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AOPERA AMERICA’S

CREATORS IN CONCERT

WILLIAM BOLCOMThe National Opera Center

Thursday, April 6, 2017 | 7:00 p.m.

Mikaela Bennett, soprano

Amy Owens, soprano

Chelsea Shephard, soprano

Amanda Lynn Bottoms, mezzo-soprano

Adrian Rosas, bass-baritone

Michael Barrett, music director and pianist

Leann Osterkamp, pianist

PRESENTS

PROGRAM

Dinner at Eight (2017)

Libretto by Mark Campbell, based on the play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber

“Lobster in aspic” Chelsea Shephard

Paula’s Aria Amy Owens

A View from the Bridge (1999)

Libretto by Arthur Miller and Arnold Weinstein

“But you do not know this man” Mikaela Bennett

I Will Breathe a Mountain: A Song Cycle from American Women Poets (1991)

“Night Practice” text by May Swenson

Night Practice Amanda Lynn Bottoms

Cabaret Songs Volume 3 (1997)

Lyrics by Arnold Weinstein

Love in the Thirties Adrian Rosas

The Beggar’s Opera

Music by Darius Milhaud (1937); additional music by William Bolcom (1978)

Libretto by John Gay (1728)

“The turtle dove” Mikaela Bennett

“Man may escape” Adrian Rosas

“In the days of my youth” Amanda Lynn Bottoms

“How cruel are the traitors” Amy Owens

“Oh what pain”

Chelsea Shephard, Adrian Rosas, Mikaela Bennett, Amanda Lynn Bottoms, Amy Owens

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

National Medal of Arts, Pulitzer Prize, and Grammy Award-winner William Bolcom (born 1938) is an American composer of keyboard, chamber, operatic, vocal, choral and symphonic music. Born in Seattle,

he began composition studies at the age of 11 with George Frederick McKay and John Verrall at the University of Washington, while continuing piano lessons with Madame Berthe Poncy Jacobson. He later studied with Darius Milhaud at Mills College, pursued his Master of Arts degree with Leland Smith at Stanford University, and worked on his D.M.A. with Olivier Messiaen and Milhaud at the Paris Conservatoire, where he received the 2ème Prix de Composition. Bolcom joined the faculty of the University of Michigan’s School of Music in 1973, was named the Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of Composition in 1994, and retired in 2008 after 35 years.

As a pianist, Bolcom has performed and recorded his own work, frequently in collaboration with his wife and musical partner, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris. Their primary specialties in both concerts and recordings are cabaret songs, show tunes and American popular songs of the 20th century. They have recorded 25 albums together, and their most recent, Autumn Leaves, was released in 2015.

As a composer, Bolcom has written four violin sonatas; nine symphonies; three operas (McTeague, A View from the Bridge and A Wedding), plus several musical-theater operas; eleven string quartets; two film scores (Hester Street and Illuminata); incidental music for stage plays, including Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass; fanfares and occasional pieces; and an extensive catalogue of chamber, choral and vocal works. He won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1988 for 12 New Etudes for Piano. His setting of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, a full evening’s work for soloists, choruses and orchestra, was 25 years in the making. The April 8, 2004, performance at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was recorded by Naxos. The CD won four Grammy Awards in 2005: Best Choral Performance, Best Classical Contemporary Composition, Best Classical Album and Producer of the Year, Classical.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Michael Barrett founded the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) in 1988 with his friend and colleague Steven Blier, and he serves as its associate artistic director. In 1992, he co-founded the Moab

Music Festival with his wife, violist Leslie Tomkins. From 1994 to 1997, he was the director of the Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, and from 2003 to 2012, he was chief executive and general director of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, New York. Barrett has distinguished himself as a conductor with major orchestras in the U.S. and abroad in the symphonic, operatic and dance repertoire. A protégé of Leonard Bernstein, he began his long association with the renowned conductor and composer as a student in 1982. He served as Maestro Bernstein’s assistant conductor from 1985 to 1990, and he currently serves as music advisor to the Leonard Bernstein Estate. A champion of new music, Mr. Barrett has conducted and played premieres by Bernstein, Blitzstein, Bolcom, Danielpour, Kernis, Sellars, Harrison, Takemitsu, Del Tredici, Corigliano, Liebermann and Musto. He has collaborated with the directors Jerome Robbins, John Houseman, Sir Peter Hall, David Alden, Christopher Alden and Gregory Mosher. Barrett’s discography includes recordings with Koch, TER, CRI and Deutsche Grammophon. He attended the University of California at

Berkeley and is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied piano with Paul Hersh. He earned his master’s degrees in conducting and piano performance.

