Month: September 2018

Curtis Opera Theatre Presents Trouble in Paradise Double Bill October 4–7 at Prince Theater

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PHILADELPHIA—September 25, 2018—The Curtis Opera Theatre presents Trouble in Paradise—a double bill of Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas—October 4 through 6 at 7:30 p.m. and October 7 at 2:30 p.m. at the Prince Theater at 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Music director and pianist Lisa Keller and stage director Chas Rader-Shieber collaborate for this modern look at two chamber operas.  

Trouble in Paradise questions the endurance of perfect happiness. Even when all the stars align, lovers find myriad ways to misunderstand one another in this inspired pairing of Bernstein’s jazz-inflected Trouble in Tahiti—a prequel to Bernstein’s A Quiet Place, performed by the Curtis Opera Theatre during the 2017–18 season—and Purcell’s regal Dido and Aeneas. Ranging in setting from sunny 1950s suburbia to the majestic Carthage of classical legend, this compelling musical journey casts the same performers in the leading roles of both Dinah and Dido (Siena Licht Miller on October 4 and 6, Anastasiia Sidorova on October 5 and 7), and Sam and Aeneas (Patrick Wilhelm), further exploring the parallels between the characters’ complex relationships.

Music director Lisa Keller provides piano accompaniment, along with students on double bass and percussion, for the fully staged production, which is sung in English. Chas Rader-Shieber, who has directed over 30 productions for the Curtis Opera Theatre, returns as both stage director and production designer. Lighting design is provided by Mike Inwood, with Isaac Martin Lerner as choreographer and assistant director. The Curtis Opera Theatre season is sponsored by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the Wyncote Foundation.   

Four-production subscriptions to the 2018–19 Curtis Opera Theatre season for $128–280 are available through the Curtis Patron Services Office at (215) 893-7902 or Curtis.edu/Opera. Single tickets for $20–75 are available through the Prince Theater Box Office at (215) 422-4580 or PrinceTheater.org.

Under the artistic direction of Mikael Eliasen, the Curtis Opera Theatre has become known for imaginative productions, bold concepts, and absorbing theatre. Promising young singers work alongside established professional directors and designers, resulting in fresh interpretations of standard repertoire and contemporary works. All of Curtis’s 25 voice and opera students are cast repeatedly each season, receiving a rare level of performance experience on stage and appearing frequently with Opera Philadelphia, Curtis on Tour, and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. As a result, Curtis graduates have sung with opera companies all over the world, including La Scala, Covent Garden, the Vienna Staatsoper, Houston Grand Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera.

 

 

CURTIS OPERA THEATRE: TROUBLE IN PARADISE

 

BERNSTEIN                           Trouble in Tahiti

PURCELL                                Dido and Aeneas

 

Thursday, October 4 at 7:30 p.m.

Friday, October 5 at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, October 6 at 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, October 7 at 2:30 p.m.

Prince Theater, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia

 

Lisa Keller, music director
Chas Rader-Shieber, stage director and production designer
Mike Inwood, lighting designer
Isaac Martin Lerner, choreographer and assistant director

 

Fully staged production with piano, double bass, and percussion accompaniment, sung in English

4-production subscription: $128–280, sold by the Curtis Patron Services Office, Curtis.edu/Performances, or (215) 893-7902.

Single tickets: $20–75, sold by the Prince Theater Box Office, PrinceTheater.org, or (215) 422-4580.

 

CAST (in singing order)

Trouble in Tahiti October 4 and 6 October 5 and 7
Trio Tiffany Townsend Tiffany Townsend
  Colin Aikins Colin Aikins
  Dennis Chmelensky Dennis Chmelensky
Sam Patrick Wilhelm Patrick Wilhelm
Dinah Siena Licht Miller Anastasiia Sidorova
     
Dido and Aeneas October 4 and 6  October 5 and 7
Belinda Merissa Beddows Ziyi Dai
Dido Siena Licht Miller Anastasiia Sidorova
Second Woman Sophia Maekawa Sophia Maekawa
Aeneas Patrick Wilhelm Patrick Wilhelm
Sorceress Emily Damasco Emily Damasco
First Witch Olivia Smith Olivia Smith
Second Witch Lindsey Reynolds Lindsey Reynolds
Spirit Charles Buttigieg Charles Buttigieg
First Sailor Martin Luther Clark Martin Luther Clark

 

The Curtis Opera Theatre season is sponsored by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the Wyncote Foundation.

