Sunday, August 20, 2017

LIEDER ALIVE! Announces its 2017–18 Liederabend Series

The Liederabend (evening of songs) Series of vocal recitals was inaugurated in 2011 by Maxine Bernstein, Founder and Director of LIEDER ALIVE! Once again, the new season will present five such recitals. Programming will include particular focus on Gustav Mahler, including a “Mahlerfest” for the Grand Opening concert. In addition the season will conclude with a new work involving a co-commission with Deutsche Oper Berlin. All performances will take place at 5 p.m. on a Sunday evening. The specifics are as follows:

September 10: As was the case at last season’s Grand Opening, the featured vocalist will be mezzo Kindra Scharich. The Mahlerfest will be devoted to Mahler’s three major song cycles, the Lieder eines Fahrenden gesellen (songs of a wayfarer) and the two collections of settings of poems by Friedrich Rückert, the Rückert-Lieder and the Kindertotenlieder (songs on the death of children). Scharich will be accompanied by the Alexander String Quartet (ASQ), which will perform transcriptions of Mahler’s music for voice and string quartet prepared by ASQ first violinist Zakarias Grafilo.

[updated 9/13, 11:15 a.m.:

October 15: Bass Kirk Eichelberger will be accompanied by pianist Marek Ruszczynski in a program of songs by Mahler and Hugo Wolf. The first half of the program will include the complete Wolf Michelangelo Lieder, as well as selections from both the Mörike Lieder and the Goethe Lieder. Mahler's settings of texts from Des Knaben Wunderhorn will be performed during the second half.

January 14: Scharich will return, joined by soprano Heidi Moss Erickson and pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg. This will be the second “festive” concert in the Neue und Alte Liederfest biannual series. The “new” side of the series will feature world premieres of commissioned works by Kurt Erickson, Mark Carlson, and Luna Pearl Woolf.] The “old” will be represented with masterworks from the final years of the Romantic period.

March 25: The featured vocalist will be baritone Eugene Villanueva, the first American singer to win the Tosti song prize offered by Instituto Nazionale Tostiano in Ortona, Italy. His accompanist at the piano will be Peter Grünberg. As may be anticipated, the program will feature Tosti’s light and expressive songs, which will be complemented by the poems of Paul Heyse that Wolf set for his Italienisches Liederbuch (Italian songbook). The concert will begin with a collection of art songs by Johannes Brahms.

July 1: The season will conclude with the performance of that new work co-commissioned with Deutsche Oper Berlin. The piece is a setting of poetry by Nora Bossong written by German composer Anno Schreier. This piece will be sung by Scharich, and she will be accompanied at the piano by John Parr, currently Head of Music Staff at Deutsche Opera Berlin.

All performances will be held at the Noe Valley Ministry at 1021 Sanchez Street, between 23rd Street and Elizabeth Street. Subscriptions for the full five-concert series will be $250 for reserved seating at all concerts and $160 for general admission. These may be purchased online from an Eventbrite event page. Single tickets for the Mahlerfest will be $100, which includes reserved seating, and $45 for general admission. However, these prices are only for advance purchase. Tickets at the door will be $50 with a $25 rate for students, seniors, and working artists. Single tickets for the remaining four concerts will be $40 at the door with a $20 discount. If purchased in advance, the prices will be $75 for reserved seating and $35 for general admission. There is also an Eventbrite Web page for advance purchase of Mahlerfest tickets. At the present time, Eventbrite supports only these two Web pages. Presumably the Web page summarizing the full season will add hyperlinks to new Eventbrite pages as they are created. Those interested in subscribing may also call LIEDER ALIVE! at 415-561-0100.

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