Juilliard and New York Festival of Song Present "William Bolcom and John Corigliano: An 80th Birthday Tribute" on Thursday, January 11, 2018, at 7:30pm in Peter Jay Sharp Theater

NEW YORK –– Juilliard’s Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts and New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) present “William Bolcom and John Corigliano: An 80th Birthday Tribute” on Thursday, January 11, 2018, at 7:30pm in Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater. The program is a tribute to William Bolcom and composition faculty member John Corigliano, both Pulitzer Prize-winning composers. Pianist and arranger Steven Blier, a Vocal Arts faculty member and artistic director of NYFOS, performs with the singers from Juilliard’s Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts.

The evening features soprano Kathryn Henry; mezzo-sopranos Myka Murphy and Nicole Thomas; tenor Matthew Pearce; and baritones Dominik Belavy and Gregory Feldmann. Stage direction is by Mary Birnbaum. Associate pianist Chris Reynolds and guitarist Jack Gulielmetti join Mr. Blier and the singers. (The complete program follows at the end of this press release.)

Tickets are $20 ($10 for full-time students) and available at juilliard.edu/calendar.

“When it came time to choose a program for this year’s NYFOS at Juilliard concert, there seemed to be only one possibility,” writes Steven Blier in his program note. “Two of America’s greatest composers were turning 80 in 2018: John Corigliano and William Bolcom. A celebration was in order. I knew their music to be challenging, but I was sure I could find a cast brave enough to do justice to their beautiful songs.”

Meet the Artists

Baritone Dominik Belavy is a master’s student at Juilliard where he studies with Sanford Sylvan. At the school he has been featured as L’horloge Comtoise and L’arbre in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and Conte Perrucchetto in Haydn’s La fedeltà premiata. With Juilliard415, he has sung Bach’s B Minor Mass  led by Ton Koopman. Last season he made his professional and hometown debut as Jim Larkens in Michigan Opera Theatre’s production of La fanciulla del West conducted by Stephen Lord. As a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Mr. Belavy has sung Ravel’s Chansons madécasses, Schoenberg’s arrangement of Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, and premiered works by Alan Smith and Nathan Davis. He is a Toulmin Foundation Scholar at Juilliard.

Mary Birnbaum has staged operas in New York, across the U.S., and abroad from Latin America to Taiwan. She is a past nominee for best newcomer at the International Opera Awards sponsored by Opera magazine. Her New York City credits include productions of Die Zauberflöte, The Rape of Lucretia, and Eugene Onegin at Juilliard, The Classical Style at Carnegie Hall (World Premiere, Stucky/Denk), and several concerts with NYFOS. Selected credits include Kept (Virginia Arts Festival, world premiere, Kuster/Levad), Halka (Bard Music Festival), and Giulio Cesare (Boston Baroque). She has also collaborated with the New World Symphony, Ojai festival, and Santa Fe Opera. International work includes productions at the Symphony Orchestra in Taipei, Compañía Lírica in Costa Rica, and Melbourne Opera Studio. Ms. Birnbaum has collaborated with playwrights in the Soho Rep W/D Lab, at Ars Nova, and as a New Georges Affiliated Artist.

Steven Blier is the artistic director and co-founder of NYFOS. An eminent accompanist and vocal coach, his partners have included Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and Susan Graham. Many of his former students, including Paul Appleby, Sasha Cooke, and Julia Bullock, have gone on to be sought-after recitalists. A faculty member at Juilliard since 1992, he also mentors young singers at summer opera programs including Wolf Trap Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute. His discography includes the Grammy Award-winning recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles (Koch International); his latest is Canción amorosa (GPR) with soprano Corinne Winters. Mr. Blier received a 2014 Musical America Professionals of the Year award and Classical Singer’s first coach of the year award in 2006.

Baritone Gregory Feldmann is from York, Pa., and is a master’s student at Juilliard where he studies with Sanford Sylvan. He is a recent graduate of West Chester University, near Philadelphia, where he sang Roger Chillingworth in Lori Laitman’s Scarlet Letter, as well as Superintendent Budd in Britten’s Albert Herring. On the concert stage Mr. Feldmann has been a soloist in the Mozart Requiem with the West Chester Symphony Orchestra and sang Jesus with the West Chester Concert Choir in the Bach St. John Passion. In 2016 he sang Belcore in L’elisir d’amore with Oberlin in Italy under the leadership of Ari Pelto. He was also a young artist at SongFest and the Chautauqua Voice Institute. He holds the Helen Marshall Woodward Scholarship, the George Gangwere Scholarship, and the Philo Higley Scholarship.

