tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-287777212024-03-07T04:17:41.268-05:00grecchinoisthe only time it all consistently makes sense is when I sing.nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.comBlogger462125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-32430642689599279492018-04-11T02:50:00.002-04:002018-04-11T02:50:25.037-04:00Moving Addresses<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hi there...<br />
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I know it's been a while since I've posted. There are a ton of reasons for that, mostly having to do with a lack of free time these days. Regardless, I still intend to keep this blog going, however I will be doing so over at my <b><a href="http://nicholas-phan.com/grecchinois/" target="_blank">website</a></b> from now on. Please catch my intermittent musings over there now, if you will. As much as I've loved Blogspot - the time for me to consolidate is long overdue...<br />
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Hope to see you at the <a href="http://nicholas-phan.com/grecchinois/" target="_blank">new address</a>!<br />
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-70494610478731927392017-06-29T17:25:00.001-04:002017-06-29T17:27:38.924-04:00Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet in SF<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We are recording our performances of <a href="https://www.sfsymphony.org/Buy-Tickets/2016-2017/MTT-conducts-Berlioz-Romeo-and-Juliet.aspx" target="_blank">Berlioz' <i>Romeo et Juliette</i> </a>here in San Francisco this week, and it's a thrill to get to be a part of this project. I'm excited for this weekend of concerts. Being a former teenage orchestra-geek, I was madly in love with this piece when I was sawing away at my violin in youth orchestra, and desperately dreamt of getting to play it one day. We could never have dreamed of playing it as teenagers, so it's a real joy to finally get to be a part of it, despite my violinist days being far behind me.<br />
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The folks at the SF Symphony filmed me and my amazing colleagues chatting about the piece during a rehearsal break, while we sipped some coffee in the park. Check out some of our thoughts on the piece and our week here in San Francisco in the little video below:<br />
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-31511893507795081272017-02-01T11:46:00.000-05:002017-02-01T11:46:52.512-05:00Alle Menschen werden Brüder<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As the San Francisco Symphony cellos and basses began Beethoven's famous 'Ode to Joy' theme today in rehearsal, I turned and locked eyes with my dear friend and phenomenal soprano colleague, Kiera Duffy, both of us starting to tear up a bit. Without needing to say a word, we both just silently communicated to each other: "We need this now."<br />
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With all the protesting of the past two weeks and the shockingly un-American executive orders from our President dictating that we build walls and ban refugees, purporting to protect and enforce our borders, I find it quite timely to perform Beethoven's 9th Symphony this week here in San Francisco. The symphony, groundbreaking for its use of voices in the final movement (a first in the music history of the symphonic form), is a setting of excerpts of a poem by Friedrich Schiller with some extra text added by Beethoven himself at the beginning. It is a call for unity and peace - for brotherhood and togetherness. Thinking back to our President's angry and antagonistic inaugural speech just a couple of weeks ago, Beethoven's and Schiller's call for peace and brotherhood could not be more appropriate for our times.<br />
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<i>O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!</i><br />
<i>Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen,</i><br />
<i>und freudenvollere.</i></div>
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<i>Oh friends, not these sounds!</i><br />
<i>Let us instead strike up more pleasing</i><br />
<i>and more joyful ones!</i></div>
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Freude, schöner Götterfunken<br />
Tochter aus Elysium,<br />
Wir betreten feuertrunken,<br />
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!<br />
Deine Zauber binden wieder<br />
Was die Mode streng geteilt;<br />
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,<br />
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.</div>
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Joy, beautiful spark of divinity,<br />
Daughter from Elysium,<br />
We enter, burning with fervour,<br />
heavenly being, your sanctuary!<br />
Your magic brings together<br />
what custom has sternly divided.<br />
All men shall become brothers,<br />
wherever your gentle wings hover.</div>
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Each time we started this music today in rehearsal, I just keep thinking how this was the piece that was performed in Berlin back in 1989 to celebrate the fall of a wall that symbolically divided the world, a physical representation of an iron curtain that held the world in a state of paranoia and fear, perilously close to the edge of doom for almost half a century. It is heartbreaking to see how strongly the pendulum has swung back towards xenophobia and isolationism less than 30 years later. It boggles the mind, leaving the sane among us wondering if humanity will ever learn the lessons of our violent human history that seems to take us closer and closer to the brink of armageddon.</div>
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The current mayor of Berlin <a href="http://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/2017/pressemitteilung.555498.php" target="_blank">implored</a> our current president the other day: </div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span>Berlin, the city of the division of Europe, the city of freedom of Europe, cannot look without comment when a country plans to build a new wall. We Berliners know best how much suffering a division of a whole continent...I call to the American President: Think of your predecessor Ronald Reagan. Remember his words, 'Tear down this wall.' And so I say: Dear Mr. President, don't build this wall!"</i></blockquote>
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In that same spirit, as I lift my voice amongst those of my colleagues and above and amidst the members of the San Francisco Symphony this week, I do so in a joyful protest against the divisive and xenophobic policies and agendas being pushed by the current administration, and as a prayer that people can learn to focus on what makes us alike rather than different, and begin to find some common ground. It's a thought worth thinking about that the piece's message still reverberates with the same urgency nearly 200 years after its premiere performance. <br />
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Here is the performance of the piece celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, led by the late Leonard Bernstein:</div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-77972428624569912862017-01-14T19:30:00.001-05:002017-01-14T19:32:16.240-05:00Gods & Monsters Release<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>Gods & Monsters</i>, my latest album with pianist Myra Huang was released this weekend. This record - mine and Myra's third together - is the realization of a long time dream of Myra's and mine to delve seriously into the realm of German Lieder. There are so many people to thank for helping usher this album to it's release, including Melanne Mueller, Steve Winn and all of the amazing team at <a href="http://www.avie-records.com/" target="_blank">Avie Records</a>, our fellow executive producer Philip Wilder, the album's incredible producer and engineer Marlan Barry, and of course - Myra, who was such an inspirational and energetic force throughout the entire process, especially the sessions themselves, which were great fun. Also, of course, none of this would be possible without the army of generous souls who's contributions have underwritten this labor of love - we truly can't thank you enough for generosity and support.</div>
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If you're interested in purchasing a copy or even just checking it out on Spotify, all the links and info you would need to do so are <b><a href="http://nicholas-phan.com/various-gods-monsters" target="_blank">HERE</a></b>. </div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-20260970176083175752016-12-31T14:20:00.004-05:002016-12-31T14:39:24.204-05:00Cusp 16 / 17<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As we collectively consider the shadow of the past year while we cross over into 2017 this evening, what I have heard with even more vehemence than in previous years is basically a chorus of variations on the theme of "F**ck off, 2016!" To be honest, like many people I hear singing that particular song, I am quite happy to put this year behind me, and I'm very tempted to join in the chorus of frustration much of the time. <br />
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Yet, while so many extraordinary horrible things have happened this year, so many extraordinarily wonderful things have happened this year, too. I've experienced some extraordinary highs, particularly musically, this year, and I've felt inspired by those moments to take bigger and bigger leaps forward. From my perspective, 2016 has mostly felt like a year of transition - political transitions, personal transitions, vocal transitions...you name it. Some of these transitions have been welcome and some very unwelcome, but at the end of the day all transitions involve some sort of growing pains, both big and small. Regardless of how uncomfortable or upsetting each of those shifts have felt over the past year, I am excited about 2017 as a new chapter, a clean slate - one in which we can regain our sense of hope, positivity and progressive momentum.<br />
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Looking forward, 2017 will hopefully be a galvanizing time on all fronts. A time to settle into these new places into which we have transitioned, where we can hopefully find a bit of unity and acceptance. As I've said before, I feel that as artists it is our responsibility to bring communities together, which is of more importance than ever in these turbulent times in which we live. The turn of the year represents an opportunity to find the grace to begin again, to recommit to our work, which is so much about encouraging people to reflect, to think, to be mindful, to nurture compassion within themselves and to listen. <br />
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Rather than ruminate too long on all of this, I'd prefer to circle back to the idea of shadows and share this little song by Ned Rorem instead. Considering Whitman's poem in the context of our current times, I think that there is something to think about in his words as we look at the long and dark shadow cast by our collective actions as a human race in 2016. As tempting as it is to throw around blame, only focusing our sights upon divisions and difference, we must ultimately accept and take ownership of the shadow we cast, acknowledging the part we play in shaping the reality in which we choose to live and that our shadows are parts of our selves. <br />
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<i style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 14.520000457763672px;"><i><i><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">recorded LIVE at SF Performances Salons at the Rex, January 28, 2016</span></span></i></i></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">Ned Rorem:</b></span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b>That Shadow, My Likeness</b></span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><b>TEXT (Walt Whitman)</b></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: 14.520000457763672px;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That shadow, my likeness, that goes to and fro, seeking a livelihood, chattering, chaffering; </span></span></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: 14.520000457763672px;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How often I find myself standing and looking at it where it flits; </span></span></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 14.520000457763672px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">How often I question and doubt whether that is really me; </span></span></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 14.520000457763672px;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">—But...among my lovers, and caroling my songs, </span></span></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">O I never doubt whether that is really me. </span></div>
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I hope everyone has a fun and safe time celebrating the New Year tonight, and to those who have already crossed the threshold in their respective time zones - Happy New Year to you. May it be filled with peace, happiness, health and success for us all.</div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-42061804211283493702016-12-23T19:59:00.001-05:002016-12-23T21:06:05.321-05:00Peace, Goodwill<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It's Christmas Eve morning here in Japan, and reading the morning news of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/us/politics/trump-nuclear-arms-race-russia-united-states.html" target="_blank">calls for an arms race</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/world/middleeast/israel-settlements-un-vote.html?_r=0" target="_blank">tensions rising over Israel/Palestine resolutions at the UN</a>, as well as updates about any of the myriad of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/world/europe/berlin-anis-amri-killed-milan.html" target="_blank">other</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/world/middleeast/aleppo-syria-evacuation.html?ref=world" target="_blank">horrors</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/world/europe/migrant-death-toll-mediterranean-europe.html?ref=world" target="_blank">reported</a> this <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/us/north-carolinas-republican-legislature-governor.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront" target="_blank">past week</a> has not contributed to my sense of Holiday Spirit. Waking up and reading the morning news each day this month has been heartbreaking - reading of our world that is so sharply divided and deep in conflict in every corner has been a stark contrast with the <i>Messiahs</i> I've been traveling around performing these past few weeks. <br />
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As the tenor soloist in a performance of <i>Messiah</i>, I have the distinct privilege of kicking off the piece with one of its most beautiful moments, an accompanied recitative: <i>"</i>Comfort Ye, my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplish'd, that her iniquity is pardoned." Handel's setting of this text is stunningly beautiful in its simplicity and nakedness. The beautiful E major harmony of the opening is warm and welcoming - the simple flowing eighth note accompaniment figures in the strings are almost like rays of peace and light, upon which the tenor line, floating above with clarion melodic figures, announces a new era of peace and enlightenment. This leads into the exultant opening aria, which proclaims that every valley shall be exalted and every mountain made low, the rough places plain and the crooked straight. It's one of the greatest beginnings in all of western classical music.<br />
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Under normal circumstances, I can't help but smile as I hear the opening E major chords of 'Comfort Ye', yet (as everyone on the American Left wisely keeps imploring us all to remember) these are not normal times. They are extraordinary ones: so much so that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/19/surreal-trump-fascism-merriam-webster-2016-word-of-the-year" target="_blank">the dictionary Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2016</a> is 'surreal'. This year, I feel a great sense of urgency and pleading in my heart as I sing these opening lines of <i>Messiah</i>. My inner subtext wants to be: "enough with the battle cries - can't we all just get along?" "Comfort Ye" wants to mean "Calm the F**k Down." I feel heartbroken when I sing "that her warfare is accomplish'd,", as it seems that no one's warfare is accomplished - it only seems to be escalating along with everyone's temper and intolerance. <br />
