all my yesterdays
CD 1
CD 2
1967 - 1979
I sincerely invite the listener to be aware that all the original sources of Volume I date from the middle to late 1960s. The sound quality will assuredly differ from time to time, but I'd like to think that aspect adds a bit of historical color. The Schubert Mass excerpt, American folk songs and the Tosca excerpt are from original reel-to-reel tapes or cassettes. The other sources are copies from originals, all dating from that period. Also, the notes below are taken from an 8 CD set. They turned out to make up a small biography and I have basically left them intact. Translations and full texts can be found by clicking the title of the work.





A recording of Franz Schubert's Mass in G represents what is probably my first solo outing as a boy soprano (with an obvious absence of vibrato) and as a member of the Texas Boys Choir. A handful of boys had begun singing at Holy Family Catholic Church that year ($10 a month) and had many wonderful musical experiences. A non-musical experience at this particular Christmas Eve service was when I knocked down my music stand, full of music for the service. After the crash, George Bragg walked over to me and whispered "This is not the Fourth of July..."

The tenor soloist is Gerald Houghton, a former choirboy himself and the bass solos were sung by Charles Austin.

American Folk Songs

During the spring of 1968, the Texas Boys Choir traveled to New York to make two LPs for Columbia Masterworks: "This Land is Your Land" (American folk songs arranged by Robert DeCormier) and "What Child is This?" (Christmas music with the Gregg Smith Singers accompanied by the great American concert organist, E. Power Biggs).

The sessions were rather long and arduous, most of us, including myself suffering from allergies, a fact I didn't realize until I was an adult. There were many trips to the vending machine which served cups of a yellow liquid named chicken soup.


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Magic Flute: The Role of First Spirit

During my third year as a member of the Texas Boys Choir, I sang at the Santa Fe Opera for two seasons: In 1968 in productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute and a concert version of Stravinsky's Perséphone; in 1969, I returned to the same production of The Magic Flute, but as the Second Spirit and I also sang the role of the Shepherd Boy in Puccini's Tosca. As an adult, I returned to the company in 1982 as an Apprentice Artist.

These excerpts from an August 1968 performance are conducted by Robert Baustian and feature Stuart Burrows as Tamino, Benita Valente as Pamina and William Workman as Papageno (Donald Gramm sung Papageno in the first four performances). The role of Second Spirit was sung by Mark Lovelace and Third Spirit was sung by Greg Ulmer.

To this day, I still have my G. Schirmer score (we used the Ruth and Thomas Martin translation - their first one), wrapped in white shelfpaper and all my markings for blocking made when I was 13. In re-listening to this track, I was struck particularly by the volume in the phrase "Oh, were her lover only here!".


Peter Westmore

Sweet Melancholy

These three very simple songs are to texts by Peter Westmore, a shy British poet that visited the Texas Boys Choir in the late 1960s. Though the texts are meant for an adult to sing, I think their simplicity makes a poignant and somewhat bittersweet effect sung by a boy soprano (hence the title I gave). I believe that the accompanist is Cecil Bailey. Mr. Westmore passed away in 1990.

01 All Our Yesterdays


César Franck

Mass in A: Panis angelicus

This selection is a personal favorite of mine and I still remember the moment vividly. The occasion was the wedding of Howard and Karen Walsh in Dallas, Texas on January 8(?), 1969. My voice was beginning to bloom into a full-throated boy soprano (along with natural vocal nuances). During the interlude, I can remember George Bragg, the conductor, lean over and whisper to me: "That was beautiful. Now make it great."

This was recorded with a hand-held microphone (by fellow choirboy Mark Lovelace) about twenty feet in back of me as I stood at the edge of the choirloft in the back of the church. After the wedding ceremony, the groom's father, Howard Walsh, found me at the reception and took me by the hand, introducing me to all the guests as the soprano soloist. They all were astounded, thinking it was a woman who had sung.