Jack Gulielmetti is a composer and guitar player. His works have been performed by groups including the New York Philharmonic, JACK Quartet, Matt Boehler, Da Capo Chamber Players, Synchronicity, and Shouthouse. As a guitar player growing up in New York City, he has worked with many groups of different genres around the city, playing everything from jazz and classical to electronic, hip-hop, funk, and everything in between. He has studied guitar with artists including Julian Lage, Nels Cline, Mike Moreno, and Greg Howe. Mr. Gulielmetti is currently working on several interdisciplinary projects scheduled for this spring that incorporate live music, dance, and projection art. He is currently collaborating with poet Srikanth Reddy. He is in his fourth year in an accelerated five-year program at Juilliard studying composition with Robert Beaser and guitar with Mark Delpriora.

Soprano Kathryn Henry, a Wisconsin native, is pursuing her master’s degree at Juilliard as a student of Marlena Malas. Her opera credits include Arminda (La finta giardiniera), Governess (The Turn of the Screw), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Suor Angelica (Suor Angelica), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), and L’écureuil (L’enfant et les sortilèges). She has appeared as a guest soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. In recital she has performed with pianists Brian Zeger, Craig Rutenberg, and Mikael Eliasen. In 2015 she was selected as a National Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is a Toulmin Foundation Scholar at Juilliard.

Mezzo-soprano Myka Murphy is from Roswell, Ga., and after graduating with her undergraduate degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, is now pursuing her master’s at Juilliard where she studies with Cynthia Hoffmann. Most recently she sang Maman in a concert version of L'enfant et les sortilèges for her debut with the Juilliard Orchestra. She has also sung the Countess in The Queen of Spades with the Russian Opera Workshop and Giovanna in Rigoletto with Mississippi Opera. She holds the Alice Tully Scholarship.

Matthew Pearce

Tenor Matthew Pearce is from Union, Ky., and is a first-year master’s student at Juilliard where he studies with Marlena Malas. In the summers of 2016 and 2017 he attended the Aspen Summer Music Festival and School where he sang Gastone in La Traviata and Le petit vieillard in L’enfant et les sortilèges. Prior to his studies here, Mr. Pearce attended the University of Kentucky, where he was a student of Everett McCorvey. While at the University of Kentucky, he appeared in productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors (Kaspar), Tales of Hoffmann (Nathanaël), and Ragtime (J.P. Morgan), among others. Mr. Pearce also performed regularly as a featured soloist with the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. He holds a Juilliard Scholarship.

American pianist Chris Reynolds has made a name for himself as both a soloist and a collaborator. He is currently pursuing his graduate degree at Juilliard as a student of Margo Garrett, Brian Zeger, JJ Penna, and Jonathan Feldman. Recent performances include those in Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, and Bayreuth. He has worked with and received guidance from Emanuel Ax, Isabel Leonard, Dawn Upshaw, Brigitte Fassbaender, Martin Katz, Graham Johnson, and Jake Heggie, among others. In 2015 he was a Schwab Vocal Rising Star at Caramoor, as well as a fellow at both SongFest and in Aspen. He is on staff at the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie and received his BM degree from Juilliard 2016 where he studied with Julian Martin. He holds the Lynn J. Noble Scholarship for Study of Classical Music, the Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship, and the Charles E. Weekes Scholarship.

Mezzo-soprano Nicole Thomas is from Las Vegas and was most recently a 2017 studio artist at Wolf Trap Opera, where she performed excerpts from Ariadne auf Naxos (Der Komponist), Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira), and Così fan tutte (Dorabella). At Juilliard she has participated in master classes with Joyce DiDonato and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Additionally, she has sung Fekluša in Janáček’s Katya Kabanova and was heard in several scenes programs as Idamante in Idomeneo and Dorabella. Other recent operatic roles include Musetta in La Bohème, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos. During the summer of 2015 she participated in Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy. Ms. Thomas is currently working toward her master’s degree at Juilliard as a student of Edith Bers. She holds the Constance Gleason Furcolo Scholarship, the Henrietta Quade Scholarship, and the Viola Peters Scholarship.