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I have one more performance of <i>Messiah</i> here in Japan tomorrow afternoon, as well as a Gala Christmas concert this evening before my work is done for the year. As I round out this final chapter of work for 2016, I want to wish everyone the happiest of holidays. This year, I don't just wish - I implore this traditional seasonal greeting: <b><i>Peace on Earth and Goodwill towards All</i></b>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Messiah <i>filmed LIVE at Trinity Wall Street last year (December 26, 2015)</i></span></div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-43137484536155918812016-12-14T23:18:00.000-05:002016-12-15T09:09:30.403-05:00Protest and Dialogue<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The other day, my beloved hometown orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, <a href="http://www.sfchronicle.com/music/article/S-F-Symphony-cancels-tour-concerts-in-North-10791415.php#photo-10822847" target="_blank">announced</a> that it will be the latest in a <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/Here-are-all-the-musicians-canceling-shows-in-7382007.php" target="_blank">long string of performers</a> canceling their upcoming concerts in Chapel Hill, North Carolina as a protest to the state's anti-LGBT law, HB2. It's been interesting to see the various reactions amongst my colleagues and musical friends to this decision this week. While there have been many praising the SFS for their decision to take a stand against this horribly discriminatory law, there have also been many who are disappointed that the orchestra will not travel to Chapel Hill and feel that the decision is tantamount to sealing off the liberal bubble that the Bay Area can be at times at the expense of maintaining a dialogue through cultural exchange.<br />
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While I can appreciate both points of view, I must say that I am heartened, at a basic level, to see the SFS take a stand against bigotry and to engage in the general protest against what is basically government-sanctioned discrimination that is much <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/03/north-carolina-bill-lgbt-discrimination-law" target="_blank">wider-reaching</a> and far more disturbing than specifying which bathroom people are to use, which the current reductive nicknames for the state law seem to imply. I count myself lucky to be a part of a community of colleagues who understand the social responsibilities that come with our work and our public profile, and who understand the importance of saying no to bigotry, hate and discrimination in this great country. For that reason alone, I will feel extra pride when I appear with them for my 9th and 10th sets of performances with the orchestra this coming February and June.<br />
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That said, I have my own performances scheduled in North Carolina coming up on <a href="https://www.ncsymphony.org/events/index.cfm?view=details&detailid=3230&eid=4207" target="_blank">April 7 & 8</a>, right at the same time as the concerts that the SF Symphony just canceled. I am scheduled to perform Britten's <i>War Requiem</i> with the North Carolina Symphony on those days, and I will definitely be performing those concerts. <br />
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The current political and cultural discourse since the US presidential election in our own country seems increasingly more and more sharply divided, with people on both sides shouting more and more loudly into their respective echo chambers, and parties on every side seemingly both <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/tech/facebook-vs-democracy/" target="_blank">less empowered to</a> and capable of hearing other points of view. Specifically in North Carolina, things are so divided that only a handful of votes determined the outcome of the state's Gubernatorial election this year. Tie that in with the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38320647" target="_blank">atrocities being reported</a> from Aleppo, reports of Russia's successful efforts to influence the US presidential election through cyber attacks and hacking, as well as the <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/12/09/china-flies-nuclear-capable-bomber-in-south-china-sea-after-trump-taiwan-call-us-officials-say.html" target="_blank">recent reports</a> of China flying nuclear-capable bombers around the South China Sea to demonstrate their displeasure with the US President-elect's brazen foreign policy moves, and the times seem incredibly appropriate for a performance of the <i>War Requiem</i>.<br />
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The piece is the pinnacle of Britten's pacifist expressions, and it is chilling - particularly at the end, in which he juxtaposes the traditional <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_paradisum" target="_blank">In paradisum</a> </i>section of the requiem mass with an eerily unsettling setting of Wilfred Owen's poem, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Meeting_(poem)" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Strange Meeting</a>, which depicts the meeting in Hell of two soldiers who have killed each other. Just after one of the dead soldiers says to the other, "I am the enemy you killed, my friend...", Britten overlaps the <i>In paradisum </i>text, which is a prayer for angels to lead the dead into paradise where they can enjoy eternal rest, with the very end of Owen's poem. While the overarching effect of Britten's musical setting as it reaches its climax is hopeful, transcendent and ethereal, implying that paradise is eventually reached - it is a powerful ending that is tinged with a slight sense of both uncertainty and warning.<br />
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I am looking forward to April - it will be a privilege to perform this amazing piece, written by a pacifist and humanist who was a gay pioneer. Its message is tragically timeless, and as the world seemingly spins more and more out of control with each passing day, it feels increasingly imperative to perform it. Not just as a prayer for peace in extraordinarily troubled times, but also as way to insert a different, more healing and unifying set of voices into the cultural and political dialogue. Hopefully, our own disparate and divided voices will not just find unity in Hell, like Owen's ill-fated soldiers, but perhaps beforehand while we are all still living on this beautiful Earth, as well. </div>
nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-17051934152353923752016-11-12T03:17:00.002-05:002016-11-12T03:22:53.950-05:00I Argue You Thee That Love Is Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of the most insightful and wise people I know, as he encouraged me to follow my dreams to make recordings, once told me that rather than thinking of recordings as definitive documents of an interpretation of a piece, I should regard them as snapshots in time. To think of them as a freeze frame of an artist in a particular moment. When viewed this way, it alleviates one of the feeling of pressure to make the absolute and to create perfection. It frees one up to hear a recording as one would look at a picture of oneself from many years past. We see the beauty and innocence (and sometimes folly) of youth. We see how we are still the same person, yet evolved and changed.<br />
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Sifting through the selection of videos of American songs recorded live at a salon performance presented by San Francisco Performances at the Hotel Rex in January of this year, I find myself looking at all of these songs through a slightly altered lens after the events of this past week. I had originally planned these programs as part of an expression of patriotism and love of country as we walked through a transition to what we all naively thought would be a giant step forward for us as a nation. Now, in the wake of the results of this past Tuesday's election, I find myself looking at some of this music with slightly different eyes.<br />
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One of these songs that I programmed back in January was an incredibly beautiful setting of a poem by the great American poet Emily Dickinson, written by <a href="http://jakeheggie.com/" target="_blank">Jake Heggie</a> - a man whom I consider to be a good friend as well as a deeply heartfelt and thoughtful composer. When we filmed our performance of this piece earlier this year in San Francisco, I had a much more personal take on this poem, thinking more of a romantic love of one person to another. After witnessing the anger of the majority that voted for progress as many protest through the streets of America's biggest cities, I wonder if Emily Dickinson's words also resonate on a broader level. Seeing the numerous accounts of <a href="https://twitter.com/i/moments/796417517157830656" target="_blank">the rising voice of bigotry and xenophobia</a> that has seemingly felt legitimized by Tuesday's election results, I wonder if the love that Dickinson is talking about is perhaps a different, greater kind of love than just the love of one person. Perhaps she is talking about an unconditional love for all our brothers and sisters? And perhaps, at the end of the poem, when she says that she will have nothing but suffering if the object of her affections doubts her unconditional love, is she presciently touching on the feeling those of us who voted for progress feel right now? For it is clear that so many of our brothers and sisters doubted our love for them this past Tuesday, and because of their choices which resulted from that doubt, we now have nothing to show but grief, anxiety and fear.<br />
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Whether she meant it that way or not, it is difficult for me not to see it through this new lens after all that has happened this week. Regardless of her meaning, it is vitally important now, more than ever, that we remember Dickinson's argument that Love is indeed Life.<br />
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I will perform the song again<a href="http://blogs.wfmt.com/livefromwfmt/" target="_blank"> live on WFMT</a> on November 21st. When we perform the piece that night, it may not sound incredibly different from this performance below recorded in January. But inside my heart, my feelings about it are not quite the same.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b>Jake Heggie<br />That I did always love </b>from <i><b>Newer Every Day</b></i><br /><br /><b>TEXT (Emily Dickinson)</b><br /><br />That I did always love,<br />I bring thee proof:<br />That till I loved<br />I never lived enough.<br /><br />That I shall love alway,<br />I argue thee<br />That love is life,<br />And life hath immortality.<br /><br />This, dost thou doubt, sweet?<br />Then have I<br />Nothing to show<br />But Calvary.</span><br />
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<i style="background-color: white;"><b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">CREDITS</span></b></i></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Nicholas Phan, tenor</span></span></i></div>
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<i><i><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Robert Mollicone, piano</span></span></i></i></div>
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<i><i><i><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">recorded LIVE at SF Performances Salons at the Rex, January 28, 2016</span></span></i></i></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Executive Producers: Nicholas Phan, Philip Wilder</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Producer / Recording Engineer: Lolly Lewis</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Recording assistant: Emma Logan</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mastering / Mixing: Piper Payne, Coast Mastering</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Cinematography: Catharine Axley, Kristine Stolakis</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Editor: Catharine Axley</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">This project is a fiscally sponsored project of </span><b style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">FRACTURED ATLAS.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">To find our more information and to make a TAX-DEDUCTIBLE </span></div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-23831483500710927172016-11-10T03:21:00.000-05:002016-11-10T12:26:49.400-05:00River of Progress<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Like a great many people I know, I woke up yesterday morning with the heaviest of hearts. It was easy in the post-election haze of shock and awe to feel depressed and defeated. Even the journalists on every news network I watched Tuesday night (and I checked in with all the major networks across the spectrum) seemed somewhat bewildered, confused, and...well...low-energy, to say the least.<br />
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It's an extraordinary thing that America chose to elect a man who received no endorsement from any living former president nor any major news publication...a man who was endorsed by the KKK. It's an incredible thing that America chose to elect a man with absolutely no political experience who unleashed and rode a tidal wave of misogyny, bigotry, and xenophobia to our nation's highest office.<br />
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In the wake of that, when viewing it from that perspective, it's easy to feel disgusted, despondent, depressed and like one wants to give up. I understand that the Canadian immigration website crashed under the deluge of traffic it received Tuesday night, and scrolling through my Facebook feed yesterday morning was like a visual depiction of grief and all its stages - most prevalently anger. <br />
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During the administration of President George W. Bush, many Americans with whom I was close (including my partner at the time) were desperate to ex-patriate to Europe, where life seemed better and people seemed more accepting. I believe the Canadian immigration website was getting a lot of traffic back then, as well. Yet I never, ever had this inclination, despite the fact that I was frequently working in Europe for extended periods back then. I was adamant about staying in the US, and proudly being an American despite the jokes that I should pretend to be a Canadian citizen during my foreign travels. <br />
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I believe that America is beautiful, and I am proud that it is my home. Not only is it a stunningly beautiful country in its landscape and natural wonders, but it is a country founded by a handful of visionary geniuses (who were riddled with all the flawed trappings of human genius) on the principle of Freedom. Part of the beauty of that freedom is that our wonderful land is a place where truly all voices can be heard - most importantly those of dissent. We witnessed the humbling power of that beauty yesterday, when a strong and vocal minority of the electorate raised their voices of dissent and swept a terrifying, seemingly despotic man whom they felt represents their ideals into power for at least the next 4 years. <br />
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The river of progress is a winding one that, just like rivers in nature, sometimes winds back upon itself. In a strange twist of history, a vestigial institution of a time when our founding fathers felt that both one's genitalia and the color of one's skin determined suffrage was the quirk of our voting system that empowered this minority of voters. The Electoral College, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_College_(United_States)#Background" target="_blank">which was established in lieu of a direct, popular vote as a compromise to appease the slave-owners of the South</a>, empowered a minority voice of dissent against the future legacy of our first black president and the possibility for a woman to finally break the ultimate glass ceiling in America.<br />
