YOUNG ARTISTS’ SHOWCASE
February 16th, 2013
In honour of 2013 Black History Month, Cathedral Arts will present a multi-cultural concert showcasing some of the outstanding young talent of the region, hosted by a special guest, Gregory Sheppard, a black American Bass with a busy international career in opera & concert. Performing on the program with Mr. Sheppard will be John Dapaah, an outstanding young pianist who recently completed a year of studies in Austria, sopranos Maria Gubbels & Keena Eloise, award-winning 14-year-old cellist Bryan Cheng, bass Gabriel Sanchez Ortega, saxophonist Jacob Armstrong, and gospel/jazz vocalist Welile Nxumalo, among others.
Bass Gregory Sheppard has been heard in opera, concert and recital throughout the United States and in Europe and Canada. He has sung leading roles with the San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Central City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Virginia Opera, and countless other companies in roles ranging from Sander in the rarely performed Zemire et Azor and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro to Rev. Blitch in Floyd’s Susannah. Mr. Sheppard’s solo orchestral appearances include the Syracuse Symphony, Western NY Chamber Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Denver Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Chicago Symphony & Chattanooga Symphony, in works including the Verdi Requiem, Mozart Requiem, Beethoven Ninth Symphony, and A Child Of Our Time.
He made his European debut in A Scourge Of Hyacinths at the Biennale Festspiel (Munich) and has also sung at the Vienna Festival, Savonlinna Opera (Finland), and toured with Orchestra I soloisti di Roma in Rome, Florence, Venice and Sienna. Mr. Sheppard was a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and recipient of a MET Study Grant. In addition, he has received the Syracuse Opera Artist of the Year Award, Friday Music Clubs Young Artist Award, Sullivan Grant, and other honours.
Appearances during the 2012-2013 season include a recital at the Daum Museum in Sedalia, MO, Balthazar in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Nickel City Opera (Buffalo) and Anastasia Concerts (St. Augustine, FL), where he will also direct & design sets and costumes, Der fliegende Hollander and the Beethoven Ninth Symphony with the Metro Chamber Orchestra, Dover Beach with the Seneca Chamber Ensemble, and a Verdi Concert with Opera Ebony (NY). Mr. Sheppard is a member of the faculty of The New School (NY), Columbia University, City University of NY (John Jay College), and the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, and was recently appointed General Manager of Opera Ebony (NY). He holds degrees in Vocal Performance from Syracuse University and New York University.
The Actual Programme for this performance is given below:
February 16, 2013 – 2:00 p.m.
Mentre gonfiarsi l’anima (from/de Attila)…………………..………Giuseppe Verdi (1830-1901)
Prayer……………………………………………………….………….….H. Leslie Adams (1932-)
Don’t You Let Nobody Turn You ‘Round……………………...arr. Jacqueline Hairston (1938-)
Gregory Sheppard, bass
Byron Sean, piano
H. Leslie Adams & Jacqueline Hairston are both highly regarded Black American composers and Music Educators, and are both still living. Adams was educated at the famous Oberlin Conservatory & has won numerous awards. Hairston was educated at Juilliard & Columbia University. Both have had long, distinguished careers.
Aria……………………………………………………….………..…..Eugene Bozza (1905-1991)
Billie……………………………………………………………………..Jacob ter Veldhuis (1951-)
Jacob Armstrong, saxophone
Byron Sean, piano
“Billie” is a fascinating composition for saxophone and electronic recording. Categorized by the composer a “Avant Pop”, the piece combines beautifully evocative writing for the sax with excerpts from rare recorded interviews with legendary Blues/Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday. In these excerpts, Holiday talks about her insecurities and fears as a performer, among other topics.
Ombra mai fu (from/de Serse)……………………….……………..…..G.F. Handel(1685-1759)
Bois épais (from/de Amadis de Gaule)…………………………………..J.-B. Lully (1632-1687)
In diesen heil’gen Hallen (from/de Die Zauberflöte)……………..….W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Gabriel Sanchez Ortega, bass
Byron Sean, piano
Ortega performs some of the most famous & beautiful bass arias in the operatic canon, including Handel’s renowned “Ombra mai fu”, known to many as the “Largo from Xerxes”.
