On February 8, Osmo Vänskä led the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in works by Sibelius and Curtis alumna Gabriella Smith at Carnegie Hall. Pianist Jonathan Biss of the Curtis faculty was soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5. Photos: Pete Checchia
PHILADELPHIA—February 10, 2020—The 2019–20 season of the Curtis Institute of Music’s popular Family Concert series continues with Paul Smith’s Winter House on Sunday, February 23 at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. in Gould Rehearsal Hall. The new program uses music performed by a string and vocal ensemble to inspire individual expression through movement and sound.
Winter House will encourage confidence and creativity in young audiences, providing opportunities to make the music one’s own. Curtis soprano Olivia Smith and a string orchestra of student performers help Paul Smith, baritone and cofounder of international vocal ensemble VOCES8, to introduce new tunes from around the world. Families will provide their own creative responses—from improvised vocal sounds to rhythmic clapping and more—to the music they hear.
Tickets are $12 for adults and $5 for children, and are available through the Curtis Patron Services Office at (215) 893-7902.
Awakening a sense of wonder in listeners ages 5 to 12, Curtis Family Concerts share music with young audiences through interactive, educational presentations. Performances take place in a friendly setting, uniting entertainment with exploration.
Paul Smith is an innovative and creative performer, conductor, composer, an inspirational educator, and an empowering public speaker. As co-founder of VOCES8, author of The VOCES8 Method and CEO of the VOCES8 Foundation, he works in prestigious concert venues, festivals, schools, and universities around the globe.
Mr. Smith is passionate about the impact singing and the arts can have in the widest possible context—from academic improvement to social skills and building more cohesive communities. He uses that passion to design and deliver unique, inclusive, and uplifting performance projects.
In 2019–20, Mr. Smith’s season highlights include leading the Singing Brussels Celebration with BOZAR Brussels; touring in support of his new album and concert program, Reflections; conducting the Orchestre Régional Avignon-Provence in several concerts for families and young people; leading concerts series with the Israeli Vocal Ensemble in Israel and with VOCES8 and Apollo5 in France; and concerts and workshops in Germany, the U.S., New Zealand, Japan, and the VOCES8 Centre in London.
In the 2019–20 school year, the Curtis Institute of Music celebrates 95 years of educating and training exceptionally gifted young musicians to engage a local and global community through the highest level of artistry. With a small student body of about 175, Curtis provides each young musician with an unparalleled education alongside musical peers, distinguished by personalized attention from celebrated faculty and a “learn by doing” philosophy. To ensure that admissions are based solely on artistic promise, Curtis makes an investment in each admitted student so that no tuition is charged for their studies. Curtis students hone their craft through more than 200 orchestra, opera, and solo and chamber music offerings each year in Philadelphia and around the world.
Sunday, February 23 at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Gould Rehearsal Hall, Lenfest Hall, 1616 Locust Street, Philadelphia
Paul Smith, baritone
With additional performers:
| Olivia Smith, soprano | Haeji Kim, viola |
| Angela Sin Ying Chan, violin | Hae Sue Lee, viola |
| Abigail Fayette, violin | John Lee, cello |
| Danny Yehun Jin, violin | Lena Goodson, double bass |
| Lun Li, violin | Robert Kahn, conductor |
| Emily Shehi, violin |
Tickets: $12 for adults and $15 for children, sold by the Curtis Patron Services Office at (215) 893-7902.
# # #
PHILADELPHIA—February 4, 2020—Soprano Elena Perroni and tenor Evan LeRoy Johnson appear in recital in An Afternoon of Song, part of the 2019–20 Curtis Presents season at the Curtis Institute of Music. The program on Sunday, February 16 at 3 p.m. in Field Concert Hall features romantic solo and duo selections from the opera, art song, and American songbook canons and will be accompanied by pianist Danielle Orlando.