 

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Meet the New Students: Jamison Hillian

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Jamison Hillian has just entered Curtis with the 2018 incoming class. He’s an oboist from Chesterfield, S.C., who started playing the saxophone at age 11, switching to the oboe at 14. Below, he shares some thoughts about coming to Curtis. Join us in welcoming Jamison and all of our new students to the Curtis family!

What has been your most important musical experience until now?
Seeing and hearing so many different people in the various practice rooms.  It is inspiring and comforting to see so many people working towards the same thing you are.

Tell me about the most interesting, surprising, or funny thing that happened to you in your first week here.
It was very interesting to meet so many people from different countries and parts of the world.  At home there isn’t much cultural diversity so it was very fun to hear about theirs and explain mine.

What are you looking forward to most about attending Curtis?
I am really looking forward to studying with Richard Woodhams.

Welcome, Jamison!

2018–19 Season Begins at the Curtis Institute of Music

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PHILADELPHIA, PA—September 13, 2018—The 2018–19 season begins at the Curtis Institute of Music in October, with programming that includes orchestra, opera, chamber music, family concerts, and free student recitals, totaling more than 200 performances in Philadelphia now through May.

 

This year, 171 students—ages 13 to 31, hailing from 20 different countries—come to Curtis, “both a conservatory and a buzzword…known for taking the best music students in the world” (Washington Post). In this intimate environment, they are nurtured by a celebrated faculty, supported by a tuition-free policy, and inspired by the school’s distinctive “learn by doing” approach.

 

Curtis Opera Theatre overview: 

  • October 4, 5, 6, 7: The Curtis Opera Theatre season begins as Leonard Bernstein’s centenary year closes, pairing the composer’s jazz-inflected Trouble in Tahiti—a prequel to A Quiet Place, presented during the 2017–18 season—with Purcell’s regal Dido and Aeneas, in a unique double bill titled Trouble in Paradise.
  • November 14, 16, 18: Stephen Sondheim’s wildly popular Victorian melodrama, Sweeney Todd, comes to the Prince Theater.
  • March 7, 8, 9, 10: The March production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni sees the return of the imaginative young director R.B. Schlather and fast-rising conductor and Curtis alumna Karina Canellakis.
  • May 2, 4, 5: Empty the House is an intimate, poignant exploration of forgiveness by Curtis alumna and Opera Philadelphia Composer in Residence Rene Orth. It has been revised and orchestrated since its 2015 premiere in the Curtis Opera Studio and features a libretto by Mark Campbell. Don Giovanni and Empty the House are presented as part of Curtis Opera Theatre at the Perelman, in partnership with Opera Philadelphia and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

 

Curtis Presents overview:

  • October 13: The Curtis Presents series continues to bring distinguished faculty, alumni, students, and friends together in the timeless setting of Field Concert Hall. In Kindred Spirits, Curtis guitar faculty member Jason Vieaux and violin alumnus Nigel Armstrong navigate a seamless tapestry of sound influenced by classical, jazz, bluegrass, rock, Latin, folk, and whatever else inspires them. They will present the same program at the National Gallery of Art on October 14.
  • November 4: Together with duo partner and pianist Vladimir Stoupel, violinist Judith Ingolfsson (’92) returns to the Field Concert Hall stage in this Musical Homecoming.
  • March 3: The culmination of a tour across the United States for Curtis on Tour, members of the Curtis Opera Theatre present Brahms’s enduringly popular Liebeslieder Waltzes. At the piano are Mikael Eliasen, the beloved outgoing artistic director of the Curtis Opera Theatre, and Danielle Orlando, principal opera coach.
  • March 31: Pianist Meng-Chieh Liu (’93) has earned a place among the most respected musicians of his generation. In this special afternoon, entitled A Silver Touch, he offers a program of chamber concertos with Curtis musicians, including the school’s string quartet in residence, the Vera Quartet.