Kalman Halasz, a pupil of Zoltan Kodaly at the Franz Lizst Academy in his native Budapest, is the organist in this recording. An assistant conductor and tour accompanist for the Texas Boys Choir, he was a truly major influence on me and I cannot stress this enough. This man taught me how to read music, solfege with hand signals, how to sight-read and had a mountain of patience (but was a very strict disciplinarian). He was an accomplished organist, pianist and composer and even was an avid jazz enthusiast. I remember his playing of the Erroll Garner solo "Young Love."

This performance is available online in streaming audio by clicking:

02 Panis angelicus


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339: Laudate dominum
Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165

In December of 1968, George Bragg asked me to learn the Mozart Alleluia. I was handed a Breitkopf und Härtel orchestral score with an LP of the entire cantata, Exsultate, jubilate; the Alleluia being the final movement. I went home and listened to the Alleluia, but also, of course, listened to the entire cantata. I decided to learn the entire work.

In February of 1969, George Bragg arranged a series of weekend concerts called "Connoisseur Concerts". There were two programs, sacred on three Fridays and secular on three Saturdays. And all of these concerts took place at Cowden Hall, a wonderful recital hall on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Friday's concert was built around me so to speak, as I was soloist in three of the four works.

And every Friday night, just before we all would walk onstage, I would drink about a cup of pure lemon juice. Go figure...

I remember so fondly the first performance I ever heard of "Laudate dominum". It was on the occasion of some important holy day at Holy Family Catholic Church when an orchestra was required; a soloist was brought in to sing this work - not a soprano, as Mozart wrote it, but an incredible, light-voiced tenor named Ira Schantz. He had breath control of amazing power.

As far as the learning of "Exsultate, jubilate" is concerned, I did not know what a cadenza was so I sang the ones that were on the recording. And no, sorry to say, I did not take the high C at the end of the Alleluia. Didn't have it. It's not written.

Most of this recording comes from one of a weekly rehearsal at Cowden Hall during the run of the Connoisseur Concerts. I walked in and saw all these microphones. I stood up and went through the cantata once as I had done at every week's rehearsal.

But around this time, plans had begun to film a documentary about the Texas Boys Choir and its ideals. It was decided to use this recording of "Exsultate, jubilate". Unfortunately, at one point in the editing process, they decided to cut about a third of music from the third movement, "Tu virginum corona". That missing section has been replaced here with a live performance in the same hall days later, recorded by my mother with a Norelco hand-held microphone on a C-120 cassette. In the end, only the "Alleluia" was used in the film ("A Time of Waking:) with me lip-synching.

By the generosity of Gene Bittner, I am making available an excerpt from the documentary, "A Time of Waking". This is a streaming video; I recommend you download the free RealPlayer.

The video begins with a short speech by George Bragg and the Mozart "Alleluia" follows.

Mozart's Alleluia from the movie "A Time of Waking"

In November of 2000, "The Better Land: Great Boy Sopranos Recorded 1927-1969: Volume 3" was issued on the Amphion label. I am honored to be represented on this volume, especially so since I am the only American boy soprano on the entire series.

03 I. Exsultate, jubilate
04 II. Recitativo: Fulget, amica dies
05 III. Tu virginum corona
06 IV. Alleluia

Gregg Smith

Bible Songs For Young Voices: In my Spirit

Gregg Smith has been in my musical life almost as long as George Bragg. I first came into contact with him when The Texas Boys Choir and the Gregg Smith Singers participated in Grammy Award-winning landmark recordings of the choral music of Charles Ives, Stravinsky's Perséphone (conducted by the composer) and an album of Christmas Carols, all for Columbia Masterworks and produced by John McClure. Gregg was an extremely colorful artist and always lit up a room when present. He subsequently wrote a solo for me in his cantata "Beware of the Soldier". As an adult, I sang under his auspices in performances of Stravinsky's Renard under the baton of Robert Craft as well as a sudden replacement as his tour accompanist.

This solo (one revered by all soloist hopefuls) I always considered very difficult as the haunting piano accompaniment constantly wove itself among the notes of the solo line, thus making it treacherous to sing accurately. I find my performance somewhat note-bound, remembering how difficult it was to perform. This performance is from a concert in Sherman, Texas which took place on March 30, 1969. The accompanist is Kalman Halasz and the conductor is George Bragg.