Curtis welcomes back these recent alumni, who are quickly growing in popularity with Philadelphia audiences. Praised for her “velvet soprano voice” (Philadelphia Inquirer), Elena Perroni (Opera ’18), has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts for the past three seasons, most recently singing Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été. Tenor Evan LeRoy Johnson (Opera ’18) is well-known to local opera fans through recent roles for Opera Philadelphia, including tenor soloist in Verdi’s Requiem and Rodolfo in La bohème—a performance lauded for “beautiful sound, strong high notes, and tenderness both vocal and interpretive” (Bachtrack). The former classmates return to Field Concert Hall for a lyrical afternoon featuring works by Donizetti, Gershwin, Lehar, Massenet, and Schumann, among others. Danielle Orlando, the Hirsig Family Chair of Vocal Studies and director of the Curtis Opera Theatre, provides the piano accompaniment for the recital. Soprano Ziyi Dai and tenor Martin Luther Clark, both current students in the Curtis vocal studies department, will appear as special guests for a duet by Bizet, among other selections.
Tickets for $25 are available from the Curtis Patron Services Office at (215) 893-7902 or Curtis.edu/CurtisPresents.
Past and future meet through the Curtis Presents series, which features a diverse collection of artists—alumni, faculty, students, and friends—whose musical foundations are rooted in the Curtis community. This series of intimate and innovative recitals offers a unique experience that transcends generations and genres, with exceptional artistry and one-of-a-kind programs.
Elena Perroni is a 2018 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. She made her professional opera debut with Opera Philadelphia, singing the role of Doris Parker in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird at the Apollo Theater in New York City. She reprised the role at English National Opera in 2017. Ms. Perroni debuted in her home country as Mimi (La bohème) with the West Australian Opera in 2017 with subsequent appearances as Violetta (La traviata).
Her concert appearances include Les Nuits d’été and selections from Rusalka and Eugene Onegin with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the roles of Mimi (La bohème) and Maria (West Side Story) with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra, respectively.
For the Curtis Opera Theatre, her roles included Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Manon (Manon), Anne Truelove (The Rake’s Progress), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), and Magda (La rondine). Ms. Perroni has also performed the leading roles of Mimi (La bohème) and Gilda (Rigoletto) at the Chautauqua Music Festival.
In the 2018–19 season, tenor Evan LeRoy Johnson made his Bayerische Staatsoper debut as Cassio (Otello), his Oper Frankfurt debut as Don José (Carmen), and his Glyndebourne Festival debut as the Prince (Rusalka). Other notable debuts include roles as Narraboth (Salome) for Opernhaus Zürich; Don José (Carmen) for Oldenburgisches Staatstheater; a role debut as the Prince (Rusalka) at Des Moines Metro Opera; and his European debut as tenor soloist in Britten’s War Requiem for the Norwegian National Opera.
Mr. Johnson performs Verdi’s Requiem with Opera Philadelphia in 2020 and has previously performed the work with the Columbus Symphony. Other concert appearances include Steuermann (Der fliegende Holländer) with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. With the Source song festival in his hometown of Minneapolis, he performed Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with pianist Julius Drake.
Mr. Johnson’s additional roles include Rodolfo (La bohème), Don José (Carmen), and Flamand (Capriccio) for Opera Philadelphia; Malcolm (Macbeth) for the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist; Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) at the Chautauqua Institution; and Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Rodolfo (La bohème), Count Vaudémont (Iolanta), and Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi) for the Curtis Opera Theatre. Mr. Johnson graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2018 and previously studied at the University of Kentucky. He was an apprentice artist at Central City Opera and received the Barbara and Stanley Richman Memorial Award from the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2015.
Danielle Orlando is an accompanist to international opera singers and a vocal coach and artistic consultant to prestigious musical organizations throughout the world. She has appeared with esteemed singers in such venues as the Phillips Collection, Théatre du Châtelet, and Carnegie Hall; and for the United States Supreme Court, the Schubert Club, Vocal Arts D.C., Music at the Morgan Library, Good Morning America, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, and many more. She also appears in the documentary The Audition. Ms. Orlando has performed recitals for the Harriman-Jewell Series and has appeared at the Florida Opera and Astoria Music festivals, Festival Castell de Peralada (Spain), and Festival International Hautes-Laurentides (Canada).
Ms. Orlando served as accompanist, judge, and artistic coordinator for the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competitions and worked with Gian Carlo Menotti at the Festival dei Due Mondi for nine seasons. She was the artistic administrator and head of music staff for the Opera Company of Philadelphia and has served on the music staffs of the Metropolitan, Washington National, and San Francisco operas; Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; Dresden Semperoper; and Savonlinna Opera Festival.