Canadian soprano Mikaela Bennett is a fourth-year undergraduate at The Juilliard School, where she studies under the tutelage of Edith Wiens. This season at Juilliard she sang Celia

in Haydn’s La fedeltà premiata and covered the role of Poppea in Handel’s Agrippina. Bennett appeared with the New World Symphony, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, for the world premiere of his new work Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind. She recently made her Joe’s Pub debut, working closely with Emmy Award-winning composer Lance Horne on his new-works concert. Last January, she joined New York Festival of Song for its “Harry, Hoagy, and Harold” program, which was curated and accompanied by Steven Blier. Bennett is the recipient of the Cecilia Bern Operatic Award and Grant. At Juilliard, she receives the Alice Tully Scholarship, Salvatore Chiantia Scholarship, and the Pauline and Arthur Feibush Memorial Scholarship. She was also awarded the Senator Norman M. Paterson Scholarship from the Kiwanis Music Festival in 2015.

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Acclaimed by The New York Times as “excellent” with a “smooth tone,” mezzo-soprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms is a rising New York City-based opera singer. A native of Cheektowaga, New

York, Bottoms is currently pursuing her Master of Vocal Performance under the tutelage of Marlena Malas as a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at the Juilliard School. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance from SUNY Fredonia, where she was a student of Laurie Tramuta. Bottoms has received honors at numerous East Coast competitions, including an Encouragement Award at the 2016 Opera Index Vocal Competition and third place in the 2016 Gerda Lissner Foundation Lieder/Song Competition. This season, Bottoms performed the role of Giunone in Juilliard’s concert production of Handel’s Agrippina at Alice Tully Hall. Soon after, she joined New York Festival of Song in New York City and Reston, Virginia, for performances of Paul Bowles’ Picnic Cantata and a premiere of Bolcom’s Dinner at Eight. This summer, Bottoms will join Wolf Trap Opera as a Studio Artist to perform the role of Concepcion in Ravel’s L’heure espagnole, as well as cover Aspasia in Rossini’s La pietra del paragone and the Stepmother in Glass’ The Juniper Tree. Under the baton of Mark Shapiro, Bottoms made her Carnegie Hall debut in May 2016 on the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage as a soloist in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with

the Cecilia Chorus. With Jeffrey Milarsky and the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, she went on to make her Alice Tully Hall debut, premiering Anne Qian Wang’s song cycle Quartered.

Leann Osterkamp, a Young Steinway Artist, has performed at Caramoor, the Kennedy Center and Carnegie’s Weill Hall. The New York Times described her as bringing “descriptive color”

to her performances, and the Los Angeles Times called her a “strong” collaborator with “the desired flashiness.” Her recordings have been featured by David Dubal on WQXR, and she will be heard on two CDs to be released this fall: a solo album, The Complete Works of Leonard Bernstein for Solo Piano, and John Musto’s Improvisation & Fugue. Osterkamp is the first-prize winner of the Schlern International Competition, the Wells/Steinway Competition and MTNA state/regional levels. In 2014, New York Festival of Song named her a Caramoor Rising Star Pianist, making her the first pianist to ever receive this residency. As an opera coach, Osterkamp was awarded a Stern Fellowship by Songfest at Colburn and studied German opera at Middlebury. She has worked as an opera rehearsal pianist in Mainz, Germany, and has collaborated with notable artists such as Steve Blier, Amy Burton, Clarissa Lyons, John Musto, Ursula Oppens and Michael

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Barrett. An active composer, Osterkamp has had her works performed internationally. Her song collections have been featured in performances and masterclasses at both Songfest at Colburn and Juilliard. She is the recipient of several fellowships at Juilliard and has been an instructor at the school for five years. She received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from Juilliard and is a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Coloratura soprano Amy Owens is establishing herself as a versatile performer with comedic flair, a strong aptitude for new music and a soaring high range. During her residency with Utah Opera from

