[Dr.
Darryl Taylor]
Patrick
D. McCoy writes:
“Dr. Darryl Taylor, Countertenor and Founder of The African American Art
Song Alliance was recently interviewed about the 2012 Conference at
the University of California at Irvine, February 9-12.”
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
Morgan State: 'former Morgan State University Choir member Dyishia Chaney succumbed to her ongoing illness of Lupus.'
[Dyishia Niema Chaney]
“Hello everyone,
It
is with a heavy heart that I must share some very sad news with you.
This afternoon, shortly before my 2:00 choir rehearsal, I was told
that a former Morgan State University Choir member Dyishia Chaney
succumbed to her ongoing illness of Lupus. Dyishia was a transfer
student from Baltimore City Community College, matriculating to
Morgan in 2010, majoring in Music. She last sang in the choir during
2010 Christmas concert. Her illness did allow for her return during
the following semesters. This evening, February 3, 2012, a viewing
was held at Howell Funeral Home, 4600 Liberty Heights Ave. 21207 from
3:00-7:00 PM. I spent time with the family during the viewing
period and gave condolences from the University and choir. Please
see attached the program provided by the family for those in
attendance. Again, our prayers go out to the Chaney family.
Eric
Conway, D.M.A.
Fine
and Performing Arts Department, Chairperson
Morgan
State University
John Malveaux: 'Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music'
[José
Antonio Abreu]
John
Malveaux of www.MusicUNTOLD.com sends this news:
“I attended a
Los Angeles Library conversation with author Tricia Tunstall
(Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative
Power of Music), Leni Boorstin (community affairs director, L.A.
Philharmonic) moderated by Brian Lauritzen (producer/host of L.A.
Philharmonic radio broadcasts, KUSC 91.5 FM).
"The idea of music
and children to forge society transformation and disrupt the cycle of
poverty began without resources but with an unyielding vision. El
Sistema projects are now in over 55 cities with Los Angeles, New
York, San Antonio, and Baltimore as flagship programs. Please see founder
José Antonio Abreu:
http://www.ted.com/talks/jose_abreu_on_kids_transformed_by_music.html
Julio Racine, Haitian Composer Born Feb. 4, 1945, Has New Works, 'Agnus Dei' & 'Nap Travese'
[Julio
Racine]
The
Haitian composer, arranger and flutist Julio Racine (b. 1945) is profiled at
AfriClassical.com. This week we asked him for news to announce on
his birthday, which is Saturday. He told us of two new works, which
we have added to his page at the website:
“Hello
Bill,
Thanks
for thinking of me. Indeed I have a birthday coming up soon. Lately
I have been concentrating on a Mass I am writing, Messe Breve.
Attached is one movement Agnus Dei which you can post (Karine
Margron is the soprano voice).
“I
just finished a simple song Nap Travese (We are going
across). It's about Haiti's struggle.”
ChamberMusicianToday.com: “‘Thelma’, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s only full-length opera, performed at last”
Published on 02 Feb 2012
Jonathan Butcher writes:
Up until 1900 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (born in 1875) had had
little to do with composing for the theatre. His main body of work
was choral and orchestral and, of course, his most famous opus, and
the one that catapulted him to fame more or less overnight, was his
major oratorio, Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, to words by
Longfellow, a poem that Coleridge-Taylor had long admired. Sadly,
although this was performed all over the world and for two weeks
every summer for a good many years at the Royal Albert Hall (with its
companion pieces The Death of Minnehaha and Hiawatha’s
Departure), he made little or no money out of the work, because
he sold it outright to Novello & Co. Ltd. – something he was to
regret bitterly.
The great and revered
actor/manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree engaged SC-T to write incidental
music for one of his productions in 1900 – Herod, a play
by Stephen Phillips. This happy association was to continue until
SC-T’s untimely death in 1912 at the age of 37. His involvement
with the theatre, with all its colourful characters, magic and
intrigue, may well have been the very spark Coleridge-Taylor needed
to spur him on to write his only full length opera, as, between 1907
and 1909, he was actively engaged in composing what we now believe he
would have called, Thelma.”
A more extended version
of this article was first published in Opera magazine, January 2012. The opera Thelma will
be performed on 9, 10 & 11 February 2012 in the Ashcroft Theatre
of Fairfield Halls, Croydon, conducted by Jonathan Butcher.
[Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor(1875-1912) is featured at AfriClassical.com. Major observances of
the Centennial of his death are underway and are the work of
organizations including the Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor Foundation, http://www.sctf.org.uk,
which has just been entrusted with an extensive Bibliography
compiled
by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com and made available at the website
of the Foundation.]