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I think that it is important to remember that while rivers may wind back on themselves occasionally, and sometimes narrow almost to streams, they always continue to flow. The analogy makes me think of yet another beautiful, American creation: Charles Ives' setting of Robert Underwood Johnson's poem <i>The Housatonic at Stockbridge</i>. The river of progress is, like the Housatonic of Johnson's poem, sometimes "overshy" and sometimes "masks its beauty from the eager eye". But I do believe it will continue to carry us ever onward, and that this week's shocking result is just a "restive ripple" which encourages a "faster drift". I hope it is a wake-up call for us to try to extricate ourselves from our liberal echo chamber and truly hear this voice of dissent, as <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/5-reasons-why-trump-will-_b_11156794.html" target="_blank">Michael Moore was encouraging us to do back in July</a>. I, like the narrator in the poem, "also of much resting have a fear", and I look forward to following this river "to the adventurous sea" that lies beyond, no matter how seemingly meandering its path.</div>
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We must remember that we are the voice of the majority of the popular vote that chose progress. As a result, no matter who is our president, progress was made, and progress will continue. Perhaps taking confidence in that, we can continue to appreciate the terrifying beauty of our right to Freedom of Speech and listen to these voices of dissent with a bit of compassion, hopefully enabling us all to find a path forward...together. </div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">Charles Ives</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">The Housatonic at Stockbridge</span></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">TEXT (Robert Underwood Johnson)</span></b><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;">Contented river! In thy dreamy realm</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">The cloudy willow and the plumy elm:</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">Thou beautiful!</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">From ev'ry dreamy hill</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">what eye but wanders with thee at thy will,</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">Contented river!</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">And yet over-shy </span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">To mask thy beauty from the eager eye;</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">Hast thou a thought to hide from field and town?</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">In some deep current of the sunlit brown</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">Ah! there's a restive ripple,</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">And the swift red leaves</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">September's firstlings faster drift;</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">Wouldst thou away, dear stream?</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">Come, whisper near! </span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">I also of much resting have a fear:</span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">Let me tomorrow thy companion be, </span><br style="color: #333333;" /><span style="color: #333333;">By fall and shallow to the adventurous sea!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: x-small;"><b>CREDITS</b></span></i></span><br />
<i><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Nicholas Phan, tenor</span></i></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Robert Mollicone, piano</span></i></span></span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">recorded LIVE at SF Performances Salons at the Rex, January 28, 2016</span></i><br />
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<i style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: x-small;">Executive Producers: Nicholas Phan, Philip Wilder</span></i><br />
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<i style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: x-small;"><b>SOUND:</b></span></i><br />
<i style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: x-small;">Producer / Recording Engineer: Lolly Lewis</span></i><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Recording assistant: Emma Logan</i><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Mastering / Mixing: Piper Payne, Coast Mastering</i><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>VIDEO:</b></span></i><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Cinematography: Catharine Axley, Kristine Stolakis</span></i><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Editor: Catharine Axley</span></i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This project is a fiscally sponsored project of <b>FRACTURED ATLAS.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px;">To find our more information and to make a TAX-DEDUCTIBLE </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px;">donation to support the continuation of this project please visit:</span><br />
<a href="https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=10592" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><b>https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=10592</b></span></a></div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-41024639720544287542016-11-03T02:43:00.000-04:002016-11-03T02:52:56.796-04:00By Turning We Come Round Right<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This being a presidential election season, I took up some American songs this past year, performing and curating American-themed programs in Chicago, Washington DC, Istanbul and San Francisco this past year. The theme I chose for many of these concerts, specifically those in Chicago and San Francisco, was something I loosely titled, <i>American Spirit</i>, focusing in on the American pre-occupation with faith and spirituality. <br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When thinking about the United States’ beginnings, we
often think of the Pilgrims, whose famous meal with the Native Americans they encountered upon landing here we attempt to recreate every year at Thanksgiving. These pilgrims
represent the two basic principles upon which the United
States’ foundation is based: the search for both economic
and religious freedom. Ever since, Americans have been pre-occupied with their relationship to a higher power - whether it be the New England Transcendentalists seeking God in Nature, Joseph Smith translating the golden plates of the angel Moroni and founding the Mormon Church, or the political rise of the religious right. I, myself, in true San Franciscan 'spiritual' fashion own no fewer than three yoga mats.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">While faith and religion have played
a fundamental part in the evolution of American identity,
American composers have developed a distinctly unique
relationship with these topics in contrast with their European
counterparts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What we now generally define as ‘Classical Music’ has its
roots in the religions of Europe. Its earliest forms were composed specifically to augment religious rites, and eventually
evolved into integral parts of worship. When we think of the
great European composers, much of the music that deals
with the topics of faith and religion is composed in a religious context—the many masses, cantatas, magnificats, te
deums, requiem and passion sett</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">ings that we know and love
today. While there are, of course, exceptions to this generalization (Handel’s oratorios, for instance, which were composed as a practical and more economic replacement for </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">the London opera productions that were becoming increasingly too expensive for him to mount), most of these pieces
were composed for specific religious services and intended
to be performed as part of the worship service. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In contrast,
much of the music written by American classical composers
that deals with faith and spirituality has been written in a
distinctly secular context. Even Bernstein’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Mass </span>is a theater
piece, juxtaposing the formal ritual of the Mass with texts by
Bernstein and Stephen Schwartz that challenge the religious
teaching of the mass. The American composer generally only
encounters this subject in the form of an artistic meditation
on faith and belief, in a way that in recent years has become
in fashion to call ‘spiritual’. These <i>American Spirit</i> programs explored some
of these meditations.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
The concept of what it is to be an American has loomed in my mind ever since having the honor to represent the United States at the BBC Singer of the World competition back in 2003. The competition is a sort of vocal olympics, and walking into the lobby of my hotel in Cardiff, seeing the American flag hanging amongst the other flags of the other countries represented that year was the first time I really had ever considered what it was to be a representative of the United States and to be an American. As the bi-racial child of an immigrant who grew up in the very white and black midwest, I had always felt a bit of an outsider in America. Yet it was in that moment that I realized I am very much a part of the history of the great American cultural melting pot. I've considered the many facets of what that means ever since, and performing these programs over the last year has been a wonderful deepening of that epiphany that I experienced so many years ago in Wales.<br />
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As we push through this final week of this wretched election cycle, I leave you with one of the songs we performed at the Hotel Rex for San Francisco Performances back in January: Aaron Copland's beautiful arrangement of the Shaker tune, <i>Simple Gifts</i>. The words from the middle section of the song take on a different meaning for me now, after all the baseness and drama of the past few months of this fraught presidential contest: "To turn, turn will be our delight, and by turning, turning, we come round right." After all of the spinning we've been through as these campaigns have waged their wars against each other, I do hope that next Tuesday, we do actually come round right, so that we can, as the song says, "find ourselves in that place just right...to be in the valley of love and delight."<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">arranged by Aaron Copland</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Simple Gifts from 'Old American Songs'</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">TEXT (Shaker Folk Song):</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">And when we find ourselves in the place just right</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">When true simplicity is gained</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">To turn, turn will be our delight</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">'Till by turning, turning we come round right.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">And when we find ourselves in the place just right</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.</span><br /><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />CREDITS</b></span></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Nicholas Phan, tenor</span></span></i></div>
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<i><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Robert Mollicone, piano</span></span></i></i><br />
<i style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">recorded LIVE at SF Performances Salons at the Rex, January 28, 2016</span></span></i></span></i><br />
<i style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></i></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">Executive Producers: Nicholas Phan, Philip Wilder</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">SOUND:</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">Producer / Recording Engineer: Lolly Lewis</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">Recording assistant: Emma Logan</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">Mastering / Mixing: Piper Payne, Coast Mastering</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="font-family: inherit;">VIDEO:</b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Cinematography: Catharine Axley, Kristine Stolakis</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Editor: Catharine Axley</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
</span><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: x-small;">This project is a fiscally sponsored project of <b>FRACTURED ATLAS.</b></span></span></div>
</span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To find our more information and to make a TAX-DEDUCTIBLE</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">donation to support the continuation of this project please visit:</span><br />
<a href="https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=10592" style="color: #888888; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=10592</span></a></div>
</span></div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-76068592213914194102016-10-23T13:12:00.001-04:002016-11-03T02:54:50.132-04:00Sneaking a Peek<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1">Here is a second preview video for <span class="s2"><a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nicholas-phan-gods-monsters-piano/" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Gods & Monsters</a>! </span></span>This video is a film of us recording an early complete take of Gustav Mahler’s haunting song, <i>Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen </i>from <i>Des Knaben Wunderhorn</i>. As this is a peek of one of our early complete takes of the piece, it is not a perfect performance! But it gives you a great preview of the kind of album that <i>Gods & Monsters</i> is turning out to be and what the recording process was like up at Skywalker. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To those of you who have already specifically donated to this project - thank you so much from all of us on the Gods & Monsters team. It means the world to us to have your support behind this project, making it possible for us to usher it through it’s final stages towards its release this coming January on Avie Records. If you haven't had a chance to donate yet - there is still time to pre-order your copy of the album, as well as make a tax-deductible contribution to the project.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hope you enjoy! Again, many thanks!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">____________________________________________________________________</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gustav Mahler</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Wo die shönen Trompeten blasen</i> from 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nicholas Phan, tenor</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Myra Huang, piano</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">LIVE full take from 'Gods & Monsters' recording sessions at Skywalker Sound, August 9, 2016 </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">GERMAN TEXT:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wer ist denn draußen und wer klopfet an, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Der mich so leise, so leise wecken kann?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Das ist der Herzallerliebste dein,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Steh auf und laß mich zu dir ein!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Was soll ich hier nun länger stehn?