Giacomo Puccini

Tosca: The Role of the Shepherd Boy

This CD ends with a track that represents the end of my brief career as a boy soprano. The Texas Boys Choir was asked to participate in a revival of the 1968 Bliss Hebert/Willa Kim production of The Magic Flute. This time, I sang the role of the Second Spirit, plus the Shepherd Boy in Puccini's Tosca. The date of this performance is most likely July of 1969. The sound is rather faint, but this captures my voice as it was rapidly changing. I clearly remember being barely able to get through performances of The Magic Flute, the voice was leaving so quickly. During the final dress rehearsal for Tosca (the opening night of the the 1969 season), John Crosby asked that I sing it from a nuymber of places back stage. One of these locations was even on the roof of the stage. Eventually, backstage right was chosen. John Crosby called me to the pit to thank me personally for my efforts.

In June of 2000, Larry Ford of "Boychoir - Past, Present and Future" authored a site in honor of me and my career as a boy soprano. It can be viewed by clicking: http://www.boychoirs.org/collup.html

After months of arranging and re-arranging this series of seven volumes of CDs, the combination published here happened on its own and turned into a CD of works that are normally performed with orchestra. All tracks (with the exception of two piano solos) are either with orchestra or originally written for orchestra. This CD also breaks with chronology with the two selections from the final round of the 1984 Toulouse International Singing Competition and the short radio appearance as accompanist to Paul Plishka in December of 1990.

Richard Rodgers

South Pacific

While I was a junior at Eastern Hills High School, I was encouraged by my music teacher, Fran Brown, to enter the All-City Voice Competition with a prize of a concert singing with orchestra. This is an excerpt from a suite of tunes from the popular musical, South Pacific. The All-City High School Orchestra is conducted by Ralph Guenther at Will Rogers Auditorium and it took place in the late spring of 1971. A couple of days before this performance, there was an afternoon rehearsal. Afterwards, a bunch of us went to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens and played Frisbee. I dislocated my left kneecap and had to sing the performance with the help of a cane.


Felix Mendelssohn

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in g: III. Presto/Molto allegro e vivace

Having won the All-City Vocalist Competition the year before, I entered the piano competition of the same name the next year. At the time, I was studying with the renowned virtuosa, Isabel Scionti in Denton, Texas. This movement was preceded by the second movement, but not included on the LP pressing given to me. This live performance is nothing short of frenetic, out-of-control and basically, one could write a nice little composition with the missed and dropped notes (which proves my theory I won the competition with the way I played the slow movement). I was nervous also because I had never played a grand piano without the music rack sitting inside it. The visual threw me.

Years later, as a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival, I thanked Rudolf Serkin for this prize that I had won about twenty years previous: I had copied his interpretation nuance-by-nuance from his recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra.


Fryderyk Chopin

Polonaise in Ab, Op. 35

During my senior year in high school and the following year, I was the accompanist for the Texas Boys Choir, on tour as well as local performing. George Bragg allowed me to play two solos during a costume change at each concert. I always played the Chopin Ab Polonaise (once I tried out the g minor Ballade). This work is especially significant to me as it is the very piece of music that inspired my love of classical music. The particular circumstance was the viewing of a movie in third grade of the great Ignace Paderewski playing this. My teacher at the time was Isabel Scionti.

George Gershwin

Prelude No. 1

I "encored" during one tour with "Chopin" from Schumann's "Carnaval" and during the second national tour, I encored with the Scriabin d# etude. When I was a choirboy on tour in 1965 and 1966, another former choirboy, Patrick Stanley, played solos during the concerts. I can still hear his Chopin Op. 10, No. 4 Etude and the "Butterfly" and "Black Key" Etudes. After all, I listened to these dozens of times while making a costume change in the wings.

This rather relentless rhythmic performance is from a pre-tour concert which took place on November 19, 1972. The city was Kilgore, Texas (birthplace of Van Cliburn). I also have included the introduction by George Bragg.