Ms. Orlando is a guest judge for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and presents master classes and coachings for young artist programs around the world. Recent residencies include Curtis Summerfest, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the Peking University Academy of Opera in Beijing, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and the Domingo-Cafritz and Palm Beach young artist programs. She has served as faculty for Bel Canto in Tuscany, as a judge for the 2019 Bologna International Vocal Competition, and with Oberlin in Italy for over a decade.
Ms. Orlando holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Temple University, where she studied with Harvey Wedeen and Lambert Orkis. She also studied at the Eastman School of Music with David Burge.
In the 2019–20 school year, the Curtis Institute of Music celebrates 95 years of educating and training exceptionally gifted young musicians to engage a local and global community through the highest level of artistry. With a small student body of about 175, Curtis provides each young musician with an unparalleled education alongside musical peers, distinguished by personalized attention from celebrated faculty and a “learn by doing” philosophy. To ensure that admissions are based solely on artistic promise, Curtis makes an investment in each admitted student so that no tuition is charged for their studies. Curtis students hone their craft through more than 200 orchestra, opera, and solo and chamber music offerings each year in Philadelphia and around the world.
Sunday, February 16 at 3 p.m.
Field Concert Hall, 1726 Locust Street, Philadelphia
Elena Perroni, soprano (’18)
Evan LeRoy Johnson, tenor (’18)
Danielle Orlando, piano
Additional artists:
Ziyi Dai, soprano
Martin Luther Clark, tenor
| OBRADORS
|
“¿Corazón, porqué pasáis…?” “Del cabello más sutil” “Al amor” |
| SCHUMANN | Selections, Dichterliebe, Op. 48 |
| STRAUSS | “Zueignung,” Op. 10, No. 1 |
| DONIZETTI
|
“Lucia, perdona,” from Lucia di Lammermoor “Tombe degli avi miei,” from Lucia di Lammermoor |
| MASSENET
|
“Gavotte,” from Manon “Toi! Vous!,” from Manon |
| —Intermission— | |
| BIZET | “Parle-moi de ma mère!,” from Carmen |
| LEHÁR
|
“Dein is mein ganzes Herz,” from Das Land des Lächelns “Meine Lippen,” from Giuditta |
| RODGERS | “If I Loved You,” from Carousel |
| BRODSZKY | “Be My Love,” from The Toast of New Orleans |
| GERSHWIN | “The Man I Love” |
| PUCCINI | “O soave fanciulla,” from La bohème |
Tickets: $25, sold by the Curtis Patron Services Office at (215) 893-7902 or Curtis.edu/CurtisPresents.
The Curtis Presents season is sponsored by Blank Rome LLP.
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The Curtis Institute of Music was deeply saddened to learn that Peter Serkin passed away on February 1 at age 72. An alumnus, former faculty member, and profoundly gifted pianist, he will be missed by all at Curtis.
The son of former Curtis director and faculty member Rudolf Serkin—who was himself a world-renowned pianist—Peter Serkin entered Curtis in 1958 and studied with his father, with Mieczysław Horszowski, and with Lee Luvisi. After graduating in 1964 at age 16, he soon made headlines with acclaimed recordings of Bach and Schubert.
Mr. Serkin’s musical journey took unexpected turns, beginning shortly after his graduation. He eagerly explored non-classical forms, performed music of all eras in thoughtfully conceived programs, and (along with our current Curtis violin faculty member Ida Kavafian) co-founded the chamber ensemble Tashi, which made a specialty of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time.
Mr. Serkin served on the Curtis faculty from 1992 through 2002, and also taught at several other institutions throughout his long career. As recently as 2017, Curtis students benefited greatly from the insights and wisdom of this extraordinary musician. He accompanied the Curtis Symphony Orchestra on its European tour as soloist in the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, and captivated his younger colleagues. As one student put it at the time, “Mr. Serkin showed us what it means to be a true artist, combining transcendent musicianship with warmth, humility, and kindness.”
Mr. Serkin will be deeply missed by the whole Curtis community. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to his family, friends, and colleagues.
Obituaries have been published by outlets around the world, including this selection.
| New York Times | Washington Post | Philadelphia Inquirer | ||