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ich seh die Morgenröt aufgehn,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Die Morgenröt, zwei helle Stern,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bei meinem Schatz, da wär ich gern,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">bei meiner Herzallerliebsten.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Das Mädchen stand auf und ließ ihn ein;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sie heißt ihn auch wilkommen sein.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Willkommen, lieber Knabe mein,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So lang hast du gestanden!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sie reicht ihm auch die schneeweiße Hand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Von ferne sang die Nachtigall</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Das Mädchen fing zu weinen an.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ach weine nicht, du Liebste mein,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Aufs Jahr sollst du mein eigen sein.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mein Eigen sollst du werden gewiß,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wie's keine sonst auf Erden ist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">O Lieb auf grüner Erden.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ich zieh in Krieg auf grüner Heid,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Die grüne Heide, die ist so weit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Allwo dort die schönen Trompeten blasen,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Da ist mein Haus, von grünem Rasen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">ENGLISH TRANSLATION:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Who is then outside, and who is knocking,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Who can so softly, softly waken me?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is your darling,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Arise and let me come in to you!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Why should I stand here any longer?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I see the dawn arrive,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The dawn, two bright stars,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">With my darling would I gladly be,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">With my heart's most beloved!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The maiden arose and let him in;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">She welcomed him as well:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Welcome, my beloved boy,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You have stood outside so long!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">She reached to him her snow-white hand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">From afar a nightingale sang;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The maiden began to weep.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh, do not cry, my darling,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Next year you shall be my own!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My own shall you certainly be,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As no one else on earth is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">O Love on the green earth!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I go to war on the green heath,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The green heath that is so broad!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is there where the beautiful trumpets blow,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There is my house of green grass!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>Translation copyright © by Emily Ezust,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>from the LiederNet Archive -- http://www.lieder.net/</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>CREDITS</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>Executive Producers: Nicholas Phan, Philip Wilder</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>SOUND:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>Producer / Recording Engineer: Marlan Barry</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>VIDEO:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>Clubsoda Productions (http://Clubsodapro.com/)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>This project is a fiscally sponsored project of FRACTURED ATLAS.</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To find our more information and to make a TAX-DEDUCTIBLE</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">donation to support the continuation of this project please visit:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=10592" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=10592</b></span></a></div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-61457464968294215992016-10-19T14:54:00.001-04:002016-11-03T02:54:24.633-04:00The Things our Fathers Loved<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the other recording projects I'm currently working on is producing art song and vocal chamber music content specifically for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/grecchinois01" target="_blank">YouTube</a>. The initial material that was recorded for the first stage of this project is from a salon concert I gave as the resident artist for <a href="http://sfperformances.org/performances/1516/NicholasPhan.html" target="_blank">San Francisco Performances</a> earlier this January. As tonight's final presidential debate looms, the subject matter of the program we recorded feels very timely. The program was built from <a href="http://caichicago.org/" target="_blank">CAIC</a>'s 2015 Collaborative Works Festival, which explored America's relationship to faith and spirituality through music.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That evening in January, we began the program with some songs by Charles Ives, a visionary composer whose music still sounds so fresh and current today, despite the fact that it was written 100 years ago. A true patriot whose music is steeped in the history of New England and the United States, one of his signature techniques was his ability to conjure up nostalgia and memory by creating aural snapshots of the past. He did this by employing a pastiche technique, incorporating quotes from a number of popular tunes and hymns, seamlessly weaving them together, creating something that sounds entirely new and remarkably unique and individual.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In his short, 105-second song, <i>The Things our Fathers Loved </i>(a setting of one of his own texts), there are countless numbers of popular American tunes and hymns quoted, including <i>Battle Cry of Freedom</i>, <i>Dixie</i>, and <i>Come Thou Font of Every Blessing</i>, just to name a few. The song weaves all of these tunes together quite elegantly at first, creating a sense of wistfulness for a golden age past. Gradually, though, the tunes begin to collide with one another, and the voice and piano start to drift in different directions tonally, creating a slight sense of chaos and cacophony. It is as if the present moment, being the sum of all things past leading up to now, is a bit of a messy jumble, the simplicity of yesteryear a distant memory. The song ends beautifully, but in a quite unresolved way. The story is unfinished, the future is both uncertain and unwritten.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Looking ahead to this evening's debate and considering just how acrimonious, sensationalist and low-brow this whole presidential election cycle has been, Ives' song about the continuing clash of the conflicting forces of American history (the song begins with a quote from the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_(song)" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">unofficial anthem</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> of the Confederacy and then quotes a </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Cry_of_Freedom" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">popular Union tune</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> just 12 measures later!) feels eerily prescient. It's almost as if he understood the timeline and progress of American history and politics as one of continual conflict, with the hope for growth through some sort of resolution of these opposing forces. The sense of panic and instability he creates at the song's climax where the piano and voice are in very different tonal worlds, with no seeming relation to each other and both at a dynamically loud peak, feels not unlike the mood right now when thinking about the dirty mud-slinging and ideological conflict that pervades American politics today, in which presidential candidates can't bring themselves to be good enough sports to, at the very least, shake hands at the beginning of a debate.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Charles Ives</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">The Things Our Fathers Loved</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">TEXT (Charles Ives)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">I think there must be a place in the soul</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">all made of tunes, of tunes of long ago;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">I hear the organ on the Main Street corner,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Aunt Sarah humming Gospels; Summer evenings,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">The village cornet band, playing in the square.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">The town's Red, White and Blue,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">all Red, White and Blue; Now! Hear the words</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">But they sing in my soul of the things our Fathers loved.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>CREDITS</b></span></i></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Nicholas Phan, tenor</span></span></i></div>
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<i><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Robert Mollicone, piano</span></span></i></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">recorded LIVE at SF Performances Salons at the Rex, January 28, 2016</span></span></i></span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">Executive Producers: Nicholas Phan, Philip Wilder</span><br />
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<b style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">SOUND:</span></b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">Producer / Recording Engineer: Lolly Lewis</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">Recording assistant: Emma Logan</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">Mastering / Mixing: Piper Payne, Coast Mastering</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">Cinematography: Catharine Axley, Kristine Stolakis</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">Editor: Catharine Axley</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">This project is a fiscally sponsored project of </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">FRACTURED ATLAS.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To find our more information and to make a TAX-DEDUCTIBLE</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">donation to support the continuation of this project please visit:</span></span><br />
<a href="https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=10592" style="color: #888888; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=10592</span></a></div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-7143974960183020842016-10-18T18:29:00.000-04:002016-10-18T18:29:00.067-04:00Storytelling<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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What are songs but stories set to music? Whether they are confessional stories of the self or telling any variety of narrative, songs are tales spun to music.<br />
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Back in February of 2009, I had the privilege of participating in one of the Marilyn Horne Foundation's National Artist Residencies in Oberlin, Ohio. These residencies consisted of a full recital on the local presenting series (in this instance, the Oberlin Conservatory's <a href="http://www.oberlin.edu/artsguide/artist-recital-series/" target="_blank">Artist Recital Series</a>), preceded by a couple of days of outreach performances, taking art songs into the local schools. The most challenging and rewarding part of this week in Ohio were these outreach performances. My pianist colleague and I performed in classrooms filled with children as young as 5 years old - 1st and 2nd graders. We were limited to only art song - no opera arias, no crossover repertoire. The task of presenting the songs of Robert Schumann and Benjamin Britten to these young people was a daunting one - how does one hold a child's attention with this music? It was a transformative experience for me (one which I <a href="http://grecchinois.blogspot.com/2009/02/reaching-out.html" target="_blank">blogged about</a> at the time), and it revolutionized my approach to performance ever since.<br />
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At one point a few years ago, I was seeking programming advice from one of the artistic planning directors at Carnegie Hall, when he told me something that reminded me of that experience with those children back in 2009. "When it comes to art song, you have to remember, there really is NO standard repertoire," he said. It was a liberating reminder, making me remember that any song repertoire will be falling on ears as fresh as those young schoolchildren back in Ohio. The same techniques apply, regardless of one's audience - one has to mine every detail, and pretend that they are telling a tall tale to a group of children around a campfire. No stone must be left unturned, and every colorful extreme must be brought to life. <br />
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As a child, one of the first books I remember falling in
love with was a copy of D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. I’ve been fascinated
with tales of the legendary and fantastic ever since.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As more and more children have entered our lives, most notably Myra's two daughters and my niece, storytelling has become a greater part of our personal lives, leading us to this fun <i><a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nicholas-phan-gods-monsters-piano#/" target="_blank">Gods & Monsters</a></i> program that is so full of musical imagination. One of the most astounding aspects of these
powerful musical miniatures is the incredible amount of color and atmosphere
they lend to these stories, so that each song becomes an epic tale of almost
cinematic proportions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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I found myself standing in front of an audience full of fresh ears yet again last Friday in Washington, DC. Myra and I took our <i>Gods & Monsters </i>program out for its maiden voyage in public, as part of a benefit concert for a fantastic volunteer organization called <a href="http://www.ysop.org/" target="_blank">YSOP</a>. Standing in front of an audience of YSOP's many supporters who there to support their efforts, and experience a new musical experience; some of the young people that YSOP engages in community service projects, and some homeless people who are the beneficiaries of YSOP's programs, I felt not unlike I did standing in that Oberlin 1st & 2nd grade classroom seven years ago. It was a thrill to be able to pretend that we were all sitting around a campfire, with Myra and I telling them tales of kings, knights, witches, gods and monsters in as much vivid detail as possible, seeing everyone's eyes brighten as their imaginations fired up just as much as ours were.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BLsZqOVAItM/" target="_blank">Myra and I at the YSOP benefit recital last Friday in Washington, DC.</a></i></td></tr>