07 Chopin: Polonaise in Ab, Op. 35


A Little Touch of Schmollup in the Night

In the early 1970s when I was tour accompanist for the Texas Boys Choir, we visited Chicago where I discovered the hypnotic LP of Harry Nilsson entitled "A Little Touch Of Schmilsson in the Night" (RCA 3761-2-R). It is a dream of an LP containing twelve songs from the early and mid-twentieth century. It is through-composed, in that there are interludes bridging the songs. But the delectable part about this is that the interludes are sometimes small quotes from songs one heard on the LP, songs one will hear, or songs that aren't included at all.

In the summer of 1971, I attempted to transcribe for piano the entire album, trying as best I could to capture as many details as possible of the lush Gordon Jenkins orchestration. Some years later, George Bragg recorded me singing and playing this arrangement .

I am reminded of Kalman Halasz, who could once and a while, in the late 1960s, be found all alone in the rehearsal hall at 1400 Hemphill in Fort Worth, playing the sultry "Young Love" of Erroll Garner. He probably would also have a half-smoked cigarette hanging out the side of his mouth as he played. Hence, the intimacy on this recording. I sound as if I'm singing to myself. I also would like to mention the masterful arrangements he made for the Texas Boys Choir. Sometimes he would lift, as I did here, arrangements off recordings and turn them into brilliant piano accompaniments.

When I decided to include this "cycle" of American popular songs, I had to do some cerebral detective work: the first seven measures are missing from the original tape. What must have happened is that when I sat down to record this, George Bragg most likely asked me to play something for a microphone level check. I then started with the first strong music and, apparently, never stopped until the end of the work and forgotten I had not played the opening seven measures. I have chosen to re-record those measures in my New York apartment on June 12, 2000 and thereby completing the arrangement.

And even more stranger is how this all has come full circle. The work begins with a partial quote from the LP's final song. Then the 12 complete songs follow, completing the album. It is this partial quote, which poetically takes the listener into a flashback of past love (which is the rest of the album). And this recording presented here literally begins in the present and returns to the past almost twenty years ago.

I wish to thank Dominique Sertel of Berlin, Germany for his re-mastering of this tape.

08 Nevertheless (I'm In Love With You)
09 This Is All I Ask


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Don Giovanni

Richard Rodgers

South Pacific

Via Irv Lerner, I had the pleasure of meeting Paul Plishka at numerous parties. On one of those occasion, I was invited to listen to a run-through of his upcoming recital at Weill Hall, which was to take place at the apartment of Armen Boyajian, his sole voice teacher.

After the run-through of the program - Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death, a Shostakovitch cycle, Paul Bowles' Blue Mountain Ballads, a Ukranian cycle and a group of Ives songs - Paul mentioned that he was in need of an accompanist for a recital in Madison, Wisconsin in a couple of weeks. He was told I played the piano.

After the Weill recital (at which I turned pages for his full-time accompanist, Tom Hrynkiw), Paul gave me the music and our first rehearsal was five days later in Philadelphia where he was rehearsing La Gazza Ladra. Our second and final rehearsal was at a rehearsal hall of the Metropolitan Opera about a week later. The recital on April 22, 1990 was a success, and Paul encored with Rachmaninoff's "Spring Waters."

The following winter, Paul called me to pinch-hit again as accompanist in two selections during a radio interview, which are included below.


1979 - 1983


Peabody/Curtis Institute





My academic studies began at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1974. Absence of any performances from this period is not to dismiss those years but only because the original tapes - my degree recitals in piano and voice - are not available at this time. In spite of the fact that I was no longer a student at Peabody but one at Curtis Institute, I consider this performance of Fauré's "La bonne chanson" to be representative of my five years at Peabody, studying with Wayne Conner. He gave me such a vast knowledge base with excellent tutoring in diction, technique, programming, style, and vocal historical tradition. Throughout my musical life, his words constantly came to mind as I listened and learned from those around me. He taught me how to listen to the human voice, what to listen for. A fellow Texan, Wayne studied with Martial Singher with whom I later coached the role of Pelléas. Wayne and I share many interests, including the fascination and love for this operatic role.

