"Take me out to the opera"

Thanks to Fred Plotkin for this wonderful slice of life.

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/blogs/operavore/2012/jul/10/take-me-out-opera/

I won the 2012 NATSAA Competition

in my first mobile blog post i am proud to announce that last night i won the natsaa (national association of teachers of singing artist award) at the nats national convention in orlando, florida.  more information - and capital letters - soon!

2012 PMC - There's a Lot Riding on This

There's a Lot Riding on This

Dear friends,

Today I've committed to raising money for cancer research by riding in the 2012 Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC). On the first weekend in August, I will join 5,500 cyclists in the PMC ride, an annual bike-a-thon that raises money for research and care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DCFI) in Boston.

I hope I can count on your support

The PMC raises more money for charity than any other single event in the country, $338 million since 1980 and $35 million last year alone! This success is the result of a lot of people riding for, and caring about, a cure. And because every penny matters, 100 percent of your donation goes to DFCI.

I've made a personal commitment to ride and raise $3,500. So I hope you can help me achieve this significant goal.

Please donate to my PMC ride at one of the following links:

Click here to make $25 donation

Click here to make a $50 donation

Click here to make a $100 donation

Click here to make a $250 donation

Click here to make a $500 donation

Click here to make a $1,000 donation

Every donation brings us closer by the mile.

Thank you,
Andrew Garland

Your donation is tax deductible and 100% will go to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. If you prefer to write a check, please make it out to the PMC, The Jimmy Fund or Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and mail it to me directly at:

Andrew Garland
24 Clifton Drive
Kingston, MA 02364
US

If your employer has a matching gift program, ask your Human Resources department for a form, and follow the process for matches.

To learn more about the PMC, please visit pmc.org.

RIP Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

RIP Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau 1925-2012

An inspiration to me, my students and anyone who has ever heard the timeless German Lieder. 

Spring 2012 Newsletter

Spring 2012 Newsletter

In this issue:

"To sing or not sing?"
Romeo, Don Quixote, Warren Jones, Steven Blier and other great men
Record Release
Summer, Song and Seattle
Lots of new audio

Spring is in the air.  And so is the pollen.  I hate to complain of allergies, but I know most of you reading this know just what I'm talking about.  This Spring I've got them bad.  "How bad," you ask?  I will tell you:

This weekend was the 15 biennial Marguerite McCammon Voice Competition at Ft. Worth Opera.  I flew down there from Maryland where I had been working the past week, woke up the morning of the first round and could not sing, I could not speak.  As luck would have it I drew the #2 spot who sings first thing in the morning.  I was faced with a touch choice: go out there and try to sing, not 100% certain your voice will work, or cancel.  I decided to give it a shot.  I was not pleased with my performance and went back to my hotel certain that I would not advance to the finals.  But I did.  Revived with another chance I took good care of my voice, came back the next day, gave a performance that everyone was pleased with and won the audience favorite award.

I returned here to Annapolis where I am rehearsing for Romeo and Juliette.  Performances are May 18 and 20 with Annapolis Opera.  I sing the role of Mercutio who steals the show, has a daredevil sword fight and dies.  Here I am singing Mercutio's aria: "Ballade de la Reine Mab."  Keep in mind Mercutio (named after Mercury, the Roman god of speed) runs back and forth across the entire 40-foot stage, dances, hurdles over furniture, swings his sword and teases Romeo all while singing this whirlwind music and telling the story of "The Fairy-Queen of Dreams."

My return home will mark in unofficial start of Summer, though for many of us it has felt like Summer for weeks already.  I finished my first year teaching at Brown University.  I have a terrific studio of students, a few are concentrating in music, others who are preparing to be leading scientists, publishers, historians and humanitarians, all who are dedicated to the beauty of their craft.  All of them, I will add, practice! Brown provided me with some performing opportunities of my own: I got to sing Franz Liszt's nearly-never-performed oratorio The Bells of Strassbourg, a setting of a poem by Longfellow in the original English.  In the spring I teamed up with organist Mark Steinbach to perform his arrangement of Gustav Mahler's 5 Ruckert-Lieder on the 1903 Hutchings-Votey organ.  We also had the privilege of coaching this cycle with Wolfgang Holzmair when he visited campus.

Mark and I also recorded excerpts from concert standards including the Brahms Requiem, 

Faure Requiem and Five Mystical Songs of Vaughan Williams.

Summer will take me a few interesting places: Orlando to compete for the NATSAA artist award (wish me luck on June 28 and 29) Lake Placid, NY to sing an opera Gala, and Woodstock, NY to return to Maverick concerts, this time to sing and all French recital including the string Quintet version of Faure's La Bonne Chanson and some more French music at the Bard Festival.  I'm fortunate enough to do some performing at home as well, in the Evenings Under the Starts series and the Duxbury Music Festival, both at the South Shore Conservatory.

A lot of you have asked - the answer is 'yes, I am riding the Pan Mass Challenge.'  Thank you for your continues support.

Fall is an exciting time because not only do I return to Brown but I get to sing some of the greatest works in my repertoire.  Alexander Platt has invited me to sing the Copland Old American Songs with his Marion Philharmonic.  Most of us sang these at one time or another in our student days, but how many of us get to sing them with orchestra?!
    Then on November 3 I return to New York to sing a Carnegie Neighborhood Concert with pianist Warren Jones in a new program we're calling "The Quest: Don Quixote and other Wanderers."  Program will include Vaughan Williams' Songs of Travel, songs by Schubert, some American traditionals and originals and of course Ravel's classic Don Quichotte a Dulcinee. Maybe, just maybe there'll be an "Impossible Dream" at the end.

from a 2009 Horne Foundation cruise live recording with Jerome Tan, piano

the ship was rocking - literally!

