Art Song Canberra Inc. www.artsongcanberra.org SEASON OF SONG 2017 In 2017 Art Song Canberra will present seven recitals of fine art song by an outstanding array of first- rate artists, most widely experienced on the world stage. Background Art Song Canberra was founded as the A.C.T. Lieder Society in 1976 by a small group of devotees led by Eleanor Houston OAM of Covent Garden fame. Art Song Canberra’s purpose is to foster and extend the love of art song. This is done mainly by: presenting the Season of Song, an annual series of high quality concerts, to its members and the general public; providing development opportunities such as masterclasses for talented, developing singers; and conducting Members’ Soirées, gatherings of members to sing and play together in a social setting, in the manner of the earliest Lieder societies. In each year of its life the society has presented a series art song recitals. The great majority of the society’s artists have been highly accomplished both in Australia and internationally. Singers have included such noted Australians as Sally-Anne Russell, Greta Bradman, Merlyn Quaife AM, Nicholas Dinopoulos, Christopher Allan, Louise Page OAM and Christina Wilson. Overseas-based singers have included Susan Burghardt (USA), Tanya Aspelmeier, Knut Schoch, Erwin Belakowitsch and Australian Sally Wilson (Germany), Rebecca Ryan (New Zealand), Thomas Weinhappel (Austria) and Bruce Cain (USA) who appeared with guitarist David Asbury. Pianists have included (from Australia) Andrew Greene, Andrea Katz, David Miller AM, Leigh Harrold, Phillipa Candy, Alan Hicks and Nigel Butterley. Overseas-based pianists have included Roy Howat (UK) and Australians Mark Kruger (Germany) and Stephen Delaney (Austria). Recital programs have ranged widely from such classics of the Lieder repertoire as song cycles of Schubert and Schumann to fine art song by an immense variety of composers including Australians Horace Keats, Nigel Butterley and Betty Beath. Season of Song 2017 Season of Song 2017 will begin in late February with a recital with romantic theme by husband-and- wife duo Christina Wilson and Alan Hicks. Sally Wilson and Mark Kruger gave a recital for Art Song Canberra in 2010. Not long returned to Australia after some years living and working in Germany, they will make a return appearance in April. In May Louise Page and Phillipa Candy with clarinettist Rachel Best Allen will perform a program including Schubert’s wonderful “Shepherd on the Rock”. Sonia Anfiloff and Ben Connor will again visit from Vienna to perform with Alan Hicks in July. Rising stars Julia Wee and Lucus Allerton will in September perform a program of songs sung by the renowned soprano, Jessye Norman. Alan Hicks will return to the platform with Jill Sullivan, co- founder of Art Song Perth, and violist Robert Harris in October to perform a program with a nocturnal theme including the wonderful Brahms Alto Rhapsody. In the final concert in November Susan Ellis, accompanied by Dianna Nixon, both widely known in the Canberra musical scene, will present a fascinating program featuring two 19th-century poets, Mary Gilmore and Emily Dickinson. In September Art Song Canberra will present a masterclass for performers of art song given by its Patron, renowned soprano Yvonne Kenny AM. The masterclass is generously sponsored by the Wesley Music Foundation. All will be welcome to join the audience to observe a leading pedagogue in the field of art song at work. High-resolution pictures of all artists are available from the press kit page of www.artsongcanberra.org Admission to the concerts includes a complimentary program and light refreshments: Full price $35; Seniors, pensioners, Friends of ArtSound FM, Friends of Wesley Music and Musica Viva subscribers $30; Art Song Canberra members $25; Full-time students $15. Page 2 of 12 pages Sunday 26th February DANGEROUS ROMANTICS 3pm, Wesley Music Centre, National Circuit, Forrest Christina Wilson (mezzo-soprano) and Alan Hicks (piano) Drenched in scandal, iconic Romantic poets Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and Paul Verlaine wrote sublime verse of intense emotion and free self-expression, inspiring generations of composers. This recital explores the luscious fruit of that inspiration in works by Reynaldo Hahn, Gabriel Faure, Claude Debussy, Frederick Septimus Kelly, Roger Quilter and Graeme Koehne. Christina Wilson Winner of the Australian Singing Competition's Marianne Mathy Award and prize winning graduate of the Canberra School of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music and the National Opera Studio London, mezzo-soprano Christina Wilson has appeared in performances throughout the UK, Europe, the USA and Australia. She has sung as a soloist at the Royal Albert Hall, Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral and in recital at the Wigmore Hall, the