2012 to 2014, Owens was praised in Opera News for her “vivacious enthusiasm,” “engaging, bell-like soprano” and “high-flying vocals,” gaining particular notice for her performances as Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Papagena in Die Zauberflöte. The 2016–2017 season sees Owens appear in concert and recital with several prestigious organizations, starting with a Liederabend at Washington University of St. Louis and her New Mexico Philharmonic debut in Carmina Burana. She joined New York Festival of Song to open their 2016–2017 NYFOS Next series at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, collaborating with the Momenta Quartet in the New York premiere

of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Iberian Songs. Owens made her Dallas Opera debut in December 2016, performing in the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors concert. Earlier this year, she rejoined New York Festival of Song to perform Paul Bowles’ Picnic Cantata, and in May, she will make her Carnegie Hall debut in Carmina Burana with Mid-America Productions. The 2015–2016 season included appearances with the Utah Symphony as Le Feu, La Princesse, and Le Rossignol in L’enfant et les sortilèges and Mater Gloriosa in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, which will be released as a commercial recording this year. Owens has fulfilled young artist residencies with The Santa Fe Opera, Utah Opera, Central City Opera, Wolf Trap Opera and Utah Festival Opera

Hailed by The New York Times as “a stalwart bass-baritone with a burnished voice” and by Opera News as a “mellifluous bass-baritone [with] theatrical flair,” Adrian Rosas is an emerging

young artist with “impressive experience and talent” (The Boston Globe). Rosas has performed with opera companies such as Seattle Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera Saratoga, Houston’s Opera in the Heights, and the Detroit Opera House. As a champion of contemporary and modern music, he has had the opportunity to work on a variety of new works, including

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Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s Frida, Petr Kotik’s Master-Pieces and Matthew Aucoin’s Whitman, as well as newly written operas with American Lyric Theater in New York and with the Ostrava Center for New Music in the Czech Republic. Equally versed in concert and oratorio work, Rosas has performed at Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium, Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall), Merkin Concert Hall and Alice Tully Hall. He holds a Bachelor of Music from Western Michigan University and a Master of Music from The Juilliard School.

Soprano Chelsea Shephard made her New York City recital debut in 2015 with New York Festival of Song’s Bel Canto/Can Belto program, garnering praise for her “beautiful, lyric instrument” and

“flawless legato” (Opera News). This season, Shephard will make her Carnegie Hall debut with the Cecilia Chorus of New York in a world premiere by Syrian composer Zaid Jabri and in the iconic Brahms Requiem. She also joined the roster of Lyric Opera of Chicago for their new production of Das Rheingold. Other season highlights include return engagements with the Madison Bach Musicians for Scarlatti’s Cantata pastorale per la natività and Bach’s St. John Passion, as well as her debut with Chicago Chorale as the soloist in Bach’s Mass in B Minor. In previous seasons, the versatile soprano

has performed Beth in Little Women, the title role of La Calisto, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Lisa in The Land of Smiles, Emily Webb in Our Town and the title role in L’incoronazione di Poppea with companies such as Madison Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, Haymarket Opera Company and Caramoor International Music Festival. The Michigan native holds degrees from DePaul University and Rice University, and she recently released her first CD, in collaboration with fortepianist Trevor Stephenson: Songs by Mozart, Haydn & Schubert (Light & Shadow Label). Future recording projects include Paul Bowles’ Picnic Cantata with New York Festival of Song (Steven Blier and Michael Barrett) and the songs of Debussy, Strauss, Ives and Brahms with Trevor Stephenson.

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OPERA America would like to offer special thanks to Michael Barrett, Steven Blier, Evan Hause, Dale Johnson and New York Festival of Song (NYFOS).

JOIN US FOR THESE FUTURE EVENTS AT THE NATIONAL OPERA CENTER:

EMERGING ARTIST RECITAL SERIES | ARIZONA OPERA STUDIO ARTISTS

Thursday, April 20, 7:00 p.m.

Join us for a recital featuring the Arizona Opera Studio Artists: soprano Katrina Galka, mezzo-sopranos Mariya Kaganskaya and Alyssa Martin, baritone Joseph Lattanzi, bass-baritone Zachary Owen, and pianist/coach Cody Martin. Founded in 2006, the Studio provides personalized instruction aimed at bridging the gap between academic studies and professional life and helping artists to reach the next level of their careers.

CONVERSATIONS | RENÉE FLEMING, SOPRANO

Tuesday, April 25, 2017, 7:00 p.m.

Soprano Renée Fleming, one of the most beloved and celebrated musical ambassadors of our time, will discuss her remarkable career with OPERA America President/CEO Marc A. Scorca. Known as “the people’s diva,” Fleming continues to grace the world’s greatest stages, now extending her reach to include other musical forms and media.

Register for future events at operaamerica.org/Onstage.

Speak to an OPERA America staff member if you have questions about any of our events or if you are interested in becoming a member.

Be a part of the conversation. #OAOnstage

Onstage at the Opera Center is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by grants from the Amphion Foundation and NYC & Company Foundation.