Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Schubert Club – Susan Graham, mezzo & Malcolm Martineau, piano
Ordway Center, Saint Paul
Performance 8pm
Post concert discussion and social immediately following recital – Ordway Center US Bank Room – discussion led by David Evan Thomas
Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau will be performing a predominantly German program celebrating composers including Purcell, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Duparc, Wolf, Horowitz, Poulenc, Sondheim and Noël Coward. view the program here: http://schubert.org/ias/11-12/graham.php
Susan Graham view her website
Susan Graham, one of the world’s foremost stars of opera and recital, is a compelling and versatile singing actress. Celebrated as an expert in French music, Graham has been honored by the French government with the title “Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur.”
In the coming season, the “peerless American mezzo” (New York Observer) will take on a number of favorite roles. At Teatro Real Madrid and at her home company, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Graham stars opposite Plácido Domingo in the title role of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, on which she has already “put her own stamp” (Chicago Tribune). At Houston Grand Opera, she reprises her “breath stopping” (Independent, UK) portrayal of the Composer in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, and with the Philadelphia Orchestra, she sings Marguerite in Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust, a role in which she’s previously been hailed as “terrific” by the New York Times. The Grammy Award-winner also opens the new season with Chausson, revisiting his Poème de l’amour et de la mer with the Orchestre de Paris.
Last season, she sang Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony and recorded the song cycle for the Symphony’s own record label. After an October return to the Metropolitan Opera for a signature role – Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier – Graham portrayed Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan on the West Coast. Lyric Opera of Chicago welcomed her back for her first company performances in Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust, which she performed during the 2008-09 season at the Met and in The Met: Live in HD. In April with Houston Grand Opera, she took on the title role in Handel’s Xerxes (Serse), singing the famous aria “Ombra mai fù.” Graham closed out the 2009-10 season performing Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer with the New York Philharmonic under Sir Andrew Davis.
Graham is a leader in the international Christoph Gluck opera revival. She has sung the title role of Iphigénie en Tauride in a new production staged for her by the Metropolitan Opera, and at Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The Chicago Tribune wrote, “Graham put her own stamp on the part, bringing both nobility and vibrant vocal beauty to her affecting performance.”
At home and abroad, Susan Graham has sung leading roles from the 17th to 20th centuries in the great opera houses of the world, including Milan’s La Scala, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Opéra national de Paris, Dresden’s Semperoper, and the Salzburg Festival, and she has appeared with many of the world’s leading conductors and orchestras. Dubbed “America’s favorite mezzo” by Gramophone magazine, Graham captivates audiences with her expressive voice, tall and graceful stature, and engaging acting ability in both comedy and tragedy.
Three years ago, her season finale was Handel’s Ariodante with San Francisco Opera. In the words of the San Francisco Chronicle, “Susan Graham added one more entry to her long list of triumphs with the company, turning in a performance marked by nobility and technical bravura.”
Graham created the part of Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking for San Francisco Opera, and created leading roles in two Metropolitan Opera world premieres: An American Tragedy by Tobias Picker and The Great Gatsby by John Harbison.
Two seasons ago, Graham expanded her distinguished discography with two recordings: Un frisson français with pianist Malcolm Martineau, a survey of a century of French song; and her famous interpretation of Berlioz’s La mort de Cléopatre, recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle and released by EMI Classics. Earlier solo CDs include Poèmes de l’amour, with Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer. Her disc of Charles Ives songs with Pierre-Laurent Aimard won a Grammy, and she received both a Grammy nomination and France’s Maria Callas award for her Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. A New York Times review stated, “Ms. Graham … paints Dido as passionate from the start. ‘When I am laid in earth’ is as wrenching an account as you’ll find on disc.”
Her complete opera recordings range from Handel’s Alcina and Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride to Barber’s Vanessa and Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. Graham’s Dido in Les Troyens, recorded live for DVD at the Paris Châtelet, was praised by Gramophone as “moving and intense … strongly acted and magnificently sung.”
Born in New Mexico and raised in Texas, Susan Graham studied at Texas Tech University and the Manhattan School of Music, which awarded her an honorary Doctor of Music in 2008. She won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Schwabacher Award from San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program, as well as a Career Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. Graham was Musical America’s 2004 Vocalist of the Year, and in 2006 her hometown of Midland, Texas declared September 5 “Susan Graham Day” in perpetuity.