Ernest Ligon is another faculty member at Peabody that guided me in many right directions. We share many interests and his coaching sessions were always fruitful and enlightening. And he also worked with Singher as did Wayne Conner.

Gabriel Fauré

Pablo Casals once said that the trunk of the tree of German music was Beethoven and the trunk of the tree of French music was Fauré. To be aware of all of his mélodies is like a trip through the beauty of all creation, rich in meaning. My love of "tout les Fauré" began in 1986 at the Marlboro Music Festival, but this composer was actually my first composer ever. The occasion was my singing for the first time as a member of the Texas Boys Choir in a concert conducted by Roger Wagner of the Fauré Requiem. "Lydia" was my first mélodie (with Wayne Conner), his music has been on almost every recital. I also had the privilege of doing an all Fauré recital at the National Gallery. Kenneth Merrill was my accompanist and I was joined in the First Piano Quartet by Nicholas Danielson, Ah-ling Neu and Alan Stepansky. One of the last things I sang was the American stage premiere of Fauré's only opera, Pénélope.

La bonne chanson, Op. 61

One of my most memorable periods was the first time I worked with Gérard Souzay and Dalton Baldwin at the 1979 Orford Music Festival in Orford, Ontario. We immediately connected and he was very supportive and helpful. I prepared Ravel's Histoires naturelles, Poulenc's Tel jour telle nuit, Fauré's Poeme d'un jour. While there, I met Kurt Ollmann who introduced me to La bonne chanson.

And I can still hear the silence as Gérard Souzay and Dalton Baldwin began their recital that summer with Poulenc's Priez pour paix. It was my first Souzay recital and I'm so glad it is still with me.

Upon arriving in Philadelphia and my first year of study at the Curtis Institute, I started learning this difficult-to-perform cycle. In late October of 1979, a great artist of a distinctive elegant style, Pierre Bernac passed away. Though this cycle was hastily prepared, it reminds me of that summer in Orford and how exuberant I felt. I later prepared it with M. Souzay at the Ravel Academy in St. Jean de Luz. During this series of classes, Robin Bauman, the British pianist for the class, pointed out to me the key relationships within the cycle. I then adopted this to my future performances of the work which took place at The Phillips Collection in an all-French mélodie recital and at the El Paso Chamber Music Festival.

Thomas Jaber was my courageous pianist in this live radio broadcast of October 31, 1979 (my first recital at Curtis) and we dedicated the performance to the memory of Pierre Bernac.


Ned Rorem

While I was a student at Curtis, I was able to meet and work with the composer Ned Rorem. His "Early in the Morning", a very popular song, was my very first in English. His writing, whether it be his diaries, articles and, at times, even his conversation is like an aural work of verbal art. His music has always been accessible to the public's mind and ear, something that is rare in today's climate of music.

The following six songs are from a recital at Curtis on November 12, 1980 with pianist David Lofton. David and I also performed these songs at New York's Weill Hall and at the Pitti Palazo in Florence, Italy the following summer. David and I, along with a string quartet, were giving recitals in France and Italy, sponsored by the Curtis Institute.

10 O You Whom I Often and Silently Come
11 To You


Samuel Barber

Dover Beach, Op. 3

In March of 1980, while studying at Curtis, I replaced baritone Theodor Uppman at a Samuel Barber 70th Birthday Tribute afternoon recital, singing his Three Songs, Op. 45. Gian Carlo Menotti attended as well as other notables in the music world. Rose Bampton, who sang the world premiere of his "Dover Beach" decades prior, sang it with the remaining members of the original Curtis Quartet. Orlando Cole played the Cello Sonata which he also premiered and Ruth Laredo played the piano Sonata. That night, there was a gala dinner at the Academy House with a concert featuring Jaime Laredo in the Violin Concerto and other works.

In December of 1980, I was asked by the director of Curtis, John de Lancie, to sing Barber's early opus, "Dover Beach" at a birthday gala concert for Nellie Lee Bok, the daughter-in-law of Mary Louise Curtis Bok, one of the two founders of the Curtis Institute. I had sung this work on my Bachelor's Degree recital at Peabody Conservatory so the assignment was not difficult.