Temple Square, USA and the Paris Conservatoire. With companies such Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Belfast Opera and the State Opera of South Australia she has sung the roles of Clitemnestre, Carmen, Cenerentola, Rosina, Cherubino, Dido, Dorabella and in recent years with the Canberra Choral Society the Handel roles of David (Saul), Irene (Theodora), Dejanira (Hercules) and Storgé in Handel in the Theatre’s 2016 production of The Vow at the Canberra Playhouse. Christina is broadcast regularly on ABC FM and appears as a soloist locally and nationally in concert and oratorio. She has been a featured soloist for “Voices in the Forest” at the National Arboretum, the Canberra International Music Festival and in the Canberra Symphony Orchestra Prom Concert at Government House. President of the ACT Chapter of ANATS, Christina regularly adjudicates and gives masterclasses nationally and internationally. She has taught singing and voice at tertiary level for many years, currently at the University of Canberra where she also runs classes for UC Music and at the Sydney University’s Open Conservatorium in BOSTES accredited voice workshops for teachers. Alan Hicks Alan Hicks is one of Australia's foremost vocal coaches and accompanists. He currently works in the Vocal and Opera Studies Unit at Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He is Musical Director of the University of Canberra Chorale. Alan performs regularly around Australia in recitals and Festivals with leading national and international artists. As well as being an accomplished recital and concert accompanist, Alan’s theatrical credits include: the musical preparation for Albert Herring, Dido and Aeneas, Grimm and the Blue Crown Owl, Die Zauberflöte, Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi and Die Fledermaus and chorus master for Tosca, The Barber of Seville, La Traviata and From a Black Sky. In 2013 he made his stage debut at the Street Theatre as Alain/Claude in the award-winning Bijou, starring and written by Chrissie Shaw. Chrissie and Alan have since toured Bijou throughout NSW and presented seasons at La Mama Courthouse, Melbourne, the Depot Theatre, Sydney, and The Butterfly Club, Melbourne. Page 3 of 12 pages This husband and wife duo has presented many recitals for Art Song Canberra and also for the Lieder Society of Victoria, the Newcastle Conservatorium of Music, the AIM concert series at the Art Gallery of NSW and by invitation at the 2013 International Conference of Voice Teachers at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. In 2016 they recorded for ABC Classics songs of FS Kelly A Race Against Time. Sunday 2nd April A BREATH OF FRESH AIR 3pm, Wesley Music Centre, National Circuit, Forrest Sally Wilson (mezzo-soprano) and Mark Kruger (piano) Traversing a wide range of composers and styles centring around Alban Berg’s youthful and deeply expressive Seven Early Songs, the duo selects and curates their repertoire not for its reputation or historical interest, but for its sheer emotional impact and to showcase Ms Wilson’s exceptional dramatic talent. This allows both the artists and audiences to stay creative and engaged in what is a moving and intriguing concert not to be missed! Sally Wilson Sally Wilson has performed in Europe, the UK, the USA, Asia and Australia for the past twenty years in opera, concert, chamber music and recital. She was a soloist member of the ensemble of the Theater Freiburg from 2010 until 2013, just before returning to Australia to live. Whilst in Freiburg she sang such roles as Komponist (Ariadne auf Naxos), Armida (Rinaldo), Enfant (L'Enfant et les Sortilèges), Hänsel (Hänsel äund Gretel), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Waltraute (Die Walküre), Wellgunde (Götterdämmerung and Rheingold), Jenny (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny) among others, beginning with mezzo repertoire, then moving into the soprano fach. Her repertoire now includes roles such as Abigaille (Nabucco), Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos), Leonora (Il Trovatore) and Lady Macbeth, but she also continues to sing classical, baroque and modern repertoire. Her most recent role debut was Agathe (Der Freischütz), and she just performed the role of Nefertiti, once again, in Phillip Glass's opera, Akhnaten. Ms Wilson is very active in concert and recital - last year's including recitals at the Woodend Winter Arts Festival, art song recitals, Mozart's Coronation Mass and classical cabaret programs. During her career she has sung several world-premiere performances across four continents. Ms Wilson returned from Munich in June 2014, after performing the role of Frau, which was composed specifically for her, with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (conducted by Peter Tilling) and Ensemble Recherche, in the world premiere of Hector Parra's