|
Beautiful voices will be featured Sunday, Aug. 29 when the SUNY Fredonia School of Music presents the concert, “Three Sopranos and a Pianist,” at 4 p.m. in Rosch Recital Hall on campus.
The performers are Luanne Clarke Crosby, soprano; Christine Walters McMasters, soprano; Laurie Tramuta, mezzo-soprano; and Adam Potter, pianist. The concert is free and open to the public.
The program features trios from oratorio and opera, a set of Brahms duets, and solo art songs and arias performed by each of the three singers. In an effort to include something for every listener, the singers worked hard to achieve a balance of languages, time periods and styles, as the programming evolved. This is one of four performances of Three Sopranos and a Pianist. Other venues include the Chautauqua Institution, Alfred University, and Houghton College.
Crosby is currently Professor of Music at Alfred University. Tramuta is Adjunct Professor of Music at SUNY Fredonia and teaches elementary music in the Fredonia School System. McMasters left her teaching position at the SUNY Fredonia School of Music in 1992 to pursue an international singing career. Potter, a recent graduate of Houghton College, teaches high school music in Dansville and is a member of the piano staff at Interlochen Arts Academy’s summer camp in Michigan.
The idea for this recital arose when Luanne Crosby met with her former SUNY Fredonia voice professor, Christine McMasters, for dinner in Pittsburgh just a little over a year ago. Crosby was visiting her mother, who lives in the Pittsburgh area, and McMasters had come to hear her daughter play clarinet in the pit orchestra for Pittsburgh Opera. The two sopranos had not seen each other in many years. At the end of a wonderful reunion they promised to stay in touch and to think about presenting a recital together. And so, “Three Sopranos and a Pianist” was born.
Individual Quotes by Performers:
Crosby: I became interested in women composers during my doctoral studies and have chosen three lovely 19th century art songs by American composer Amy Beach. Beach, who was herself an accomplished pianist, created a tour-de-force for both singer and pianist in her settings of three Browning poems.
McMasters: My fascination with the Russian vocal repertoire dates back to my high school days when I studied the Russian language, and I have sung it ever since. In addition, I wrote my master’s degree thesis on Rachmaninoff, wrote a published Russian diction manual for singers, included eight Russian ‘romances’ (by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky) on a recital CD, and have performed in Russia on five separate occasions. Although I enjoy singing a wide variety of vocal literature, the Russian repertoire continues to hold a special place in my heart.
Tramuta: I studied and performed Joaquín Rodrigo's “Cuatro Madrigales Amatorios” many years ago, and have been in love with them ever since! Rodrigo has taken four Spanish folksongs and skillfully arranged them for voice and a piano accompaniment that often sounds very much like the guitar! The dance-like rhythms and Spanish flavor are evident throughout this set, the best known of Rodrigo's vocal works.
Potter: There is something for everyone to love on this program. It features vocal music from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th century style periods in the form of art songs, arias, and trios, representing eight languages and twelve composers — with emotional content from solemn to amusing, from ecstatic to tormented. Despite the challenges of playing such varied and challenging repertoire on a single program, I am proud to offer a performance that offers so much to its audience.