My last post was about a wonderful dress rehearsal experience with Boston Baroque.  I am honored to be invited back to sing their Messiah again.  December 7, 8 at Jordan Hall.  If you can't wait that long to hear me sing with Boston Baroque you can attend their 2012 Gala on Sunday, June 3 at the Four Seasons in Boston.

That magical concert was followed by several more: New Year's Day with the Cape Cod Symphony (come back and see me again New Year's Day 2013), A Modern Person's Guide to Hooking Up and Breaking Up (now affectionately known as AMPGTHUABU) with NYFOS first at the new Calderwood Hall at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston, then at NYFOS' home at Merkin Hall in New York City.  For those of you who came, thank you for sharing this racy, beautiful, loving program.

The new Calderwood Hall at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum.

There is seating on all four sides and a third balcony (not shown.)

Corinne and I enjoyed a refreshing trip to Camden, ME.  While there I sang Carmina Burana with Bay Chamber Concerts and  I got to meet two special, talented soloists: Daniel Stein and Suzanne Nance.   The following weekend was a grand Carmina with the Albany Symphony,  and guest conductor JoAnn Falletta.  Those of you who have had the privilege of working with her know of her incredible passion, precision and charm.  I will return to Albany next Spring to sing my first Jesus in Bach's St. Matthew Passion.  

2013

Somewhere in all this I have got to get my procrastinating baritone self over to Europe and audition for some houses and show them what I've got?  Right?  Well there won't be much time for that because at the end of January I start rehearsals for La Bohème at Seattle Opera.  While there we will hold a record release party for American Portraits, songs by Jake Heggie, Stephen Paulus, Lori Laitman and of course, Tom Cipullo.  Donna Loewy and I recorded this for GPR Records last May.

Next will be a return to Dayton Opera to sing the role I have sung more times than any other, Cout Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro.  From there it is back to Knoxville where I will sing my favorite role, Dandini in La Cenerentola.  The future hold many more exciting musical projects including Harlekin at Seattle, more recitals, the annual Andrew Garland and Friends benefit concert and my return to Boston Lyric Opera in a lead role.  Stay tuned for more details.

Another heartfelt 'congratulations' to Steven Blier and James Russell who got married on April 28 in New York.  Corinne and I were honored to be at the celebration.

Thanks for reading and listening.

- Andy

More music:

Faure: Requiem, "Libera Me"

Brahms: Requiem, Mvt. III

Faure: Requiem, "Hostias"

"The Call" Ralph Vaughan Williams

Joy to the World! (or at least the greater Boston area): Boston Baroque Messiah

What's the best rehearsal you ever had? For this year I would have to nominate my first rehearsal with the strings of Boston Baroque. For two hours I got to sit and enjoy hearing them accompany our elegant soloists in Handel's classic Messiah. There is so much music in this group of some 16 violins, violas, cello and bass. They sing on their period instruments. They turn, articulate and color a phrase with astounding agility and ensemble - often without director Martin Pearlman conducting - and smiling all the way. (We noted that the entire string section is women. Coincidence?) They play together as a group has played this piece for twenty years. That's because they have: in 1992 they recorded their Grammy Nominated disc of the work and have been playing it every year ever since. Hearing the subtle turns of phrase they play together, I found my self breathing quickly and shallowly (bad for a singer). Not to sound cliché, but it literally took my breath away. Almost as surprising and every bit as refreshing, after all of their experience with this piece, there was much stopping to discuss how to bow downbeats, how to pace crescendi, how to accompany cadenzas. This is a fresh performance.

Yesterday was dress rehearsal in Jordan Hall with full forces. Winds, trumpets, tympani and the sublime chorus. With approximately 30 minutes between each of my solos I had the opportunity to listen to much of the piece as a privileged audience member. Now familiar with the capabilities of this group I was almost prepared to experience the fully realized performance. What I heard was nearly flawless and emotionally engaging, at times riveting. What surprised me was how full and rich and - dare I say - loud the Hallelujah chorus could be with so few musicians on stage.

After our first rehearsal I said to myself "they play this piece like I want to sing it." Wayne Abercrombie first taught me when I was a high school chorister that you are always singing to a moment, through a moment or away from a moment. This group wears its phrasing on it's sleeves. But these clear and bold phrases are not on the sleeves a Christmas sweater but an Armani suit: at once clear cut, beautiful, elegant, striking and subtle. I phrase with them, they watch and listen to me and phrase with me. How many orchestras can do that?! At the Da Capo in "Trumpet Shall Sound" I dusted off some ornaments I had written for my 2005 performance in Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor (my first solo Messiah). Wouldn't you know, the strings and trumpet played the same ornaments! The band plays just as responsively with my colleagues Ava Pine, Julia Mintzer and Keith Jameson who are in turn fine, elegant and emotionally engaging.

This season is about bringing joy to others. This group has certainly been a joy for me and I hope we can in turn bring joy to you. I highly recommend you take a few hours (three to be exact) out of your busy holiday schedule and come to enjoy this performance. Relax, be inspired, be amazed.

For more information and tickets, visit BostonBaroque.org.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays.

- andy

Fall 2011 Newsletter

I'll get right to the point:

Come see this one-night-only concert with Corinne Winters, Liza Forrester Kelly, Joshua Jeremiah and yours truly singing the songs of Rufus Wainwright - with Rufus Wainwright.

This Thursday night at the Rose Theater in Lincoln Center 8PM

For more details visit the New York City Opera website. Be sure to watch the video.

Your only excuse for missing this amazing concert is if you already have tickets to the New York Festival of Song at the same time, up seven blocks from Lincoln Center.

I have other events to tell you about, like my Brown University debut, two other world premieres and a truly great Handel's Messiah and I will tell you about them soon. But come to see us and Rufus and tell your friends!

Thanks,

Andy