About the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at Juilliard

One of America’s most prestigious programs for educating singers, Juilliard’s Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts offers young artists programs tailored to their talents and needs. From bachelor and master of music degrees to an advanced Artist Diploma in Opera Studies, Juilliard provides frequent performance opportunities featuring singers in its own recital halls, on Lincoln Center’s stages, and around New York City. Juilliard Opera has presented numerous premieres of new operas as well as works from the standard repertoire.

Juilliard graduates may be heard in opera houses and concert halls throughout the world; diverse alumni artists include well-known performers such as Leontyne Price, Renée Fleming, Risë Stevens, Tatiana Troyanos, Simon Estes, and Shirley Verrett. Recent alumni include Isabel Leonard, Susanna Phillips, Paul Appleby, Erin Morley, Sasha Cooke, and Julia Bullock.

About New York Festival of Song

Now celebrating its 30th season, New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) is dedicated to creating intimate song concerts of great beauty and originality. Weaving music, poetry, history, and humor into evenings of compelling theater, NYFOS fosters community among artists and audiences. Founded by pianists Michael Barrett and Steven Blier in 1988, NYFOS continues to produce NYFOS Mainstage, its flagship series of thematic song programs, drawing together rarely-heard songs of all kinds, overriding traditional distinctions between classical and popular performance genres, and exploring the character and language of other cultures. Since its founding NYFOS has particularly celebrated the wide spectrum of American music. In 2010, NYFOS launched NYFOS Next, a concert series for new songs, hosted by guest composers in intimate venues. With an emphasis on spontaneity, novelty, and collaboration, NYFOS Next offers today’s song composers a forum to create a program of their work alongside that of their peers, students, and mentors. NYFOS is also passionate about nurturing the artistry and careers of young artists and through its NYFOS Emerging Artists program has developed professional training residencies around the country. These intensive programs train young artists in programming and translation, presentation and production, and research and musical style. NYFOS’s concert series, touring programs, radio broadcasts, recordings, and educational activities continue to spark new interest in the creative possibilities of the song program, and have inspired the creation of thematic vocal series around the world.

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COMPLETE PROGRAM LISTING:

Juilliard and New York Festival of Song Present

“William Bolcom and John Corigliano: An 80th Birthday Tribute”

Thursday, January 11, 2018, at 7:30pm

Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Juilliard

 

Kathryn Henry, Soprano

Myka Murphy and Nicole Thomas, Mezzo-Sopranos

Matthew Pearce, Tenor

Dominik Belavy and Gregory Feldmann, Baritones

Steven Blier, Pianist, Arranger, and Artistic Director of NYFOS

Mary Birnbaum, Stage Director

Chris Reynolds, Associate Pianist

Jack Gulielmetti, Guitarist

 

JOHN CORIGLIANO (b. 1938)

From The Ghosts of Versailles (1991)

As Summer Brings a Wistful Breeze

Kathryn Henry, Nicole Thomas

 

Rhymes for the Irreverent (2001, world premiere)

The Odds-on favorite

Irreverent Heart

Critical

One Sweet Morning

Gregory Feldmann

 

From Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (2000)

Chimes of Freedom

Postlude: Forever Young

Kathryn Henry

 

Metamusic

Dodecaphonia (1997)

Marvelous Invention (2001)

End of the Line (2009)

Dominik Belavy, Nicole Thomas, Myka Murphy

 

no comet ever scratched the sky (2017, world premiere)

Gregory Feldmann

 

Liebeslied (1996)

The Company

 

-Intermission-

 

WILLIAM BOLCOM (b. 1938)

 

From Cabaret Songs

He Tipped the Waiter (1978)

Can’t Sleep (1997)

At the Last Lousy Moments of Love (1997)

Dominik Belavy, Gregory Feldmann, Myka Murphy

 

From Casino Paradise (1990)

A Great Man’s Child

It Will Be Our Little Secret

Night, Make My Day

Matthew Pearce, Gregory Feldmann, Nicole Thomas

The Company

 

Otherwise from Briefly It Enters (1996)

 

How to Swing Those Obligatos Around

From I Will Breathe a Mountain (1991)

 

From Canciones de Lorca (2006)

Soneta de la dulce queja

El poeta llega a la Habana

Kathryn Henry, Myka Murphy, Matthew Pearce

 

His Manner Is Gentle from Lucrezia (2008)

Matthew Pearce, Nicole Thomas

 

The Right Thing from Open House (1975)

The Company