In the Spotlight
Paul Moravec
"The Making of an Opera” by Paul Moravec, composer. Join us and tell your friends! r.
On Saturday afternoon, January 10, 2015* at 3:00 p.m., at the Princeton home of Marlene Lucchesi, PFO is planning an exciting afternoon and rare opportunity to gain insights into the creative process of musical composition, details of collaboration between the composer/librettist and all of the aspects.
In this presentation, Paul will include music from two of his four operas: The Letter (2009), and his latest work The Shining, a 2016 premiere with Minnesota Opera. His talk will be accompanied by William Hobbs, piano, Jacob Kinderman, baritone, and Colleen McDonald, soprano. Please read on for biographical information.
A sumptuous reception will follow.
Tickets: $75 Supporting Patron, $45 Members, $55 Non-members, $25 Young Professionals, $10 Students (Space is limited, so please reserve early)! For event location and driving directions, please contact Anne McMahan: amcmahan.pfo@gmail.com or 609-610-6896.
Please make your check out to Princeton Friends of Opera and mail to: PFO, P.O. Box 2359,
Princeton, NJ 08543
*Snow date is January 25. Check on the website for any changes.
Paul Moravec, recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Music, is the composer of numerous orchestral, chamber, choral, operatic and lyric pieces. His music has earned many distinctions, including the Rome Prize Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, three awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation. A graduate of Harvard College and Columbia University, he has taught at Columbia, Dartmouth, and Hunter College and currently holds the unique position of University Professor at Adelphi University. He was the 2013 Paul Fromm Composer-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome, recently served as Artist-in-Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, and was also recently elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society.
Frequently commissioned by notable ensembles and major music institutions, Mr. Moravec’s upcoming premieres include The King’s Man, with Kentucky Opera, and Amorisms, with the Nashville Ballet. Last season included the New York premiere of The Blizzard Voices, with the Oratorio Society of NY at Carnegie Hall, as well as the premieres of Violin Concerto, with Maria Bachmann and Symphony in C, and Shakuhachi Concerto, with James Schlefer and the Orchestra of the Swan (U.K.). Other recent premieres include Danse Russe, an opera for the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts; Brandenburg Gate, with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; Piano Quintet, with Jeremy Denk and the Lark Quartet; and Wind Symphony, with a consortium of American concert bands.
Mr. Moravec’s discography includes Northern Lights Electric, an album of his orchestral music with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project released in 2012 on the BMOP Sound label. He has four albums of chamber music on Naxos American Classics: Tempest Fantasy, performed by Trio Solisti with clarinetist David Krakauer; The Time Gallery, performed by eighth blackbird; Cool Fire, with the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival; and Useful Knowledge, with soprano Amy Burton, baritone Randall Scarlata, Trio Solisti, and la Fenice Quintet. Among his many other recorded works are: Double Action, Evermore, and Ariel Fantasy, performed by the Bachmann/Klibonoff Duo (Endeavour Classics); Sonata for Violin and Piano performed by the Bachmann/Klibonoff Duo (BMG/RCA Red Seal); Atmosfera a Villa Aurelia and Vince & Jan, performed by the Lark Quartet (Endeavour Classics); Morph, performed by the String Orchestra of New York (Albany); Anniversary Dances, with the Ying Quartet (Dorian Records);Cornopean Airs, with American Brass Quintet and organist Colin Fowler; and Andy Warhol Sez, with bassoonist Peter Kolkay and pianist Alexandra Nguyen. Releases appearing in early 2014 include Blue Fiddle, with Hilary Hahn on Deutsche Grammophon, and Piano Quintet, with Jeremy Denk and the Lark Quartet, on Bridge Records.
William Hobbs
Born in Austin, Texas, WILLIAM HOBBS received a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance, summa cum laude, from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Master of Music in Piano Performance, Research and Literature from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. His teachers have included Thomas Schumacher, Paul Parmelee, Doris Pridinoff Lehnert and Larry Graham for piano and Neil Varon, Brad Lubman and Allan MacMurray for conducting.
