Pianist & Vocal Coach
This week is the premiere of the HBO miniseries The Time Traveler’s Wife, starring Rose Leslie, Theo James, Kate Siegel, and Josh Stamberg. In it, Kate Siegel plays an opera singer, and in a concert scene, I appear as her pianist (I know, quite a stretch). The music you hear is not played be me – it’s just my image – but shooting was a lot of fun. It was a long shooting day, and Kate Siegel was a real trooper. Not something one gets to do every day!
It’s been a long and strange pandemic, and I’m very pleased to be able to announce a return to public performing.
The concert will take place on Friday evening, March 18, at 7:30 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 70 Union St. N., Concord, NC 28026. I will perform chamber music with violinist David Russell and cellist Mihai Tetel, as well as a solo piece from Albéniz’s Iberia suite. Works by Turina, Granados, Vitali, Russell, and Fairouz, with additional performers Johnathan White, tenor, Jacqueline Yost, organ, and the Cuarteto Al-Andalus.
For those not familiar with North Carolina geography, Concord is just to the northeast of Charlotte.
I will be participating in a concert performance of Béla Bartók’s only opera, Bluebeard’s Castle (A kékszakállú herceg vára) on Wednesday evening, December 11, at 8:30 p.m. at the National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY, with Renée Rapier, mezzo-soprano, and Andrew Potter, bass. I am by no means suggesting a performance with piano instead of orchestra is the ideal way to hear this magnificent work, but it is, to my mind, not performed nearly as often as it should be, and with these excellent singers, it promises to be a worthwhile evening. The opera will be sung in Hungarian.
The Lorin Maazel Castleton Institute will be holding its fall master class sessions beginning October 7 in New York City, and I am pleased to once again be serving as the faculty coach and pianist. The first session, running from October 7 – 13, will be German Repertory Immersion – the Operas of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. The second session, running from October 16 -22, will be Performing Italian Opera: Tradition and Practice. Both sessions will be led by the peerless Elizabeth Blancke-Biggs, Mo. Michael Recchiuti, and Dietlinde Turban Maazel.
In addition, Jeremy Gerard, Chief Engineer of Gurari Studios, an engineer with over twenty-five years of professional experience, will give a class on the critical skills of how to optimize a singer’s experience in the recording studio, and will engineer “before and after” videos of the class performances.
For my admittedly old-fashioned sensibilities, these classes constitute the best source of the widest range of information a young singer can receive in New York these days. I am honored to be a part of it. And when I use the word “peerless” to describe my colleagues, I mean it in its most literal sense: they are truly without peer of any kind, and the very best in their respective fields.
The final concerts at the end of each session will take place in Scorca Hall at the National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY. The first will be on October 13, at 7:00 p.m., and the second will be on October 22 at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free, and open to the public.
On Thursday evening, September 5, at 9:15 p.m., I will be performing a concert with violinist David Russell in Alcalá la Real (Andalucía), Spain. It will take place in the Salón de Actos of the Palacio Abacial, and is presented by the Ayuntamiento of Alcalá la Real in conjunction with Master Class Al-Andalus.
The program will include the Sonata No. 3 for violin and piano, Op. 25 (“dans la caractère populaire roumain”) by George Enescu, as well as works by Schubert, Sarasate, de Falla, and Frolov. Also assisting will be pianist Kyle Linscheid.
Tomorrow evening at 7:30 p.m., I will be performing some marvelous violin repertoire with participants of Germany’s Karwendel Music Festival in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. The talent level is high, and it promises to be an extremely enjoyable evening.