A phone call to my apartment one early Saturday morning changed all that. Mr. de Lancie called to tell me that Samuel Barber had just passed away the previous night and Gian Carlo Menotti requested that I sing "Dover Beach" at the funeral the following day (he had heard me a year prior). Luckily, a string quartet and I were already in rehearsal for the tribute to Mrs. Bok. My voice lesson (every Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m.!) was used to work on it with Todd Duncan, my teacher at the time. That afternoon, we rehearsed with Felix Galimir.

The funeral was held in a small church in Westchester, Pennsylvania, Barber's home town. It was conspicuously not full and the only dignitaries were Menotti, pianist John Browning and a representative from Barber's publisher, G. Schirmer. A small choral ensemble from Westminster Choir College sang short choral works and "Dover Beach" was the other selection performed. It was a somewhat surreal experience.

After the service, I attended a wake held at the house of a relative of Barber. I was introduced to Mr. Menotti and, putting his hands on my shoulders, he said with a big grin, "You sounded just like Sam!", making reference to an old recording of Barber singing his own work with the Curtis Quartet. When I met Samuel Barber while attending the Van Cliburn Piano Competition in Fort Worth, he told me of how difficult it was to make that recording, so inexperienced he was as a singer. He also told me, not only did he not want the Adagio from his string quartet played at his funeral, his own mother had made the same request.

The following Monday, ran into the school's publicist and was asked if croutons were thrown on the casket at the graveside. After the initial shock, I realized she was probably right. I remember seeing people closest to the casket, reaching into brown paper bags and throwing fistfulls of something. It was not clods of dirt because it made no sound. I later found out that Barber had actually said to someone that he wanted croutons thrown on his grave. Why? Because he liked them, he said.

This performance dates from January 31, 1981 on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Nellie Lee Bok. The members of the string quartet were:


Francis Poulenc

Tu vois le feu du soir

Though this performance is marred by some indulgent tempo choices and vocal inadequacies, I am proud of it simply for the fact that I performed it at all. I was once told that it was Poulenc's favorite composition, but due to its difficulty - vocal as well as poetic - it is rarely performed. It was written for Pierre Bernac, his life-long companion in music and friendship.

This performance comes from a small recital while I was a student at Curtis. To this day, Curtis only allows students to perform on a part of a program, not a full solo recital. This song was preceded by Schumann's "Widmung" and an aria from Verdi's La Traviata followed.

A hallmark of Vladimir Sokoloff, the pianist in this performance, was his sheer beauty of tone coupled with a life of music making with everyone who came through the doors of Curtis. As we were preparing this recital, he asked me if I had paired the Schumann and Poulenc on purpose. I was puzzled at this question and asked him why. He then pointed out to me the transition or "bridge" of the postlude of the Schumann into the beginning of the Poulenc. It was a beautiful and unintended effect. So, begging the listener's pardon, I have included that postlude to demonstrate this. Dr. Sokoloff also reminded me of the old tradition of pianists of the early part of this century of playing improvised modulations between works on a recital. Josef Hoffman, for example, did this so as to eliminate an abrupt change of mood and key during his concerts. One can hear it on many recordings of him and other virtuosi of the day.


Town Hall

Gabriel Fauré

L'horizon chimérique, op. 118

I first learned and prepared this cycle with Gérard Souzay at a month-long master class at the Geneva Conservatory in 1980. The festival was centered around the music of Robert Schumann, with performances: Pierre Fournier and the Cello Concerto, Henryk Szeryng accompanied by Dalton Baldwin and the violin sonatas and Souzay with his very special Dichterliebe. I also prepared the complete "Poeme de l'Amour et de la Mer" of Chausson and "Don Quichotte a Dulciné" of Ravel

I first learned and prepared this cycle with Gérard Souzay at a month-long master class at the Geneva Conservatory in 1980. The festival was centered around the music of Robert Schumann, with performances: Pierre Fournier and the Cello Concerto, Henryk Szeryng accompanied by Dalton Baldwin and the violin sonatas and Souzay with his very special Dichterliebe.