Mr. Hobbs works at many of the world’s major opera houses including the Opéra National de Paris, the Salzburg Festival, San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Seattle Opera, Washington Opera and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo as repetiteur and conductor. His repertoire ranges from Handel to the European avant-garde, as well as works by Slavic composers and a number of premieres by American composers such as Lowell Liebermann and John Musto. He has assisted conductors Claudio Abbado, Sir Charles Mackerras, Jiri Belohlávek, Sir Andrew Davis, James Conlon, Robert Spano, Richard Bonynge, Donald Runnicles, Jiri Kout, Marco Armiliato and many others. He has worked closely with singers Renee Fleming, Susan Graham, Karita Mattila, Lauren Flanigan, Olga Borodina, Frederica von Stade, Sonia Ganassi, Roberto Alagna, Frank Lopardo, Paul Groves, Placido Domingo, Rod Gilfry, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Sam Ramey and Kurt Moll.
Mr. Hobbs has served on the faculty of the Aspen Opera Theater Center of the Aspen Music Festival, and CoOperative at Westminster Choir College, and on the coaching staff of the Juilliard School of Music. He was invited twice by the National Theater of Tokyo as visiting Master Coach.
Mr. Hobbs is the founder and artistic director of Opera Slavica, which made its debut concert at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, summer 2009. Opera Slavica is devoted to presenting forgotten masterworks from Russian, Czech and Polish composers, and to providing singers with no background in these languages the knowledge and training to sing, read and translate them.
Jacob Kinderman
Jacob Kinderman http://jacobkinderman.com, baritone, is currently a guest artist at Princeton University where he will be performing Tobit in Jonathan Dove’s Tobias and the Angel. Past performances include the title roles of Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Melisso in Alcina, Schaunard in La Bohème and Mr. Kofner in The Consul. Music Theater credits include Sky Masterson in Guys & Dolls, Sir Harry in Once Upon A Mattress and John Truitt in Meet Me In St. Louis.
Jacob has appeared with companies and ensembles such as Des Moines Metro Opera, Ash Lawn Opera, Opera Slavica, CoOPERAtive Concert Opera, The Princeton Festival, Westminster Opera Theater, Princeton University Opera Theater, The Princeton Singers, Philadelphia Opera Collective, Poor Richard’s Opera.
Awards and accolades include the Dalton Baldwin Art Song Prize, Second Prize at the 2014 NATS Artist Award Northwest Regional Competition after winning First Prize at the Washington State District level, the Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Vancouver B.C. district and was the First Runner-Up in the NATS Artist Award Competition Northwest Region in 2010 as well as the First Place Winner of the NATS Artist Award Washington District that same year.
Colleen McDonald, soprano, was last seen as Esther in Meet Me in St.Louis with The Kelsey Theater. She has performed locally and internationally on the opera and musical theater stage alike with such companies and ensembles as Westminster Opera Theatre, Opera Slavica, New Jersey Opera Theater, Opera MODO, Ameropa International Chamber Music Festival and the Yardley Players.
Roles and excerpts of note include Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Pamina and First Lady Die Zauberflöte, Barena in Jenufa, Káta in Káta Kabanová, Le Nozze di Figaro, Adina in L’Elisir d’amore, Clorinda in Cenerentola, Esther in Meet Me in St.Louis, Adelaide in Guys & Dolls and many more.
Colleen received her Bachelor of Arts in Music from Muhlenberg College where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. She holds a Master of Music in Voice Pedagogy and Performance with distinction from Westminster Choir College. Colleen is also an active music educator teaching over 50 private students and provides piano accompaniment for over 25 youth performances each year. She is currently Senior Faculty Advisor, voice and piano, as well as the staff accompanist at Cornerstone Music Studios in Millstone, New Jersey.