Malcolm Martineau view his website
Malcolm Martineau was born in Edinburgh, read Music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and studied at the Royal College of Music.
Recognized as one of the leading accompanists of his generation, he has worked with many of the world’s greatest singers, including Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Janet Baker, Olaf Bär, Barbara Bonney, Ian Bostridge, Angela Gheorghiu, Susan Graham, Thomas Hampson, Della Jones, Simon Keenlyside, Angelika Kirchschlager, Magdalena Kozena, Solveig Kringelborn, Jonathan Lemalu, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman, Karita Mattila, Lisa Milne, Ann Murray, Anna Netrebko, Anne Sofie von Otter, Joan Rodgers, Amanda Roocroft, Michael Schade, Frederica von Stade, Bryn Terfel and Sarah Walker.
He has presented his own series at St Johns Smith Square (the complete songs of Debussy and Poulenc), the Wigmore Hall (a Britten series broadcast by the BBC) and at the Edinburgh Festival (the complete lieder of Hugo Wolf). He has appeared throughout Europe (including London’s Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Royal Opera House; La Scala, Milan; the Chatelet, Paris; the Liceu, Barcelona; Berlin’s Philharmonie and Konzerthaus; Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein), North America (including in New York both Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall), Australia (including the Sydney Opera House) and at the Aix-en-Provence, Vienna, Edinburgh, Schubertiade, Munich and Salzburg Festivals.
Current and forthcoming engagements include European recital tours with Michael Schade and Susan Graham, an American recital tour with Bryn Terfel, and his own French song series at the Wigmore Hall.
Recording projects have included Schubert, Schumann and English song recitals with Bryn Terfel (for Deutsche Grammophon); Schubert and Strauss recitals with Simon Keenlyside (for EMI); recital recordings with Angela Gheorghiu and Barbara Bonney (for Decca), Magdalena Kozena (for DG), Della Jones (for Chandos), Susan Bullock (for Crear Classics), Solveig Kringelborn (for NMA); the complete Fauré songs with Sarah Walker and Tom Krause, the complete Britten Folk Songs for Hyperion, and the complete Beethoven Folk Songs for Deutsche Grammophon.
He was given an honorary doctorate at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2004.
The Schubert Club
The Schubert Club was launched on an autumn afternoon late in the year 1882. Marion Ramsey Furness, daughter of Governor Alexander Ramsey, along with some music-loving friends, formed a club they called “The Ladies Musicale,” thus creating Minnesota’s earliest recital-presenting organization. While the first meetings were social gatherings for women who busied themselves with fancy work—with Club members often providing musical counterpoint—concerts, lectures and study groups were soon organized. Before long the name was changed to honor Franz Schubert (who had lived some fifty years before) and the goal to establish a high standard of musical excellence in Saint Paul became their mission. In those early years solo recitals were the immediate major interest for this musical organization. In 1893, the International Artist Series was added to its programs, and the women began presenting some of the finest artists of the day, beginning with the renowned German pianist Adele Aus der Ohe who played at Ford Music Hall (Fifth and St. Peter Streets) that same year. Before the turn of the century such celebrated artists as Josef Hofmann and Xaver Scharwenka had played recitals in Saint Paul on this Series.
Throughout its history, efforts were made to present a very accomplished but lesser known emerging artist among the recitals of the established stars. This policy of what respected Saint Paul music critic John Harvey called “venturesome conservatism” led to the debuts in Saint Paul of Louise Homer in 1902, Vladimir Horowitz in 1928, Isaac Stern in 1943, Leontyne Price in 1961, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in 1955, Mstislav Rostropovich in 1963, and Cecilia Bartoli in 1996.
Nearly 130 years later, The Schubert Club has secured a prominent place in the history of musical organizations. It is one of the oldest arts organizations in the country, predated by among a very few, the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Schubert Club has brought virtually all of the world’s great recitalists to the Saint Paul stage—Jascha Heifetz, Myra Hess, Artur Rubinstein, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and Bryn Terfel, to name only a few. Vladimir Horowitz, Robert Casadesus, Isaac Stern, Yo-Yo Ma and Beverly Sills have each appeared under its sponsorship four times or more. Highlights from the twenty-first century include such stellar artists as Renée Fleming, Joshua Bell, Alfred Brendel, Lang Lang, and Anne-Sophie Mutter.