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There's still a couple of weeks to pre-order your copy of <i>Gods & Monsters</i>, as well as make a tax-deductible contribution towards underwriting the final stages of the project before its January 2017 release. Pre-order your copy and make a donation <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nicholas-phan-gods-monsters-piano#/" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">HERE</a>!</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>Nicholas Phan Recording Projects is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Nicholas Phan Recording Projects must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only. Any contribution above the value of the goods and services received by the donor is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. </i></span></span></div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-43172846950402690262016-10-16T18:34:00.001-04:002016-10-27T01:47:10.756-04:00#ThisIs2016 - Asian-Americans Respond<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Sometime in early January of 2001, as I was beginning to consider my post-college options, I went out to Los Angeles to visit a Chinese-American soprano friend and meet her voice teacher, whom she had been raving about since moving out to SoCal. She felt that she had revolutionized her vocal technique, opening up new horizons for her. This voice teacher was a visiting voice teacher for the apprentices out at the Santa Fe Opera every summer and was equally impressively connected elsewhere throughout the United States, maintaining a studio filled with young, successful and (most importantly) working singers. During my visit, I arranged to have a lesson with this esteemed pedagogue, as I knew the next chapter in my studies was approaching, and it was an important time to consider every option before me.<br />
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During the course of an hour-long lesson at this teacher's home studio, she told me that she admired my voice and my singing, and then offered a few technical tips, which I found quite helpful and interesting. My friend sat on her couch as we worked, attentively observing the session. Towards the end of our hour, the teacher asked me: "Your mother is Greek, right? What is her maiden name?" I replied to her seemingly strange question, and she repeated my first name combined with my mother's maiden name a few times. "That sounds great!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands. She then shared with me her final piece of advice for our hour together: "You should definitely change your name to that, so when you start doing all of these important competitions, people won't think you're just another dumb, Asian singer."<br />
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While I have lived a privileged life in music and opera since then, and I try to focus on the many opportunities that I have been granted and positive experiences that have filled my life, I have felt a tiny bit of discomfort as the dialogue about race relations has intensified over the past couple of years, with subjects as wide-ranging as the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the lack of diversity amongst the Saturday Night Live cast members and staff writers, to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/how-do-african-american-singers-feel-about-blackface-in-opera/2015/10/16/fbbaa318-7176-11e5-9cbb-790369643cf9_story.html" target="_blank">the debate over the Metropolitan Opera's decision</a> to not put dark makeup on the Russian tenor performing the title role in their production of Verdi's <i>Otello</i> last season. Let me be clear that I believe wholeheartedly that it is fantastic that we are having these discussions about racial inequality and bigotry so openly now - black lives matter. They matter a great deal. My level of discomfort only stems from the temptation to frame these discussions in simple black and white, when in reality, we live in a world of technicolor. <br />
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One of the most striking anecdotes in the NY Times video above is the story Dorothy Hom relates about her white husband not realizing that she is not white. Once, discussing the lack of racial diversity in the opera world and the struggle of the African American opera singer, I was told by a colleague in a moment of heated debate that I cannot understand their struggle, because I can pass for white. Yet, I don't pass for white. As a bi-racial person, the most common question I hear upon meeting someone is "what are your origins?". I obviously take pride in my ethnic origins (as evidenced from the title of this blog), but that stems from my ownership of being "other" when it comes to the "Race or Ethnic Group" section of a voter registration form. Yet despite the fact that the "other" box is the best option I can choose when encountering the race/ethnicity choices on a form, there is this sense that people don't view Asians as people of color, who grapple with issues of prejudice and bigotry, and a history of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act" target="_blank">struggle</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans" target="_blank">oppression</a> within the United States.<br />
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In the very first joke of the cold open of the October 9 episode Saturday Night Live (a show which endured <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/snl-diversity-problem_n_4611546.html" target="_blank">harsh criticism</a> a couple of years ago for its lack of diversity), new cast member Melissa Villaseñor says, "I am the new Hispanic cast member, and tonight I'll be playing Asian moderator, Elaine Quijano, because...baby steps". Baby steps, indeed. I am so happy to see this piece being done by the New York Times, bringing us into the dialogue.</div>
nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-27062691088422462612016-10-13T18:56:00.001-04:002016-10-13T18:56:17.787-04:00Oedipus & Rock Climbing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Sunday afternoon's performance of Stravinsky's <i>Oedipus Rex</i> at Cal Performances was a thrill, in every sense of the word. Stravinsky's score is daunting in every respect. It is demanding both musically and vocally, requiring a huge dynamic range, an expansive sense of line and phrasing, rhythmic precision, and a willingness to tread the extraordinary path Oedipus navigates as he discovers the shocking truth of his origins. Performing it for the first time with colleagues who were so experienced with the piece was an honor and luxury - I hope I have the honor of getting to perform the piece many more times in the future.<br />
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Rather than just collapse in exhaustion after surviving my first foray with Oedipus, I spent the Monday touring San Francisco's more majestic and epic spots for the photo shoot of the <i><a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nicholas-phan-gods-monsters-piano#/" target="_blank">Gods & Monsters</a> </i>album cover. Instead of taking a chance to netflix and chill all day, I found myself climbing rocks on the beach, desperately trying to not fall into the Pacific as my dear friend Henry snapped conceptual shots of me. We had a great time touring around many of San Fransisco's most beautiful spots - we should have some good album cover options from the hundreds of snaps Henry took yesterday.<br />
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Speaking of <i>Gods & Monsters</i>, all of us on the G & M team have been overwhelmed with the many generous contributions that have streamed in steadily over the past week - it's an honor and joy to feel so supported in these artistic adventures, and we are all incredibly grateful for everyone's generosity so far. If you haven't had a chance to check out the project's IndieGoGo page, you can by clicking <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nicholas-phan-gods-monsters-piano#/" target="_blank">HERE</a>. There are chances to pre-order your copy of the album (even signed copies) while also making a tax-deductible contribution towards underwriting the album's final stages of post-production before it's release next January.</div>
nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-55448910463955103422016-10-11T18:14:00.001-04:002016-10-11T18:14:31.459-04:00National Coming Out Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A very happy National Coming Out Day to one and all. <div>
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I've always believed that it is of the utmost importance to be out, subscribing to the belief that is a public responsibility to be out in order to show the world, most especially those younger than us, who have yet to embark upon the journey of coming out, what happy, beautiful and fulfilling lives it is possible to lead as LGBT people. I discussed this back in 2010 in an <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/albert-imperato/tenor-nick-phan-speaks-ou_b_780168.html" target="_blank">interview for the Huffington Post</a>. While the world has changed greatly in the past 6 years, the need for us to be out and proud beacons of hope remains just a necessary as it ever has. It's wonderful the giant strides we have made towards achieving our civil rights around the world, but coming out still means braving the terrors and real dangers of bigotry, hate and homphobia.</div>
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I applaud and celebrate all of my LGBT sisters and brothers, thank you for being such brave and bight lights, illuminating and enlightening this world in which we live. </div>
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<i>Previous National Coming Out Day posts are <a href="http://grecchinois.blogspot.com/2007/10/stepping-on-out.html" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://grecchinois.blogspot.com/2010/10/coming-out-day.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://grecchinois.blogspot.com/2012/10/happy-coming-out.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-12587470583990699842016-10-07T19:48:00.003-04:002016-10-07T19:48:41.312-04:00Service<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One week from today, on October 14, Myra and I will be giving our <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nicholas-phan-gods-monsters-piano/"><i><b>Gods & Monsters</b></i></a> program its maiden voyage in public, as a benefit recital in Washington, DC for an amazing organization, <a href="http://www.ysop.org/">Youth Services Opportunity Project</a>. From their website, YSOP's mission is to engage youth, college students and adults in meaningful service experiences through an innovative program that combines an orientation to the issues, hands-on volunteer work and reflection. Using orientation and reflection to frame their service experiences, YSOP inspires participants to broaden their perspectives and become engaged citizens.<br /><br />A formative experience I had as a young person was being required to engage in my own community in Michigan as a volunteer throughout middle school and high school. The school I attended from grades 6 through 12 had an annual community service requirement of its entire student body – every student was required to volunteer for a certain number of hours each semester. As I began my path towards following my dream of becoming a professional musician, those volunteering experiences helped me understand that, ultimately, being a musician is a career of service – our work is to serve the music on the page to the best of our ability and to bring communities together – whether it be to aid in healing during a in a time of mourning or to help a community celebrate all sorts of joyous occasions. <div>
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I can think of no better organization to support through music than YSOP, who clearly aim to help young people to become conscious citizens of the world as they enter adulthood. If you live in the Washington, DC area, want to hear some beautiful German Lieder, as well as support a worthy organization that is doing amazing work to make the world a better place, tickets and more information can be found <b><a href="http://www.ysop.org/2016-benefit-recital/" target="_blank">HERE</a></b>.</div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-89552334883170638962016-10-06T03:15:00.000-04:002016-10-06T13:06:34.633-04:00Debuts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This season't theme of mythology reared its head again yesterday, as I started my first rehearsals for this weekend's <i>Oedipus Rex</i> with Cal Performances in Berkeley this weekend. yesterday's meeting was a chance to check in with Esa-Pekka Salonen's wonderful assistant for this project and begin to get an idea of his structural ideas for the piece (the Philharmonia Orchestra is still on a concert tour through more southern parts of California working their way North until Friday). <br />
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<a href="https://calperformances.org/performances/2016-17/chamber-orchestra/esa-pekka-salonen-philharmonia-orchestra-london.php" target="_blank">This Sunday</a> will be my maiden voyage in the sandals of Stravinsky's Oedipus. The piece is a central pillar of his neo-classical period, a chapter in his compositional history with which I am strangely and randomly well-acquainted, having performed his <i>Pulcinella, Mavra</i>, <i>Canticum Sacrum, </i>and <i>Cantata </i>many times over the years (as well has having studied and salivated over <i>The Rake's Progress</i> since I was a college student). So, while it is the first time I will be sailing these particular waters, there is something that feels quite familiar about essaying the musical journey that Oedipus takes as he discovers the horrifying truth of his origins and stabs his eyes out.</div>
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Funnily enough - this weekend's Stravinsky debut has a little connection with what I consider to be my professional debut. I initially met the current Artistic and Executive Director of Cal Performances, <a href="https://calperformances.org/about/leadership.php" target="_blank">Matias Tarnopolsky</a>, while he was still working at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra back in 2002. Matias was part of the team that generously hired me for my first major professional assignment: to sing Iopas in Berlioz <i>Les Troyens</i> with Zubin Mehta and the CSO. Still a master's student at the Manhattan School of Music, I remember being so young and fearless that when I was called to audition for the role, I didn't hesitate to learn Iopas' challenging aria in a matter of days for the audition, because my enthusiasm for how beautiful the music overpowered any sense of nerves or doubt I might have had about such a vocally difficult piece of music.</div>
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After landing in Chicago a few months after that audition to rehearse and perform the role, I decided that since it was my very first adult, big time engagement, I needed to wear a proper bow tie with my tails for the performances, as opposed to the clip-on, pre-tied white tie that I had used throughout college when I needed to wear tails. It was the first time I had ever considered wearing a proper bow-tie, and once I had returned to my hotel room with my fancy, new purchase, I realized that I had absolutely no idea how to tie it. In a panic, I went to the nearest men's store to find a guide on how to tie a bow tie and was advised by the kind salesperson there that I should not fret, it was just like tying a shoe. Easy.</div>
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Fast forward to a few hours later, when I am in my dressing room frantically trying to tie my tie, and the concert has already started. As my first entrance approached, I was still struggling with the cursed pique monstrosity, when Matias knocked on my door to let me know that I needed to go to the stage. I looked at him helplessly and sheepishly admitted that I had absolutely no idea how to tie a bow tie. He calmly turned me around, tied my tie for me from behind, and then pushed me on stage. Teaching a young musician how to tie their bow tie was not something I would have imagined to be on the list of duties of an artistic planning director of the Chicago Symphony, but this is how I learned how to properly deal with that particular piece of men's formalwear. Ever since, whenever I am wearing white tie and tails, there is always a moment when I smile to myself, thinking of Matias and that nerve-wracking experience. </div>