NYTimes.com: 'Camilla Williams, Barrier-Breaking Opera Star, Dies at 92'
[Camilla
Williams,
a soprano, in 1946 the New York Opera's first Cio-Cio-San in "Madama
Butterfly," was the first black woman signed with a major
American opera company. (Copyright
New York Times 2012)]
The New York Times
By
Margalit Fox (Excerpt from article)
Published:
February 2, 2012
On May 15, 1946, an unknown singer named Camilla
Williams took the stage at City Center in Manhattan as Cio-Cio-San,
the doomed heroine of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.” Her
performance would be the capstone of a night of glorious firsts. Miss
Williams, a lyric soprano who began her career as a concert singer,
had never been in an opera. The New York CityOpera, the young
upstart company with which she was making her debut, had never before
staged “Madama Butterfly.”
By Margalit Fox (Excerpt from article)
But there was
another, far more important first, though its significance has been
largely forgotten over time: As Cio-Cio-San, Miss Williams, the
daughter of a chauffeur and a domestic in the Jim Crow South, was the
first black woman to secure a contract with a major United States
opera company — a distinction widely ascribed in the public memory
to the contralto Marian Anderson.
Miss Williams’s
performance that night, to rave reviews, came nearly a decade before
Miss Anderson first sang at the Metropolitan Opera. As Miss Williams,
who died on Sunday at 92, well knew, it was a beacon that lighted the
way to American opera houses for other black women, Miss Anderson
included.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
AmmonNews.net: U.S. Embassy hosts 'American Soprano Nicole Taylor and pianist Daniel Ernst in Jordan,' Feb. 4-6.
[Nicole
Taylor, Soprano]
2012-02-01
“AMMONNEWS – In celebration of
Black History Month, the U.S. Embassy in Amman is hosting American
Soprano Nicole Taylor and pianist Daniel Ernst in Jordan from
February 4-6. Taylor and Ernst performed in Amman in Feb.
2010.
“Taylor and Ernst will perform spiritual and folk
songs and present pieces by American composers such as Gershwin and
Copland. The duo will hold two free public performances in Jordan,
the first in Madaba at 7 p.m. on Sunday Feb. 5, at the Municipality
hall during which local poets will recite poems written by African
Americans. The second public concert will be in Amman at 7:30 p.m. on
Monday Feb. 6 at Al-Hussein Cultural Center in Ras El-Ein.
“Nicole
Taylor is a graduate of the masters program at the Juilliard School
in New York City. Ms. Taylor has performed a variety of roles in a
number of renowned operas and won several musical awards and came in
first place at national and international competitions.” Daniel
Ernst is a graduate of Fine Arts in Piano Performance from Carnegie
Mellon University. He studied piano under Enrique Graf and Earl Wild
and obtained a certificate in Piano Pedagogy under the tutelage of
Hanna Li. Ernst became a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State
in 2001.”
'The Life of Camilla Williams, African American Classical Singer and Opera Diva,' Mellen Press (2011)
[The
Life of Camilla Williams, African American Classical Singer and Opera
Diva;
Stephanie Shonekan and Camilla Williams; Mellen Press (2011)]
One
of our associates has pointed out that in 2011 Mellen Press published
The
Life of Camilla Williams, African American Classical Singer and Opera
Diva,
a
304-page biography by Stephanie Shonekan and Camilla
Williams:
Description
“This
book is the memoir of an African-American operatic soprano. It is
co-written by a Nigerian ethnomusicologist, and relates Williams’
early life, education and subsequent career as an artist and
educator. This book contains 3 color plates and seven black and white
photographs.”
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Sergio Mims: 'Eric Owens Completes the Ring Cycle in Götterdämmerung, Tours Nationally'
[Eric
Owens (Photo: Carnegie Hall Interview)]
Sergio
Mims
sends this update on the operatic career of the bass-baritone Eric Owens:
2012
Tour Schedule, in addition to Metropolitan Opera performances:
February
15 - Recital presented by Friends of Chamber Music Denver; Newman
Center; Denver, CO
February
21 - Recital; Carnegie Hall; New York, NY
February
23-25 - Beethoven's Missa solemnis; Boston Symphony Orchestra;
Symphony Hall; Boston, MA
February
28 - Recital presented by Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; Kimmel
Center; Philadelphia, PA
March
6 - Beethoven's Missa solemnis, Op. 123; Boston Symphony
Orchestra; Carnegie Hall; New York, NY
May
19, 26 - Salome (Jochanaan) with The Cleveland Orchestra;
Severance Hall; Cleveland, OH
May
24- Salome (Jochanaan) with The Cleveland Orchestra; Carnegie
Hall; New York, NY
May
30, 31 - Verdi Requiem presented by National Arts Centre Orchestra;
NAC Southam Hall; Ottawa, Canada
June
7, 9 - John Adams's A
Flowering Tree
(The Storyteller); Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Atlanta Symphony Hall;
Atlanta, GA
July/August
- Artist-in-Residence at Glimmerglass Festival 2012
New
York, NY – Eric
Owens's work as Alberich in the Metropolitan Opera production of Das
Rheingold last
season was met with universal acclaim: The
Philadelphia Inquirer lauded,
"Owens alone is worth the ticket"; the New
York Times noted
his voice was filled with "stentorian vigor"; Manuela
Hoelterhoff of Bloomberg
cheered,
"Eric Owens, now one of the greatest bass-baritones in the
world, was sublime as crazy Alberich"; and Alex Ross of The
New Yorker proclaimed,
"Owens's portrayal is so richly layered that it may become part
of the history of the work." It was not without excitement,
then, that audiences anticipated Owens's appearance in the next
chapter of The Met's first full cycle. The bass-baritone also
continues a busy recital tour of his own this season, and appears in
concert with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston and Atlanta
symphony orchestras.
