the protagonist, Amelia, ultimately embraces her life and the creative force of love and family.
The premeire production, by Seattle Opera, will be directed by Stephen Wadsworth, conducted by Gerard Schwarz, and star Kate Lindsey, Nathan Gunn, William Burden, Jane Eaglen, Luretta Bybee, Jennifer Zetlan, Karen Vuong, Nicholas Coppolo, and David Won.
For more information about Amelia, and to order tickets for the opera, click here. For an interactive audio-visual presentation on Amelia, click here.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
ASCAP AND LOTTE LEHMANN FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF ART SONG COMPETITION FOR YOUNG COMPOSERS
Prizes include Cash Awards and New Song Commissions
Frances Richard, ASCAP Vice President and Director of Concert Music and Linn Maxwell, President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation (LLF) have announced the winners of the third ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Art Song Competition. The competition, named for legendary soprano Lotte Lehmann, was established to encourage and recognize gifted young composers who write for voice.
Judges for the competition, seen in the picture at left, were composers Larry Alan Smith, Daron Hagen, Stephen Dembski, and John Musto; they are pictured with Frances Richard and Cia Toscanini of ASCAP.
Commenting on the competition, Frances Richard said, "It is in the great tradition of ASCAP to encourage gifted young composers to set inspiring texts for voice. We are proud to join with the Lotte Lehmann Foundation in this exciting biannual commissioning program. The winning composers were selected through a rigorous juried competition open to composers under the age of thirty. We thank our dedicated judges, and congratulate the winners."
Linn Maxwell, mezzo-soprano and President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, said, "We are excited to welcome these talented young composers to the winners' podium. I am confident that their contributions will inspire singers to pursue excellence in the spirit of Lotte Lehmann, whose legacy we uphold and celebrate. Congratulations to each of them."
The First Prize ($3,500) has been awarded to Zhou Tian, age 27, of Los Angeles, CA. Zhou 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.
Second Prize ($1,000) was awarded to Eric Guinivan, age 25, of Los Angeles, CA, and Third Prize ($500) was awarded to Juhi Bansal, age 25, of Pasadena, CA. 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 Joni Greene, age 28, of Bloomington, IN. The Damien Top Prize is a commission to set a poem by Andrée Brunin to be premiered at the 2010 Albert Roussel International Festival in France.
The following composers received Honorable Mention: Aaron Alon, age 28, of Pearland, TX, Kris Becker, age 27, of Houston, TX, and Melissa Dunphy, age 29, of Philadelphia, PA.
Bios of the winning composers are included below.
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 U.S. 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.
About The Lotte Lehmann Foundation
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/
Zhou Tian is an award-winning young composer whose music has been performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, St. Cloud Symphony, Curtis Symphony, Guangzhou Symphony, Arditti Quartet, and Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Zhou earned music degrees from both Curtis and Juilliard, is a first-prize winner of the Washington International Composers Competition, and a three-time winner of The ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award. Zhou's compositions have received multiple performances in prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. His CD "Symphonic Suite: The Grand Canal" was recorded by the Guangzhou Symphony and released by China's largest label Pacific Audio & Video. Recently Grammy Award-winning label Cedille Records released Zhou's work in "The Billy Collins Suite", a recording which was named Chicago Tribune's CD of the Week. Zhou's recent premieres include First Sight, commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra under Sarah Hicks, and Blowing Westward, premiered by award-winning percussionist Pius Cheung at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. For more information, please visit www.zhoutian.org
Eric Guinivan's music has been performed across the United States as well as in France, Japan, and Greece. His music has been performed by the Young People's Symphonic Orchestra of St. Louis, the Delaware Youth Symphony Orchestra, USC Thornton Symphony and Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ensembles at Indiana University and University of Southern California, and Quey Percussion Duet. Eric's music has received several awards and honors, including the 2008 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award, 2007 BMI Student Composer Award, and a nomination for Best Original Score in the 2005 New England College Film Festival. Guinivan has received commissions from New York Youth Symphony and the Delaware Youth Symphony Orchestra. His compositions for percussion are published by HoneyRock Percussion Publishers and are available through Steve Weiss Music.Guinivan began studying percussion at age 10 and is an active performer currently based in Los Angeles. Currently the Principal Timpanist of the YMF Debut Orchestra and a founding member of the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Guinivan has performed with the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Bloomington Indiana Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Monday Evening Concerts, ensembles at Indiana University and University of Southern California, and at the 2005 and 2006 Midwest Composers Symposiums. In 2005 and 2006 Guinivan was awarded the Indiana University School of Music's Performer's Certificate for exceptional solo performance, becoming one of a select few undergraduates to twice receive the honor.