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While I won't be wearing my white tie and tails for this weekend's performance of the Stravinsky (it's on a Sunday, and we are in suits), it is wonderful to reconnect with Matias again for an important debut of music that I am extraordinarily enthusiastic about, and I'm grateful to him for yet another milestone opportunity.</div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-37221613751055416032016-10-04T20:08:00.000-04:002016-10-04T20:08:47.423-04:00Gods and Monsters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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There are two themes that dominate my 2016-2017 season - art song and mythology. Just a few weeks into the season, they've already made themselves extremely prevalent. Since Labor Day, we celebrated the fifth anniversary of the <a href="http://www.caichicago.org/2016-collaborative-works-festival.html" target="_blank">Collaborative Works Festival</a> in Chicago, and I then made my Asian debut singing Bach's fun secular cantata, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschwinde,_ihr_wirbelnden_Winde,_BWV_201" target="_blank">The Dispute between Phoebus and Pan</a></i>, in which a some Greek gods and demi-gods argue over which types of music they like best. Now, this week, I'm turning my attention to Stravinsky's <i><a href="http://calperformances.org/performances/2016-17/chamber-orchestra/esa-pekka-salonen-philharmonia-orchestra-london.php" target="_blank">Oedipus Rex</a></i>. </div>
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Both of these themes come together beautifully in what will be my next album with my longtime recital collaborator, pianist Myra Huang: <b><a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nicholas-phan-gods-monsters-piano/" target="_blank"><i>Gods & Monsters</i>.</a></b> The album is a recording of the program that we will perform for our recital debut at London's Wigmore Hall next February, and will be comprised of German romantic Lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Mahler and Wolf in which these composers retell myths and legends about various gods, monsters, witches, knights, kings and all sorts of other fantastical creatures. You can catch a glimpse of what's to come in the little youtube video above.</div>
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We are currently seeking funding to see the album through its final production stages before its release in January 2017. If you'd like to learn more about the project as well as make a tax-deductible contribution in support of the album, as well as pre-order a copy, you can do so <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nicholas-phan-gods-monsters-piano/" target="_blank"><b>HERE</b></a>. We would appreciate any support you can give to help us bring this phenomenally imaginative and beautiful music to the world!</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Benton Sans", Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Nicholas Phan Recording Projects is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Nicholas Phan Recording Projects must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only. Any contribution above the value of the goods and services received by the donor is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. </i></span></span></div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-45708333650897625742016-10-02T21:55:00.001-04:002016-10-02T22:06:31.911-04:00The Unexpected<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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While this week in Philadelphia <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/20160930_ap_d151d7cede44422ab512057777165b22.html" target="_blank">did not end quite as I expected it to</a>, I am still incredibly grateful for the fact that we got one performance of this weekend's programs in on Thursday evening at the Kimmel Center. As I wrote in my last post, I had been looking forward to this past week of Mozart in Philly for a number of reasons - not only because the orchestra lives up so beautifully to it's legendary reputation, but also because I would be getting to a chance to reunite with 3 of my favorite soloist colleagues with whom to collaborate, and the opportunity to work with Yannick, whose work I've so greatly admired for so long. As you can see from the Instagram pics we snapped backstage afterwards - you can tell from our big smiles that we had a really great time on Thursday evening.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BLBljgsgRge/?taken-by=grecchinois" target="_blank">So sad about the turn of events here in Philly this weekend, </a></i></span></h1>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BLBljgsgRge/?taken-by=grecchinois" target="_blank">but nonetheless so grateful to have had these precious days </a></i></span></h1>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BLBljgsgRge/?taken-by=grecchinois" target="_blank">of incredible music-making with these inspiring and dear colleagues. </a></i></span></h1>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BLBljgsgRge/?taken-by=grecchinois" target="_blank">Wishing everyone the best for a quick resolution and happiness all around. </a></i></span></h1>
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Even if it was only one concert, it was a joy to perform, and will be a musical experience I don't soon forget. It's so incredible when your colleagues can reveal new layers of beauty in a piece with which one is already so familiar. The piece will never be quite the same for me, which is astonishing considering the brief time we got to spend with it as a team.</div>
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As for the unexpected happenings, it seems that all is <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20161003_Philadelphia_Orchestra_strike_ends__contract_vote_73-11.html" target="_blank">now resolved</a> as of this afternoon, and the music can continue, which is great! I'm really looking forward to returning to the orchestra for more concerts in December.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BLBmKuegO0s/?taken-by=grecchinois" target="_blank">These people are amazing and such inspiring singers and musicians, </a></i></span></h1>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BLBmKuegO0s/?taken-by=grecchinois" target="_blank">this week has been a real privilege and treat. </a></i></span></h1>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BLBmKuegO0s/?taken-by=grecchinois" target="_blank"><span style="color: #003569; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;">#Mozart</span></span> <span style="color: #003569; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;">#ColleaguesFromHeaven</span></span> <span style="color: #003569; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;">#TouringLife</span></span> <span style="color: #003569; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;">#Benedictus</span></span> <span style="color: #003569; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;">#Quartet</span></span> <span style="color: #003569; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;">#maestro</span></span></a></i></span></h1>
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Speaking of the music continuing, I spent the unexpected free day and half in Philly catching up with friends, enjoying a bit of a 'snow-day' with Lucy and Kate (both of whom I simply don't get to see often enough), and trying to continue my preparations for next Sunday's <i><a href="https://calperformances.org/performances/2016-17/chamber-orchestra/esa-pekka-salonen-philharmonia-orchestra-london.php" target="_blank">Oedipus Rex</a></i> with Philharmonia Orchestra of London in Berkeley. One of the bonuses of this extra time to shift 100% of my focus to the Stravinsky was having a chance to sit with the score and catch some things that I had mis-read as I've been studying and learning the score over the past few weeks...it was a great relief that I'm doubled in the orchestra more often than I thought I would be...</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BK_e_dZAhTG/?taken-by=grecchinois" target="_blank">That time I realized that Clarinet line I found so confusing was actually an English Horn.</a></i></span></h1>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BK_e_dZAhTG/?taken-by=grecchinois" target="_blank"><i> </i><span style="color: #003569; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><i>#INeedReadingGlasses</i></span></span><i> </i><span style="color: #003569; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><i>#Stravinsky#Transposing101</i></span></span><i> </i><i style="border: 0px; color: #003569; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">#</i><span style="color: #003569; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit;">🙈😱</span></span></a></span></h1>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-75820067530788265692016-09-28T23:28:00.003-04:002016-09-29T07:55:39.292-04:00Waves and Rehearsals<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last night's performance of 'Breaking The Waves' at <a href="https://www.operaphila.org/whats-on/on-stage-2016-2017/breaking-the-waves/" target="_blank">Opera Philadelphia</a> was fantastic. The piece packs a powerful punch and is full of beautiful music, and I was moved to see some very beloved colleagues and friends give such riveting, rich and real performances. My dear friend <a href="http://kieraduffysoprano.com/" target="_blank">Kiera Duffy</a> is phenomenal as Bess, the main character of this tragic tale. It was hard to hold back the tears when congratulating her last night - I'm so unbelievably happy and proud to know her. It's always such a joy to be so inspired by one's colleagues and watch them soar.<br />
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Silly <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/selfie/" style="border: 0px; color: #003569; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">#selfie</a> with this <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/genius/" style="border: 0px; color: #003569; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">#genius</a> who was visiting in rehearsal today. </i></span></h1>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>She is magnificent in 'Breaking the Waves' at <a class="notranslate" href="https://www.instagram.com/operaphila/" style="border: 0px; color: #003569; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">@operaphila</a> - </i></span></h1>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>so proud to know this amazing woman and artist. </i></span></h1>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/touringlife/" style="border: 0px; color: #003569; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">#TouringLife</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/friends/" style="border: 0px; color: #003569; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">#friends</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/belovedcolleagues/" style="border: 0px; color: #003569; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">#belovedColleagues</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/puttingittogether/" style="border: 0px; color: #003569; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">#PuttingItTogether</a></i></span></h1>
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Speaking of inspiration - today's rehearsals of Mozart's 'Great' Mass in c minor with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin were also inspirational. So many details, colors and nuances were explored in today's rehearsal - it was great fun to be able and be encouraged to explore the many intricate corners of this stunningly beautiful piece. I've been looking forward to this week of concerts here in Philly for a very long time, because I've been suspecting that this would be a very special set of forces with whom to perform this piece, which has so much chamber music-like writing for the soloists and the orchestra. Getting to work on it with such sensitive and musically-playful soloist colleagues (all of whom I have enjoyed the privilege of performing with in various places before), such an attentive and present maestro, and this legendary orchestra has turned out to be even more of a treat than I had anticipated.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: proxima-nova, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BK6uGICAId5/?taken-by=grecchinois" target="_blank">Inspiring and FUN <span style="color: #003569; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">#rehearsal</span></span>today in Philly. <span style="color: #003569; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">#Mozart</span></span> <span style="color: #003569; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">#TouringLife#PuttingItTogether</span></span></a></i></span></h1>
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Fingers crossed I manage to sleep a bit more tonight than the few hours I managed last night - the Japanese jet lag is still kicking me in the rear...it would be nice to not have to drink quite so many cups of coffee to get through the day tomorrow.</div>
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-48856741274894919432016-09-27T11:02:00.001-04:002016-09-27T11:08:12.435-04:00From the City of Brotherly Love<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've had this nagging itch to write more regularly here the past couple of months. I've ignored it as best I can, but I'm slowly realizing that I need to pay attention to that insistent, prodding voice/feeling. So, I think I am going to try to post daily for the next little while. I can't promise anything profound, but it's about time for me to start writing more again. Plus, I have a lot of ideas and news that I hope to share on here over the next few months, so why not get into the practice of it all again?<br />
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It's been a rather densely packed time lately, and (thankfully) it shows no signs of letting up for another couple of weeks. In the last 6 weeks, I've toured Bach cantatas and masses through many of the Bach cities in Germany, revisited some Scarlatti with my dear Philharmonia Baroque colleagues at Tanglewood, mounted our fifth <a href="http://www.caichicago.org/2016-collaborative-works-festival.html" target="_blank">Collaborative Works Festival</a> in Chicago, and made my Asian debut performing and recording more Bach cantatas in Japan. Just yesterday, I found myself getting off a plane here in Philadelphia, where I am excited to be for a week of Mozart with the Philly Orchestra.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BK1uJI5ge-j/?taken-by=grecchinois">Good evening, Philadelphia #TouringLife #HotelViews #Mozart</a></td></tr>
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It felt fitting to land just in time for last night's presidential debate here in this city in which our great nation, for all intents and purposes, was born. Watching Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump spar with each other while sipping my anxious feelings in the hotel bar, I had the distinct feeling that we are, as a nation, on the precipice of an important turning point in American history. I really do believe that this great experiment in democracy has the potential to change dramatically (and perhaps collapse in on itself) depending on the outcome of this upcoming election. For me, last night's debate only highlighted just how great the threat our democracy (and the world) faces in November truly is.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BK1ybdmg4xH/?taken-by=grecchinois" target="_blank">Here we go... #debates</a></td></tr>
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I find myself with an unexpected free day here in Philly, which is fantastic. It allows me some extra study time to continue preparing for next week's <a href="https://calperformances.org/performances/2016-17/chamber-orchestra/esa-pekka-salonen-philharmonia-orchestra-london.php" target="_blank">Stravinsky adventures</a> back home in the Bay, as well as an opportunity to catch the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/26/arts/music/review-breaking-the-waves-lends-musical-heft-to-a-von-trier-tale.html?_r=0" target="_blank">much raved-about</a> 'Breaking the Waves' at Opera Philadelphia tonight.</div>
nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-50545539963113803382016-09-06T23:24:00.000-04:002016-10-27T01:55:14.233-04:00Simple Songs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Tonight is a special milestone, as the 5th annual <a href="http://www.caichicago.org/2016-collaborative-works-festival.html" target="_blank"><b>Collaborative Works Festival</b></a> opens tonight in Chicago. The annual vocal chamber music festival is presented each year by Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, an organization devoted to the preservation and promotion of art song and vocal chamber music that I co-founded with two amazing colleagues, <a href="http://www.caichicago.org/about.html" target="_blank">Nicholas Hutchinson and Shannon McGinnis</a>, back in 2010. <br />
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Having been a part of launching and growing this Festival for the past five years has been an incredible privilege that has affected me deeply, most notably focusing and honing my artistry - enhancing my passion for this art form with a deep sense of mission. As we go into tonight's opening concert, I am deeply grateful to my phenomenal co-founders Shannon and Nick for all that they do to make this organization grow year after year, working with the army of world-class artists, incredibly generous donors, amazing board members and advisors, and devoted volunteers that we have been lucky enough to call the CAIC family. It's been an beautiful and exciting journey so far, with the past five years seeing inspiring performances from my colleagues, magical educational moments, and exponential audience growth all combining with the overwhelming generosity of our supporters to build a much-needed platform for this exquisite, intimate art form. <br />
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It seems only fitting to celebrate this 5th anniversary with a song - with one that was a featured part of last year's Festival, but also which encapsulates all that we have been trying to do over the past five years at CAIC - to sing simple songs.<br />
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Here's to reaching 5 years, and to looking forward to the many more to come.<br />
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Leonard Bernstein<br />
Simple Song from 'Mass'<br />
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TEXT (Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Schwartz):<br />
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Sing God a simple song:<br />
Lauda, Laudē<br />
Make it up as you go along:<br />
Lauda, Laudē<br />
Sing like you like to sing.<br />
God loves all simple things,<br />
For God is the simplest of all,<br />
For God is the simplest of all.<br />
I will sing the Lord a new song<br />
To praise Him, to bless Him, to bless the Lord.<br />
I will sing His praises while I live<br />
All of my days.<br />
Blesed is the man who loves the Lord,<br />
Blessed is the man who praises Him.<br />
Lauda, Lauda, Laudē<br />
And walks in His ways.<br />
I will lift up my eyes<br />
To the hills from whence comes my help.<br />
I will lift up my voice to the Lord<br />
Singing Lauda, Laudē.<br />
For the Lord is my shade,<br />
Is the shade upon my right hand,<br />
And the sun shall not smite me by day<br />
Nor the moon by night.<br />
Blessed is the man who loves the Lord,<br />
Lauda, Lauda, Laudē,<br />
And walks in His ways.<br />
Lauda, Lauda, Laudē,<br />
Lauda, Lauda di da di day.<br />
All of my days.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">CREDITS</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Nicholas Phan, tenor</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Robert Mollicone, piano</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">recorded LIVE at San Francisco Performances, January 28, 2016 (Salons at the Hotel Rex)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Executive Producers: Nicholas Phan, Philip Wilder</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><u>Sound</u>:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Producer / Recording Engineer: Lolly Lewis</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Recording assistant: Emma Logan</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Mastering / Mixing: Piper Payne, Coast Mastering</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><u>Video</u>:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Cinematography: Catharine Axley, Kristine Stolakis</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Editor: Catharine Axley</span></div>
nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-40945066528360281362016-08-20T18:55:00.002-04:002016-08-20T18:55:24.445-04:00Bach in Bach-Country<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've been privileged to return for another amazing week in Thüringen - the land of Bach - for another amazing program of Bach Cantatas and Masses with Helmuth Rilling as he leads an academy for young musicians from around the world interested in the music of Bach. What a privilege to watch these musicians from so many different countries and continents to come together to make this amazing music written by this devoted genius from hundreds of years ago. <br />
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Bach's music is truly the touchstone to which I always return when attempting to find my center. Perhaps it's just a symptom of the fact that I was raised musically studying his violin concertos, but no composer has taught me more about music, vocal technique, nor instilled in me such a sense of awe and humility.<br />
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Also, what a privilege to have this week to work alongside Maestro Rilling yet again - never have I met someone so invested in the growth and deepening of artistry of those who surround him, regardless of age or level of experience. I really feel a true sense of musical family with this man who has lived with the music of Bach for so many years. He is a constant inspiration.<br />
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Here's a short documentary about last year's academy...this year has been no less revelatory and touching:<br />
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nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28777721.post-4488729057243823082016-02-02T20:47:00.002-05:002016-02-02T21:16:35.339-05:00Oberlin Notes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi8ptrNvNrKAhXHlIMKHVqQDBEQFggkMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fclevelandclassical.com%2Fphan-huang-to-replace-relyea-joneson-oberlin-artist-recital-series%2F&usg=AFQjCNGoARY48UkREgUrJswfVzvmM0Kzeg&sig2=zkGkxcSjeNQMvRKIjVN7Hg" target="_blank">recent interview</a> inspired me to start publishing my program notes here...if you're in the Oberlin area tomorrow night, please come by and see me and Myra foray the ups and downs of <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi8ptrNvNrKAhXHlIMKHVqQDBEQFggdMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oberlin.edu%2Fartsguide%2Fartist-recital-series%2Frelyea.shtml&usg=AFQjCNGKEad-NtX3E48TVUjs0uq1VNUztA&sig2=roxvYV2MIzDBwkNjm1AKtQ" target="_blank">this program</a>.<br>
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<p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST</span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">It is a mark of high praise to declare tha</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">t a singer is “a real artist”. Since the beginnings of my professional life, I’ve often notice</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">d this dignified title bestowed upon some of the most renowned and remarkable singers of both the present day and the pa</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">st,</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> and it</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> has</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> spar</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">ked many questions in my mind: </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Is the</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> singer not inherently an artist? What distinguishes a singer from the rest of his/her colleagues in this way? </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Even long before I was a professional musician, </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">and</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> just a curious teenager reading James Joyce’s </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, I’d been fascinated with this archetype of the artist. </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">What </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">makes an A</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">rtist? </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">What is the Artist’s path? What is the A</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">rtist’s perspective</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">? Who is the A</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">rtist?</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Are we </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">all the</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> Artist? Is it a choice that we make?</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Toni</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">ght’s program is a meditation </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">on the artist, and</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> an exploration of what it means to take on the mantle of that moniker and all that it entails.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s6" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-weight: bold;">Robert Schumann – </span><span class="s6" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-weight: bold;">Dichterliebe</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s7" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">‘The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;"></span></span></p><p class="s7" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">the</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;"> sense of wonder in the world.’</span></span></p><p class="s7" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">- </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">G.K. Chesterton</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">There is this sense that artists feel things </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">differently than the rest of us - that they experience emotions and absorb the reality around them with a heightened intensity and hypersensitivity. In my experience, the greatest artists that I’ve encountered are those that never lose their sense of child-like wonder. Robert Schumann’s song cycle, </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Dichterliebe</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> or </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">A Poet’s Love</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, is an example of this </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">artistic </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">hypersensitivity and wonder. </span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Composed in 1840, </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Dichterliebe</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;"> </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">was part of a large outpouring of songs that Schumann composed in the tumultuous year in which he married </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Clara </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Wieck</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, the daughter of his piano teacher and one of the most famous concert pianists in the world at that time. In 1840, often referred to as his </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Liederjahr</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;"> </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">or ‘year of song’, Schumann composed 138 songs – </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Dichterliebe</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;"> </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">stands out as one of the pinnacles of this </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">fruitful </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">period. </span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">A cycle of 16 settings of poems carefully culled from Heinrich Heine’s </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Lyrisches</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;"> Intermezzo</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, Schumann’s cycle tells the story of a young poet who falls in love with a woman, only to have his heart torn to pieces when she spurns his affections for those of another man, whom she marries. </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">The</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> poet falls madly in love during the course of the first 6 songs, his experience of love a heightened and extreme one: he describes the month of May, in which he falls in love with this young woman as not just beautiful, but </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">wonderfully</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> beautiful; he weeps uncontrollably every time the young woman tells him that she loves him</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">; he equates her likeness to a beautiful</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> icon of the Virgin Mary that hangs in the Cologne Cathedral. In the 7</span><span class="s8" style="line-height: 8.399999618530273px; vertical-align: super;">th</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> song, she ends the relationship, and he growls </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">out the first stage of his heartbreak</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> – angrily declaring how </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">he can now see the darkness in her heart</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> and the snake that works through it</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. The </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">remaining </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">9 songs </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">document</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> his journey through</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> the stages of his</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> heightened</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> grief. The poet’s dreams and nightmares become his reality, his pain </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">becomes so great that he</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> becomes convinced that the flowers aro</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">und him are speaking to him and</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> he is driven to isolate himself in the forest hills until finally, he calls for a huge coffin in which to lock his feelings of love and pain and for 12 giants to submerge it in the sea.