When all of the students arrived at the Conservatoire for registration, all the singers were told we had to audition as too many people were accepted!

After this audition (I sang "N'est-ce pas?" of Fauré), he called me into the concert hall and after accepting me into the class, he asked if I had ever sung Pelléas and I told him I had not but wanted to learn it. He said he had been asked to sing Golaud in the opera's first performance in Australia and was looking for a Pelléas.

The seed was thus planted.


Johannes Brahms/Richard Strauss

I offer a small selection of Lieder of Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss, composers that I did not sing much of, but "Feldeinsamkeit" was programmed very often, as well as his "Botschaft". These were on my New York recital debut program. I am especially fond of "Während des Regens", inspired by Elly Ameling's performance with Norman Shetler. In 1982, I won a Brahms Lieder Competition sponsored by the Wolf Trap Foundation.

"Lob des Leidens" was introduced to me by Dalton Baldwin. It is dear to me as this happened the day I arrived at the Orford Music Festival in Canada to study for two weeks with him and Gérard Souzay. Dalton asked me to sight-read it, a challenge in front of colleagues I didn't know and then there's all of the changes of tonality. This song turned out to be a personally emotional and prophetic statement about my studies that summer of 1979.

I would also like to mention that Charles Crowder, the then Director of Music at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., is responsible for my studying with Souzay. Charles introduced me to Dalton Baldwin who then invited me to work with them in Canada.


Ned Rorem

Three Calamus Poems

In 1981, I received a Solo recitalist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. This grant allowed me to enter three European competitions, studies at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, publicity materials, and the commissioning of Ned Rorem to write a work of his choice. He chose three poems from the Calamus Book of Walt Whitman. This recording is the world premiere performance at Town Hall as part of my New York recital debut.

12 To a Common Prostitute


Jacques Leguerney

A son page

Jacques Leguerney, who died in 1999, had a fondness for French Renaissance poets such as Ronsard, and the songs are tinged with elements of both Impressionism and earlier-sounding, sort of modal harmonies. He claimed he had been born 400 years too late. He has written more than fifty mélodies

This track is the encore at my New York recital debut at Town Hall which was accompanied by Walter Huff.



1983 - 1984



Francis Poulenc

Tel jour telle nuit

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Tel jour telle nuit is "the blue album", an LP of Poulenc songs that Gérard Souzay and Dalton Baldwin recorded for RCA in the mid-1960s. It is a favorite Souzay recording of mine and the richness and sensuality of this romantic cycle is perfectly captured. I sang this cycle on my degree recital while studying with Wayne ?onner at Peabody Conservatory, on a recital in Florence, Italy while touring with students from Curtis Institute and at my New York recital debut at Town Hall from which this performance comes from.

I followed Souzay's choice of keys rather than transpose the entire cycle one whole step. I remember when I first started learning this work, I wrote out the entire cycle by hand; after losing it, wrote it out again; then discovered that it had been published at one time in a medium key.


Henri Duparc

Songs for Voice and Orchestra

Through a grant from the Astral Foundation in Philadelphia, the summer of 1984 was spent traveling to Europe for competitions in Paris, Munich, s'Hertogenbosch and Toulouse plus studies at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. It was a beautiful and fruitful summer there - I sang the role of Dr. Malatesta in their production of Don Pasquale, coached the role of Debussy's Pelléas with Martial Singher, and I was one of 10 winners of the Concerto Competition , the prize of which was singing these three Duparc songs with the Festival orchestra. under the baton of Richard Buckley. This performance dates from August 4, 1984.

13 Chanson triste

Radio Netherlands Recital

During the 1984 s'Hertogenbosch International Singing Competition (pronounced "ztair-togen-boss", I garnered the Janine Micheau Prize for Excellence in French Music. One of the audience members was Menno Feenstra, a radio producer who asked me to sing a recital for Hilversum Radio.