Active in Music Education, Guinivan is currently a Graduate Teaching Fellow at the University of Southern California where he teaches Music Theory and Aural Skills. Since beginning study at Indiana University in 2002, Guinivan has taught high school wind ensembles and percussion ensembles in Indiana and Delaware and has written and arranged music for several high school wind ensembles in Indiana, Delaware, and North Carolina. Guinivan has presented guest masterclasses and percussion clinics at venues such as Chapman University in Orange, California and at Sakuyo Kurashiki University in Okayama, Japan.
Born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, Guinivan received Bachelor of Music Degrees in Composition and Percussion Performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a Master of Music Degree in Composition from the University Of Southern California Thornton School of Music. Guinivan is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at USC where he currently studies Composition with Stephen Hartke. His past composition teachers include Donald Crockett, Claude Baker, P.Q. Phan, Don Freund, David Dzubay, and Tamar Diesendruck. Eric has studied percussion with Gerald Carlyss, Anthony Cirone, Steve Houghton, Richard Holmes, Jack Van Geem, and Craig Hetrick. For more information, please visit www.ericguinivan.com.
Juhi Bansal, an Indian composer raised in Hong Kong, is currently working towards a doctorate in music composition at the University of Southern California, studying under Donald Crockett. Her previous teachers have included Erica Muhl, Frank Ticheli, Frederick Lesemann, and Stephen Hartke.Her music, with its eclectic mix of ethnic and colouristic elements, is starting to gain international acclaim. Recent performances have included her Piano Trio (played by Pacific Music Festival orchestra academy members) at Kitara hall in Sapporo, Japan, and her flute and percussion trio, T'tuooll, at the SICPP New Music festival in Boston. Her music has also been performed by percussionist Scott Deal and vocalist Jenna Lyle, at Indiana University, Purdue, and Cleveland State University, respectively, as well as numerous performances in Los Angeles.
Recent commissions include a solo work for piano for Giorgi Latsabidze (while will be premiered in Europe in May 2009), and two multi-percussion solos for recitals at the University of Southern California. Recent awards and honours include 2009 and 2006 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, a fellowship to attend the Pacific Music Festival, the Peter David Faith Endowed Award in Composition from USC, and scholarships from USC. For more information, please visit wwww.juhibansal.com.
Joni Greene's music has been described as "pure," "colorful," and "melodic, using close-knit harmonies." Having spent the first 20 years of her life in Austin, Texas, Greene was exposed early to a community devoted to the arts. Many of her works draw from her deep passion to illustrate the simplicity and beauty of acoustic music.Greene has had her works performed by VocalEssence, the Indiana University Concert Band, Indiana University Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, West Laurens High School Wind Ensemble, Pride of Indy Concert Band, European-American Musical Alliance summer workshop chorus, Indiana University Concert Orchestra, and the 2008 Indiana University summer music clinic. She has had her music performed at festivals and workshops including the Essentially Choral Reading Session, Middle Georgia Composers Exchange, Oregon Bach Festival, EAMA workshop, IU Choral workshop, The Ball State New Music Festival, CHASM New Music Festival at Florida State University, and the North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA) Conference. Recent awards and commissions include the 2nd International Manhattan Beach Frank Ticheli Band Competition, VocalEssence Essentially Choral Readings, Indiana University Contemporary Vocal Ensemble Composition Competition, and The Middle Georgia Composers Exchange Commissioning Prize. Greene was also a finalist for the 2008 Sorel Medallion Choral Competition and recent honorable mention for the Forecast Music Composition Contest. Greene's music is published through Manhattan Beach Music and BRS. Music.
