SPRING 2009 CONCERT SERIES:

THREE SOPRANOS

MARCH 4: LUCY SHELTON

APRIL 15: LISA BIELAWA

MAY 6: SARAH WOLFSON

AT 8:00 PM

IN THE TEATRO OF THE ITALIAN ACADEMY

1161 AMSTERDAM AVENUE, NYC

Programs will feature Luciano Berio's Sequenza III and Folk Songs and include the first performance of a work by Filippo Perocco along with music by Gordon Beeferman, Carl Bettendorf, Lisa Bielawa, Luigi Nono, Karin Rehnqvist, and Allegri's Miserere.

New York, NY January 14, 2009 The Spring 2009 concert series at Columbia University's Italian Academy for Advanced Studies will present three recitals by leading sopranos specializing in contemporary music who will present works from Italy and the U.S.  Each of the three programs will include Luciano Berio's 1966 Sequenza III for solo voice.

Admission to the Spring 2009 concerts is $15 for the general public, $10 for students and seniors. Tickets can be purchased and reservations can be made online at tic.columbia.edu or in person at the Ticket and Information Center in Lerner Hall Lobby, Monday - Saturday, 12 pm - 9 pm and Sunday 3 pm - 9 pm. All sales are final. Call 212 854 1623 or email rw2115@columbia.edu
for more information. The Italian Academy is located at 1161 Amsterdam Avenue between 116^th and 118^th Streets.

The programs will be as follows:

March 4, Lucy Shelton

Luciano Berio: Sequenza III

Folk Songs

Karin Rehnqvist:  Puksnger - lockrop

Giacinto Scelsi: Lilitu

With Jayn Rosenfeld, Hsin-Yun Huang, Marcy Rosen, Stephen Solook, and Tiffany Du Mouchelle

April 15, Lisa Bielawa

Luciano Berio: Sequenza III

Gregorio Allegri: Miserere Mei (Psalm 51)
Lisa Bielawa: A Collective Cleansing
Gordon Beeferman: West of Winter
Filippo Perocco: New Work title TBA, WORLD PREMIERE

With Sadie Rosales, Mary Marathe, Mukund Marathe, and Richard Holmes

May 6, Sarah Wolfson

Luciano Berio: Sequenza III

Folk Songs

Carl Bettendorf: two songs based on text from Hugo Wolf's "Italienisches Liederbuch"

With an ensemble conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky

The only artist to receive the International Walter W. Naumburg Award twice, as a soloist and as a chamber musician, soprano Lucy Shelton has performed repertoire from Bach to Boulez in major recital, chamber and orchestral venues throughout the world. Highly acclaimed as an interpreter of new music, she continues to bring new audiences into the sound world of new works, often composed for her. Notable among numerous world premieres are Elliott Carter's Of Challenge and Of Love and his Tempo e Tempi, Oliver Knussen's Whitman Settings, Stephen Albert's Flower of the Mountain, Joseph Schwantner's Sparrows and his Two Poems of Agueda Pizarro and Magabunda, Alexander Goehr's Sing, Ariel and The Mouse Metamorphosed Into a Maid, David Del Tredici's Quaint Events, Poul Ruder's The Bells, Grard Grisey's L'Icone Paradoxiale, Ned Rorem's Schuyller Songs, Sally Beamish's Monster, James Yannatos's Trinity Mass, Lewis Spratlan's Of Time and the Seasons, and Rob Zuidam's Johanna's Lament. She also performs her standard repertoire in venues across the United States and in Europe, including Berio's Folk Songs, Babbitt's Philomel, Knussen's Hums and Songs of Winnie the Pooh, Foss's Time Cycle, Shostakovich's Romantic Suite, and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. Her Naxos discography includes music by Adolphe, Markevich and Wuorinen. Since her return to the United States from England in 1997 she has had five recordings released on Deutsche Grammophon and Koch International with repertoire by Carter, Stravinsky, Crawford Seeger and Messiaen. Five additional CDs include works by Del Tredici, Rands, Adolphe, Kim, and Carter. She also has recordings on Bridge Records, Unicorn-Kanchana and Virgin Classics with music of Goehr, Knussen and Schoenberg. Shelton made her BBC Proms dbut in Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero and her Vienna and Berlin dbuts singing Kurtag's The Sayings of Peter Bornemissza with Andras Schiff. Among notable conductors with whom Shelton has worked are Barenboim, Boulez, De Leeuw, Knussen, Lyndon-Gee, Metzmacher, Nott, Etvs, Rattle, Rilling, Rostropovich, Salonen, Slatkin, and Wolff. A native Californian, she began her musical training early with the study of both piano and flute. After graduating from Pomona College she pursued singing at the New England Conservatory and at the Aspen Music School where she studied with Jan de Gaetani. She has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the New England Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music. She is currently on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center and coaches privately at her studio in New York City.