Suite No. 5 for Solo Cello (BWV 1011) – Allemande & Gigue.…………J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Bryan Cheng, cello
Si mes vers avaient des ailes……………………………………….Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947)
Come l’allodoletta……………………………………………….…Stefano Donaudy (1879-1925)
Deh vieni, non tardar (from/de Le nozze di Figaro)……………..……W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém (from/de Rusalka)………………….Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904)
Maria Gubbels, soprano
Byron Sean, piano
These four beautiful masterworks alternate between the anticipation of love and the pain of love. In “Si mes vers”, composed when Hahn was only 13 years old (!), the poet speaks of what (his) love could do if it had wings, and in “Deh vieni, non tardar” Susannah sings in eager anticipation of being with her beloved Figaro. Conversely, the Donaudy speaks to the pain that a gentle heart can suffer at the hand of love, while in the famous “Song to the Moon” Rusalka begs the moon to tell her where her absent lover is, that she is waiting for his return, and asks the moon to help him remember about her.
Dance With My Father………………………………….……….…Luther Vandross (1951-2005)
How Come U Don’t Love Me Anymore?…………………………………………..Prince (1958-)
At Last……………………………………….M. Gordon (1904-1959) & H. Warren (1893-1981)
Welile Nxumalo, vocal/chant
Larry Tarof, piano
Ms. Nxumalo, one of four Black artists on the program, performs two songs by Black Americans highly regarded for their contributions to Popular Music, and “At Last”, made famous by the incomparable Black artist Etta James. The Prince song is written in a hard-driving style not often associated with the songs he is known for as a performer.
Partita No. 1 (BWV 825) – Prelude, Menuet, & Gigue…………….……J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Improvisations on Over the Rainbow, Canon, and I’ve got Rhythm…………..…….J. Dapaah
John Depaah, piano
The Bach Partita No. 1 is from a set of six partitas for harpsichord that Bach composed late in his career – however, they were among the first of his works to be published under his direction. Born in Ghana, Mr. Dapaah is also a talented Jazz player, and shows his versatility in his own arrangement of several well-known songs.
From/de: Honey & Rue (Poems by/poésie de Toni Morrison)……………André Previn (1929-)
1- First I’ll Try Love
3- The town is lit
4- Do you know Him?
6- Take my Mother Home
Keena Eloise, soprano
Byron Sean, piano
The songs being performed by Black Canadian soprano Keena Eloise are from a cycle of six songs to poems by the famous Black American writer Toni Morrison, and were originally composed for Kathleen Battle. Honey and Rue refers to “the bitter and the sweet” that comes with life and love and is part of the African American experience. Capturing echoes of such European masters as Mahler and Berg, there a hint of Americana in the Copland-Bernstein vein, and elsewhere the engaging verve of jazz and the blues.
Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8 – Allegro motto vivace …………………………………Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)
Bryan Cheng, cello
This Sonata is widely considered the greatest of a small field of works for solo cello written since Bach’s cello suites (one of which Bryan plays earlier in the program). It has been opined that “Had he written nothing else apart from this magnificent sonata, Kodály would still deserve to be accounted one of the greatest musical geniuses that Hungary has ever produced”. It contains influences of Debussy & Bartok, as well as the inflections and nuances of Hungarian folk music.
Bryan Cheng will perform in memory of his recently deceased teacher, the late Yuli Turovsky. He will play the last two pieces they worked on together. Turovsky, who had come to Canada as an immigrant in the 1970’s, founded the famous chamber orchestra “I Musici de Montréal” and became a revered figure in Canada’s classical music world. Bryan began lessons with Turovsky when he was 8 years old, and they soon developed a special relationship. This led to Bryan being asked to play and offer a eulogy at his teacher’s funeral in January, 2013
Lost In The Stars (from/de Lost In The Stars)………..Max Anderson, Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
Gregory Sheppard, bass
Byron Sean, piano
The musical is based on the famous South African novel “Cry, The Beloved Country”, which deals with some of the harsh realities of Black life in the apartheid era.The words of the title song, which in the musical are those of the minister Stephen Kumalo at the depth of his desperation, tell how God once “held all the stars in the palm of his hand” “and they ran through his fingers like grains of sand, and one little star fell alone.” Kumalo says that God sought and found the little lost star and “stated and promised he’d take special care so it wouldn’t get lost again.” But at times he thinks that God has forgotten his promise and that “we’re lost out here in the stars.”