Greene is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree from Indiana University where she recently completed a Bachelor of Music in 2007. Her principal composition instructors include: Sven-David Sandström, Michael Gandolfi, Don Freund, Claude Baker, David Dzubay, Rafael Hernandez, and Kevin Puts. When she is not composing, Greene enjoys serving as clinician and composer-in-residence to middle school and high school bands. For more information, please visit www.jonigreene.net.
Aaron Alon's music has been performed around the world by such acclaimed musicians as Leone Buyse, Ian Davidson, Andrea Ceccomori, Catherine Branch, Mark Whatley, and new music groups Sounds New and the Vientos Trio. His works have been released on three CD labels and awarded numerous national and international composition honors, including those from the National Federation of Music Clubs; the National Association of Composers/USA; the Society of Composers, Inc.; ASCAP; Meet the Composer; the Renée B. Fisher Composer Awards; and Mu Phi Epsilon.Alon is a member of ASCAP and a past chapter president of Mu Phi Epsilon. He is also highly active as a teacher. He is the composition department head for the American Festival for the Arts and an adjunct instructor of music at Alvin Community College. He has also taught for Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. Current projects include an opera with librettist Michael Remson, a musical with lyricist Joe Barnes, a new solo saxophone work commissioned by Dr. Jeffrey E. Vickers, and a cycle of songs written for bass David Keck.
Alon holds a DMA from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, an MM from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a BA from the University of Chicago. His past teachers include Karim Al-Zand, Anthony Brandt, Shih-Hui Chen, Jean Milew, Marta Ptaszynska, and Orianna Webb. For more information, please visit www.aaronalon.com.
Kris Becker has appeared as concert pianist in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre; on the radio in New York (WQXR) and Houston (KUHF); in concerto collaborations with the SAR Philharmonic, members of the Houston Symphony, and the Shepherd School Symphony; and at the Gilmore, PianoTexas (Cliburn Institute), Kent/Blossom Music, Adamant, and MasterWorks festivals. His competition success includes wins at the Yamaha Young Performing Artist, Lee Biennial International, International Chopin of Texas, Artist Presentation Society, and Shepherd School of Music Concerto competitions. Becker also maintains a career in jazz, rock, and spiritual music. He serves as pianist for Second Baptist Church of Houston, the United States' largest Christian denominational congregation, and plays keyboards for the critically acclaimed rock band The Literary Greats.Becker's original music is receiving performances, both live and in the studio, by artists worldwide. Performances include Fort Worth, Chicago, Toronto, Vietri sul Mare, and New York. In 2009, Kris was a finalist in The ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Competition.
Pianist, composer, multi-genre keyboardist, and founder of Frozen Heat Records, Becker is a graduate with highest honors of the University of Illinois (B.Mus) and Rice University (M.Mus). For more information, please visit www.krisbeckermusic.com
Melissa Dunphy composes in a wide range of styles and mediums, particularly in the realm of theatre, having written incidental music for productions by Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival, Gamut Theatre and the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre. She conducted her large-scale choral work The Gonzales Cantata for the 2009 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and received rave national press and reviews from the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Harper's Magazine, and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, who featured the Cantata twice on The Rachel Maddow Show and called it "the coolest thing you will ever see on this show." Her song for baritone "Black Thunder" was premiered in 2008 at the Kimmel Center by Network for New Music and her electro-acoustic piece "Insects" was featured at the 2009 FEASt Festival in Florida.Dunphy received her Bachelor of Music (summa cum laude, Pi Kappa Lambda) from West Chester University, where she was a recipient of the Harry Wilkinson Music Theory Scholarship, the Charles S. and Margherita Gangemi Memorial Scholarship for excellence in music theory and composition, and the Janice Weir Etshied '50 Scholarship for academic excellence. She is currently undertaking doctoral studies in composition at the University of Pennsylvania on a Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, and she is the composer-in-residence of the Immaculata Symphony Orchestra. For more information, please visit www.melissadunphy.com.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Autograph Auction Nets $8450
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.
Friday, March 27, 2009
CyberSing 2008 Winners Announced
WINNERS ANNOUNCED
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
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
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.