 

Curtis Symphony Orchestra overview:

  • October 28: The opening concert of the CSO season celebrates the 90th birthday of Gary Graffman, renowned piano soloist and former president of Curtis. Alumnus Haochen Zhang (’12) performs Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, a romantic powerhouse and staple of the Graffman legacy, and the dynamic Giancarlo Guerrero leads the orchestra in Stravinsky’s Petrushka. The program opens with Brio by 2018–19 Composer in Residence Augusta Read Thomas.
  • January 27: Signature works by Ives, Copland, and Dvořák frame the Philadelphia premiere of the Tuba Concerto by Curtis faculty and alumna Jennifer Higdon (’88), one of today’s most popular and widely performed composers, who creates a virtuosic showcase for Curtis tuba faculty member and alumnus Craig Knox (’89). Mark Russell Smith (’87) conducts.
  • April 14: Beloved and captivating conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the orchestra through the evocative colors and nuance of Ravel’s Une Barque sur l’océan; the steely grays and dusky impressionism of Claude Debussy’s Nocturnes; and the sweeping majesty of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 (“Romantic”).
  • All three programs will also be performed at Immaculata University on October 27, January 26, and April 13, respectively.

 

Curtis 20/21 Ensemble overview:

  • November 10: The first concert of the series pairs Peter Maxwell Davies’s melodrama Eight Songs for a Mad King with alumnus Julius Eastman’s Joy Boy. Eastman, a gifted and idiosyncratic composer and pianist, was one of the first vocalists to take on the Eight Songs in performance.
  • February 2: Curtis alumnus and world-renowned pianist Peter Serkin joins the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble and the Vera String Quartet to perform Arnold Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon, written in response to the rise of authoritarianism and World War II. The program features additional politically-charged works by Curtis alumni and other living composers.
  • March 23: The Curtis 20/21 Ensemble performs works by the 2018–19 composer in residence, Augusta Read Thomas, in this musical portrait. The Grammy award-winning composer, who works individually with student composers at Curtis as part of her yearlong residency, will participate in an on-stage conversation prior to the performance.

 

Family Concerts overview:

  • October 21, March 31: Awakening a sense of wonder in listeners ages 5 to 12, Curtis Family Concerts share music with young audiences through interactive, educational presentations. These hour-long performances take place in a friendly setting, uniting entertainment with exploration. This season’s offerings include an interactive exploration of rhythm inspired by the children’s book Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins, which tells the story of a band of monkeys that explore what hands can do; and the premiere of a children’s opera by Community Artist Fellow Nick DiBerardino, based on the West African folktale of Anansi the Spider.

 

Student Recital Series:

  • With over 100 free performances this season, the Student Recital Series continues its celebrated legacy as the leading concert stage for some of the finest young musicians in the world. Recitals take place most Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays and are featured year-round on YouTube, WHYY’s On Stage at Curtis, and WWFM’s Curtis Calls.

 

Curtis on Tour:

  • Curtis on Tour, the Nina von Maltzahn global touring initiative of the Curtis Institute of Music, is an embodiment of the school’s “learn by doing” philosophy and offers students real-world, professional touring experience alongside celebrated alumni and faculty. Fall tours include a return to Greece for the Nights of Classical Music Festival and stops in Miami and Phoenix with a piano quartet. Additional details will be available throughout the season.

 

View the complete season. Additional programming details to be announced throughout the year.

 

 

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Meet the New Students: Ray Ushikubo

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Ray Ushikubo is a member of Curtis’s 2018 incoming class. He’s majoring in both violin and piano—Curtis’s first double major in more than a decade. (It’s rare for any student to meet the stringent requirements of two different departments.) Ray admits to being less expert at the time-honored Curtis student pastime of ping-pong, though he really enjoys playing pool—and he played a lot of both during new student orientation. Now, as classes and lessons and rehearsals get underway, the learning by doing begins in earnest. Ray is 18 years old and comes to Curtis from Riverside, California.  Below, he shares some thoughts about his path to Curtis. Join us in welcoming Ray and all of our new students to the Curtis family!

What has been your most important musical experience until now?
Performing the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic was mind-blowing. Performing as a soloist with orchestra has always been my favorite type of performance.

How did you hear about Curtis?
Curtis is legendary. I don’t recall when I first heard about it, but from the time I started playing music, Curtis has always been my dream school.

How do you make sure you get enough practice time on both your major instruments?
I split my practice hours evenly with piano and violin. On days that I do not have classes, lessons, etc., I try to get four to five hours of practice for each instrument. Time management is crucial, and discipline becomes more important than ever.

What are you looking forward to most about attending Curtis?
I am most looking forward to working with my teachers—Mr. Graffman and Mr. McDonald on the piano, and Mr. Rosand and Ms. Midori for violin. They have been my inspiration for many years and I cannot wait to finally work with them in real life.