David Evan Thomas
The music of David Evan Thomas has been praised for its eloquence, power and craft. Critics note Thomas’s loving ties to tradition, made evident in clear forms, smart instrumental writing and skillful orchestration. Audiences respond to the music’s warmth, lyricism and sense of play.
The recipient of a Citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a McKnight Foundation fellowship and the Möller-A.G.O. Award in Choral Composition, Thomas has received commissions from the Minnesota Orchestra, The Schubert Club, the American Composers Forum and the American Guild of Organists. He has twice been a resident artist at Wyoming’s Ucross Foundation, and his choral work has received High Honors from Waging Peace Through Singing.
David Evan Thomas’s varied catalogue includes music for orchestra and wind ensemble, forty chamber works, keyboard pieces large and small, and an opera. Vocal music is particularly prominent, with eleven song cycles—on subjects ranging from medieval women troubadours to the comic lyrics of Wendy Cope and baseball writings of Donald Hall—and over forty choral works. Thomas’s music is published by ECS, Falls House, Fatrock Ink, Jeanné and Yelton-Rhodes, and recorded on CRI, Ten Thousand Lakes and Innova. His concert music for organ solo and duet is available through MorningStar, and four volumes of service music are published by Augsburg Fortress. Thomas is a B.M.I. affiliate.
Thomas’s orchestral music has been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, National Orchestral Association, Rochester Chamber Orchestra and Long Island Philharmonic, and conducted by Jorge Mester, Eiji Oue, Gian-Carlo Guerrero, David Wiley, Mallory Thompson and John P. Paynter. His choral works have been sung by London’s Westminster Cathedral Choir, the Minnesota Chorale, the National Lutheran Choir and the Rose Ensemble. Thomas chamber works have been played by the trio of Gil Shaham, Truls Mørk and Yefim Bronfman, the Minneapolis and Rosalyra String Quartets, the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, the California E.A.R. Unit, Zeitgeist and many beloved solo performers: singers Karen Clift, Maria Jette and Vern Sutton; pianists Lydia Artymiw, John Churchwell, Margo Garrett, Timothy Lovelace and Shannon Wettstein; organists James Biery and Marilyn Biery, and instrumentalists David Baldwin, Burt Hara and Jeffrey Van. Among recent projects: a cello sonata for Truls Mørk, commissioned for Music in the Park Series by Thelma Hunter, and Affections, commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for the Blue Baroque Band.
Born in Rochester, New York in 1958, David Evan Thomas grew up as the fourth of five children in a musical family. He attended Penfield High School and the Eastman “Prep” Department, graduating with Honors in Trumpet. During this time he received encouragement as a composer from David Russell Williams. As an undergraduate at Northwestern University, he studied trumpet, composition and conducting and sang in the Alice Millar Chapel Choir under Grigg Fountain’s direction. As a master’s degree student at Eastman he was awarded the Director’s Fellowship; he then taught in the 1980s at Montana State University-Billings. Thomas served as Dominick Argento’s assistant at the University of Minnesota, where he also taught composition and orchestration, receiving the Ph.D. in 1996. Thomas’s teachers have included composers Dominick Argento, Samuel Adler, Robert Morris and Alan Stout, and trumpeter Vincent Cichowicz. He studied further at the Aspen Festival and with David Diamond at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.
As the composer-in-residence for the Schubert Club from 1997-2005, Thomas became a familiar face in the Twin Cities arts community. During that time, he also served residencies at Westminster Presbyterian Church (Minneapolis) and the Cathedral of Saint Paul through the American Composers Forum Faith Partners Program, and at Saint Paul Academy. Thomas is the program annotator for The Schubert Club, writing about music of the recital tradition. He has written program notes for the Minnesota Orchestra, VocalEssence and Brevard Festival, and has presented pre-concert “Fanfares” for Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra concerts. Thomas lives in Minneapolis, where he also plays the piano, sings in the Plymouth Congregational Church Choir, conducts occasionally, and turns pages for great pianists.