</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> Schumann’s settings intensify the hypersensitive intensity</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> of the poetry – </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">particularly</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">in the virtuosic piano writing underlying the text, </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">which musically pain</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">ts the dissonant, almost unresolv</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">able </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">chromaticism</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">of the poet’s heartbreak, </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">making each song a miniature drama of almost operat</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">ic proportions</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s6" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-weight: bold;">Benjamin Britten – </span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Winter Words</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s7" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">"</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Every child is an artist; the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">”</span></span></p><p class="s9" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px; margin-left: 36px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"></span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">- </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Pablo Picasso</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">The inevitable threat that experience poses towards innocence was a theme that always occupied </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Benjamin Britten, particularly around the</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> time in his compositional career</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> during which he composed </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Winter Words</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, a collection of settings of poems by Thomas Hardy</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">His </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Canticle II:</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Abraham and Isaac</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> (1952) and </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">opera </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">The Turn of the Screw</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> (first performed in September 1954) make for unsettling listening along this theme; </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Winter Words </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">was written</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> between the two,</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> earlier in 1954. </span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">A pacifist in wartime, a gay man during a time in which it was illegal, Britten always felt that he was an outsider of sorts, looking in, a perspective that he felt informed his artistry greatly. </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Each of the</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> Thomas Hardy poems in </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Winter Words</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">focuses</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> on seemingly simple situations, in which an innocent is juxtaposed with some sort of background corrupt with experience. </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">In ‘Wagtail and Baby’, a baby watches as a bird is drinks from a stream, unafraid of horses, bulls, and serpents, yet is scared off by the approach of a ‘perfect gentleman’. ‘At the Railway Station, </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Upway</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">’ juxtaposes a young boy playing his violin with an older convict, chained in handcuffs, </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">who</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> sings along. In ‘Midnight on the Great Western’, an older passenger sits across from a young boy travelling alone in the same carriage, musing on the child’s purity and naiveté that contrasts with the ‘region of sin’ that surrounds him.</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> The artist (Britten/Hardy) observes </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">these </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">seemingly normal and banal circumstances or objects and infuses the</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">m</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> with</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> deeper</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> mean</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">ing, making them all parables about</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">the imminent</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> threat to innocence, and lamentations on its </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">inevitable corruption. </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;"></span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span class="s6" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-weight: bold; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ned Rorem – selected settings of Walt Whitman </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; padding-left: 36px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span></p><p class="s7" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">“</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">”</span></span></p><p class="s7" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- Henry Ward Beecher</span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">One of the most influential American poets, Walt Whitman was inspired by </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">reading Ralph Waldo </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Emerson’s </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">transcendental essays</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> to turn to writing poetry at the age of 37. Believing himself to be the new, distinctly American poet that Emerson described in his essay </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">The Poet</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, Whitman sent Emerson a copy of the first edition of his collection, </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Leaves of Grass</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, crediting</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> Emerson with helping him “find himself.” The influences of Emerson and his Transcendentalist colleagues are clearly visible in Whitman’s poetry, particularly in his early poem, </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Song of Myself</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. Despite general praise and e</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">nthusiasm for his work from transcendental icons</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> Emerson and Thoreau, neither was able to fully embrace his poetry. Whitman took Transcendentalist views of the self and nature to a level where neither Emerson nor Thoreau </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">were</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> particularly comfortable – specifically into the realm of sexuality. For Whitman, the celebration of his own sexuality was his declaration of the self – it was part of the self-discovery of one’s own divinity through nature, which the transcendentalists meditated and preached upon (something that is addressed in his poem tonight, </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">As Adam Early in the Morning</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">).</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">An American Schubert who </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">has </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">composed more than 500 songs, Ned Rorem (b. 1923) has been frequently drawn towards Whitman’s writing throughout his compositional career. Rorem is well known for his prose writing in addition to his compositional output, and his famously confessional and frank diaries could be considered his own </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Song of Myself</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. As with Whitman’s </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Leaves of Grass</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, while his diaries have been </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">well-regarded</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, his frankness about his own sexuality (and that of his contemporaries) was considered controversial at the time of publication. When writing his songs, Rorem has confessed to often choosing poetry for mostly practical reasons, looking for poetry with sounds that express and conform to the music he already has inside him. Whitman proves to be an exception to this rule</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, however, as Rorem has written</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">: </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">“</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Looking back, I find that the dozen Whitman poems I have musicalized over the years were selected less from intellectual motives than because they spoke to my condition at a certain time. I adopted them through that dangerous impulse called inspiration, not for the music, but for their meaning.</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">” In a sense, then, this set of Whitman settings by Rorem is a unique assertion of the self within his compositional output. </span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s6" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-weight: bold;">Jake </span><span class="s6" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-weight: bold;">Heggie</span><span class="s6" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-weight: bold;"> – </span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Friendly Persuasions</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s7" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Art must be an expression of love or it is nothing.”</span></p><p class="s7" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- Marc Chagall</span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="s10" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">No art is made in a vacuum. All artists seek to communicate with their community and the world around them and are inspired by various catalysts and muses. </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Jake </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Heggie’s</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> song cycle, </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Friendly Persuasions</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, is a portrait of an artist through the eyes of the community of fellow artists and friends around him. Commissioned by </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Wigmore</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> Hall as part of a celebration of the songs of Francis Poulenc</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> in 2008</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Heggie’s</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> song cycle paints a picture of the famous French composer, through four vignettes</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, each</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> involving a transformative figure in his life. In the first song, the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska (the woman largely responsible for reviving interest in th</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">e harpsichord last century), </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">pressures Poulenc to finish his concerto for her, the </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">Concert </span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">champêtre</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, one of many famous pieces she commissioned for the instrument. In the second song, Poulenc is showing new settings of Cocteau for the baritone, Pierre </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Bernac</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, who championed his songs</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> and often performed with him</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">In total, Poulenc composed 90 songs for </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Bernac</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">The third song</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> is a reminiscence of </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Raymonde</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Linossier</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">a woman who wa</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">s very influential in early on Poulenc’s</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> life, introducing him </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">to many of the poets whose writing he later set to music. His feelings for her were so strong that, despite his homosexuality, he proposed marriage to her – a proposal which she turned down, causing a falling out between the two</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">,</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> which was </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">left</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">unrepaired when she died suddenly and unexpectedly</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> in 1930</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> at the age of 32</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">.</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> Poulenc continued to dedicate pieces to her memory throughout the rest of his career.</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> The fourth song focuses on the</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> French Resistance</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> poet Paul </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Éluard</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, whose poetry he set while in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II as a gesture of defiance against the Germans. </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Poulenc considered </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Éluard</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Bernac</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> and Landowska</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> to be the “three great meetings” of his professional life.</span></span></p><p class="s11" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">*******</span></p><p class="s7" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means</span></p><p class="s7" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">and</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;"> hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, </span></span></p><p class="s7" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;">it</span><span class="s5" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; font-style: italic;"> moves again since it is life.”</span></span></p><p class="s11" style="text-align: start; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"></span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">– William Faulkner</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">In the end, perhaps </span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">this is the role of the singer as artist</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">: S</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">imply</span><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> to</span><a name="_GoBack"></a><span class="s4" style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> be the vessel that allows the stranger to look upon this multi-faceted art form that is song. To breathe life into the words and notes on the page, unlocking the visions of both poet and composer from their arrested state and allowing them to again become living things – acting as catalysts between a time past and the present day, reminding all of us that the experience of being human is one that is timeless.</span></span></p></div>
nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14282394516905056201noreply@blogger.com0