LIED: THE ART OF SONG | CONCERT BAGWELL & FRIENDS | FOCUS ON SCHOENBERG WEDNESDAY FEB 08, 07:30 PM |
This concert is part of a new series created by the Austrian Cultural Forum in collaboration with pianist Thomas Bagwell, featuring a wide selection of Lieder by two Austrian masters, Arnold Schoenberg and Alexander von Zemlinsky. 
This second concert in the series will feature performances by soprano Rebekah Camm and tenor Alex Richardson. Thomas Bagwell will accompany the two young singers in this recital that will include Lieder from Schoenberg’s Op. 6 (1903), his Brettllieder (1901), and selections from Zemlinsky’s Op. 5-10 (1996 - 1913).
The lives and works of these two composers were unusually intertwined: Though Zemlinsky experienced with atonality, it was Schoenberg who broke with the tonal tradition, eventually composing with 12-tone technique. The influences, changes, and divergences will be explored in this concert series which will provide song lovers a rare opportunity to hear these composers' amazingly mature and expressive early Lieder, scores that have only become available in the past 20 years.
Their late songs show how widely the two composers diverged. By the end of the three concerts, listeners will have heard how Schoenberg and Zemlinksy are truly among the great 19th century Lieder composers as well as a the first bold experimenters of the 20th century. Thomas Bagwell, an audience favorite at the Austrian Cultural Forum, has chosen six outstanding young singers whom he will accompany in a musical journey from lyrical romanticism to iconoclastic modernity.
This concert is also part of the ACFNY’s ongoing series Lied: The Art of Song.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Rebekah Camm (soprano), who won the first prize at the 2010 Lotte Lenya Competition, continuously demonstrates her artistic and musical excellence on the operatic, concert and rectial stages. With a voice described as "ample, lustrous" and "unfailingly gorgeous," she has unequivocally established that she is a "significant new voice in opera" (The Washington Post). Camm had her operatic debut as Micaëla (Carmen) with the Houston Grand Opera in 2005. Since then she has performed with the Fort Worth Symphony, Wolf Trap Opera Company, the Los Angeles Opera, and the National Symphony Orchestra. >> rebekahcamm.com
Experienced and well skilled, with a vibrant presence of sound best describes tenor Alex Richardson's vocal artistry. As a former Fellow at the Tanglewood Institute, he sang the role of Vogelgesang in Act III of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under the baton of Maestro James Levine. He has sung Alfred in Die Fledermaus with Opera Southwest and Will Tweedy in Carlisle Floyd's Cold Sassy Tree with the Amarillo Opera. Included among his roles performed are Fenton in Falstaff, Camille in The Merry Widow, Rodolfo in La Bohème and the title role in Albert Herring. As a roster member of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, Alex Richardson has sung in the recital series On Wings of Song and under their auspices has completed residencies and recitals in towns throughout America. He has appeared in several concert venues throughout the New York area including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Trinity Church, as well as at the Austrian Cultural Forum. >> alexrichardsontenor.com
Pianist Thomas Bagwell has had a long association with the Austrian Cultural Forum both in New York and Washington, DC performing more than 25 lieder recitals with up and coming singers from the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, and others. He teaches in New York and elsewhere. His association with the Mannes College of Music began in 1998 as a vocal coach, then adding classes for singers and now as private teacher in the master's degree program for Collaborative Piano.
For more information, please visit: http://www.newschool.edu/mannes/facultycollege.aspx?mid=9274
The Austrian Cultural Forum will dedicate a series of programs to Schoenberg throughout 2012, as it marks the 100-year anniversary of his composition Pierrot Lunaire (1912). The lack of harmonic consistency in this compositional milestone is a direct result of his concept of the “emancipation of dissonance”.
In the fall of 2012, the Schönberg focus will culminate in an exhibition with the working title Schoenberg - Our Contemporary, which will feature 20 Austrian and international contemporary artists. The group show is being curated by the young Viennese creator of the internationally acclaimed sound:frame festival, Eva Fischer, and will have a decidedly audio-visual angle.
VENUE
ACFNY
