Susanna Phillips makes Lincoln Center recital debut

By -

Following a run of performances as Pamina in the Metropolitan Opera's Magic Flute this fall, American soprano Susanna Phillips will make her New York solo recital debut on November 19 at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall as the recipient of Juilliard's 2009-10 Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital Award. Her program includes the world premiere of In Colors of Feelings, a song cycle she commissioned from composer Philip Lasser.

This is a banner season for Phillips, offering high-profile opportunities to hear a voice that The New York Times describes as "clear, bright and elegant" and the Dallas Morning News calls "achingly gorgeous." Her season highlights include her Baltimore Symphony debut, a Carnegie Hall Messiah, the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Elixir of Love (Adina), and her Forth Worth Opera Festival debut in Don Giovanni (Donna Anna). Catch her Pamina again next season at the Met. Here is an excerpt from the Chicago Symphony's Beyond the Score.

The 28-year-old Alabama native isn't the only one "making good" in the Phillips family. Susanna's brother Macon is the White House director of new media, a post he snared after his work on the Obama campaign. He'll be in the neighborhood for his sister's Baltimore Symphony debut this week for Mahler's Fourth Symphony and Mozart concert arias with Marin Alsop conducting.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more