The
Metropolitan Opera's production of Götterdämmerung
opened
on January 27, 2012, and will be performed on February 3, 7, and 11.
Fans worldwide can witness the conclusion of the Ring Cycle via The
Met: Live HD
broadcast series. The performance will screened in movie theaters
around the globe--1600 movie theaters in 54 countries--on February
11, 2012, 12 pm ET. The
first complete cycles will
take place in spring 2012. Owens will sing the role of Alberich in
two complete cycles: Das
Rheingold on
April 7 and 26; Siegfried
on
April 21 and 30; and Götterdämmerung
on
April 24 and May 3.
Owens
has begun his first-ever recital tour with pianists Robert Spano and
Craig Rutenberg. With engagements in Washington, D.C., Berkeley,
Portland and Philadelphia, Owens will notably perform February 21 at
Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. Owens sings Beethoven’s Missa
solemnis with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston and at
Carnegie Hall: one of three appearances at the New York cultural
institution in 2011-2012. Appearing as Jochanaan in Strauss’ Salome
with the Cleveland Orchestra, Owens assumes the role in both
Cleveland and at Carnegie Hall in May. Summer 2012 begins with Owens
reprising the role of The Storyteller in A Flowering Tree by
John Adams with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Owens will continue
his summer at Glimmerglass Festival 2012 as the Artist-in-Residence.
There, he will appear in Aida and Lost in the Stars, and
will perform a cabaret evening.
Eric
Owens's recital program is as follows:
WOLF
Drei Lieder nach Gedichten von Michelangelo
SCHUMANN
"Mein Herz ist schwer," Op. 25, No. 15
SCHUMANN
"Muttertraum," Op. 40, No. 2
SCHUMANN
"Der Schatzgräber," Op. 45, No. 1
SCHUMANN
"Melancholie," Op. 74, No. 6
SCHUBERT
"Prometheus," D. 674
SCHUBERT
"Fahrt zum Hades," D.526
SCHUBERT
"Gruppe aus dem Tartarus," D.583
DEBUSSY
"Beau soir"
DEBUSSY
"Fleur des blés"
DEBUSSY
Romance
RAVEL
Don Quichotte à Dulcinée
WAGNER
"Les deux grenadiers"
Acclaimed for his commanding stage presence and inventive artistry, Eric Owens has carved a unique place in the opera world as both a champion of new music and a powerful interpreter of classic works. Called "consistently charismatic, theatrically and vocally" by New York Magazine and "absolutely remarkable" by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Owens is equally at home in concert, recital and opera performances, bringing his powerful poise, expansive voice and instinctive acting faculties to stages around the globe. Owens received great critical acclaim for portraying the title role in the world premiere of Elliot Goldenthal’s Grendel with the Los Angeles Opera, and again at the Lincoln Center Festival, in a production directed and designed by Julie Taymor. Owens also enjoys a close association with John Adams, and was featured on the September 2008 Nonesuch Records release of Adams's A Flowering Tree. He also originated the role of Leslie Groves in Adams's Doctor Atomic.
Michael S. Wright on Camilla Williams: “In 1949, it was rumoured that she would be taking a role in...William Grant Still’s ‘Troubled Island’”
[Camilla
Williams]
Earlier
today, AfriClassical posted: “Patrick D. McCoy: Virginia State University 'Alumna Soprano Camilla Williams dead at 92.'” Michael
S. Wright has also sent us some press links of the passing of Camilla
Williams. Deleting one link already posted earlier, we are left with two
press links:
Bill,
“You may be aware
that the opera singer Camilla Ella Williams died in Indiana aged 92
last Sunday.
“In 1949, it was
rumoured that she would be taking a role in the premiere of William
Grant Still’s ‘Troubled Island’.” “It never
happened…….why?”
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