Composer-vocalist Lisa Bielawa takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. The New York Times describes her music as, "ruminative, pointillistic and harmonically slightly tart."  Bielawa played the violin and piano, sang, and wrote music from early childhood. She moved to New York two weeks after receiving her B.A. in Literature in 1990 from Yale University, and became an active participant in New York musical life. She began touring with the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1992, and in 1997 co-founded the MATA Festival. Bielawa's recent work, Chance Encounter, is written for migrating ensemble and soprano Susan Narucki for performance in public places.  The New York Times called the piece, "one of those performances that make downtown Downtown." On May 22, 2009, Ms Bielawa's Concerto for Orchestra will be premiered by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. In 2008, Ms. Bielawa's Double Violin Concerto received its debut performances by BMOP in Boston in March and in New York as part of the MATA Festival in April. In 2007, Ms. Bielawa's music was released on CDs by the Tzadik and Albany Records labels. Bielawa's next CD, The Lay of the Love, is scheduled for release in the spring of 2009 as the inaugural disc of Premiere Commission Recordings, a new label based in New York. Bielawa has received fellowships and awards from the Alpert-Ucross Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy, the Fund for U.S. Artists at International Festivals, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation, ASCAP, and the Fondation Royaumont in France. In 2007-2008, Lisa Bielawa was a Radcliffe Institute Fellow.  An enthusiastic advocate for the field, Ms. Bielawa now serves on the board of the MATA Festival. In addition, she has served on the board of the American Music Center and taught composition through the New York Youth Symphony Making Score program. In addition to her work as a vocalist with the Philip Glass Ensemble, she tours and records with John Zorn and has premiered and recorded works by numerous other composer colleagues.

In 2007 soprano Sarah Wolfson was awarded the 1st Place Prize (Victor and Sono Elmaleh Award) in The Concert Artists Guild Competition. An avid performer of new music, she recently made her Zankel Hall debut performing the world premiere of Jonathan Dawe's Overture and Ballet Music from Armide with American Composers Orchestra. She has also created the role of Celia in the world premiere of John Musto's Volpone at Wolf Trap Opera Company. Off-Broadway, Ms. Wolfson created the role of Jane/Aeola in The New Group's world premiere production of Wallace and Allen Shawn's play/opera, The Music Teacher. She also recorded the opera for Bridge Records. This summer Ms. Wolfson opens the Rockport Chamber Music Festival performing works that include Mussorgsky and Weill.  Recent engagements for Ms. Wolfson include soloist in the Bach B Minor Mass with American Symphony Orchestra. As the 2005 winner of The Juilliard Vocal Arts Alice Tully Hall Debut she made her Lincoln Center recital debut.  At Juilliard, Ms. Wolfson received the William Schuman Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music, the highest award given to a graduate student. While at Juilliard, Ms. Wolfson performed the roles of Susanna in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Sidonie/Lucinde in Gluck's Armide, Jenny Reefer in Thompson's The Mother of Us All, and Rose in Weill's Street Scene. She was also chosen to be featured on the PBS American Masters documentary The Juilliard Experience.  Ms. Wolfson has performed at the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art,  was chosen twice to sing on Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recitals in Alice Tully Hall, and has appeared in a number of Juilliard Liederabends and Song Book recitals. She was also chosen to be a part of the Juilliard Vocal Arts Chamber Music series in Alice Tully Hall. Ms. Wolfson was the 2004-2005 winner of the Vocal Arts Society Recital Competition. She was named the winner of the 2005 Juilliard Vocal Arts Alice Tully Recital Debut. As a recipient of a Lucrezia Bori Grant for study abroad from Juilliard, Ms. Wolfson was able to study in Salzburg, Austria, where she performed recitals at The Sacellum and Schloss Leopoldskron. She also participated in the Steans Institute for Young Artists at The Ravinia Festival and at the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival where she continued her focus on recital repertoire. Ms. Wolfson is currently on the faculty of Columbia University where she teaches vocal performance. She is also a member of Sing for Hope, a non-profit organization that facilitates the connection between artists and charities providing a network of support.