My accompanist in this recital, as well as the competition was Gérard van Blerk We chose to offer a song sampling of varied styles and composers. A few of the songs, such as the Arne and Hahn, I had never performed before. The beautiful aria from Die tote Stadt sent me sailing through rounds of auditions and competitions throughout my career

14 En sourdine (Gabriel Fauré)
15 Nacht und Träume (Franz Schubert)
16 Les cygnes (Reynaldo Hahn)
17 Die tote Stadt: Pierrot's Tanzlied (Erich Wolfgang Korngold)


Ernest Chausson

Poeme de l'Amour et de la Mer: IV. Le temps des lilas

Charles Gounod

Roméo et Juliette: Ballade de la Reine Mab

These two selections are my performances in the Final Round of the Concours International de Chant de Toulouse. They were recorded by my Sony Walkman placed just offstage right on the floor. First, one hears the master of ceremonies walking onstage and announcing, in French, my name, voice type, country and selections. Then you hear myself walking out onstage. The pianist is Jerzy Marchwinski, husband of Polish mezzo Ewa Podles.

The first time I heard Gérard Souzay and Dalton Baldwin in recital was at the Orford Music Festival in Canada. He programmed four Chausson mélodies as well as songs by Poulenc - he opened the program with a spell-binding Priez pour paix, Fauré's Poeme d'un jour, the Ravel cycle Don Quichotte á Dulcinée and Schumann's Dichterliebe.

I performed Chausson mélodies at my all-French recital at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. as well as a recital at Fort Worth's Cowden Hall. This composer also served me well as I won the Prix de la Mélodie Française at the Concours International de Chant de Paris.

A dream unfulfilled was to someday sing Chausson's work for voice and orchestra, "Poeme de l'Amour et de la Mer". While studying at the Peabody Conservatory, Flore Wend introduced me to this piece with her recording she made with Ernest Ansermet and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. She was a voice teacher of formidable wit, shrewdness and artistry, all in one person. When she loved a song or any piece of music, her exuberance was enthralling. I prepared the work while studying with M. Souzay at the Geneva Conservatory in 1981. "Le temps des lilas" is the third and final movement.

18 Ballade de la Reine Mab


1985


Academy of Vocal Arts

In 1985, I was asked to sing a recital for the Delius Society of Philadelphia. Davyd Booth, a violinist/member of the Philadelphia Orchestra accompanied me. We were also requested to perform the rarely-heard cycle of George Butterworth, A Shropshire Lad.

Many afternoons and evenings during memorable Philadelphia summers were spent at Davyd's apartment, reading music and listening to recordings from his overflowing record collection. One day, I brought over songs of Debussy and Rachmaninoff and read through them with Davyd playing the vocal line on the violin. It was strange for a violinist as there are no barred notes, just flags. So, when I was asked to give a recital, I thought it would be a good idea to program some Rachmaninoff songs. In no way were these transcriptions anything like the Heifitz versions; that said, we had a good fun time making all of this music together.


Gabriel Fauré

These three songs come from a lovely group called "Cinq Mélodies de Venise", Op. 58. I learned my first "singing-French" with Wayne Conner and "En sourdine". Later, I had the privilege of singing a small recital at the Philadelphia Museum of Art with the late Vladimir Sokoloff.


Franz Schubert

These five songs from Schubert's final cycle, Schwanengesang, were programmed very often at my recitals during the 1980s. I first prepared them with Hans Hotter at a series of master classes he held at the Abbé de Royaumont outside of Paris, France in 1983.


Frederick Delius

Ein Messe des Lebens: Süsse Leier!

In 1981, I was lucky enough to perform as soloist in Frederick Delius' mammoth choral work, "Ein Messe des Lebens" in Philadelphia with the Pennsylvania Music Academy Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by the late Michael Korn. Scored for double orchestra, double chorus plus a quartet of soloists, the text is from Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra. The baritone soloist represents Zarathustra. Felix Aprahamian, the noted critic of the London Sunday Times, flew over for the performance. After all, he had heard every single performance of the work since it was premiered.

George Butterworth

A Shropshire Lad

As I stated above, it was requested that I offer this touching cycle by George Butterworth, "A Shropshire Lad".


Cowden Hall Recital

In the late 1980s, I gave 2 different recitals at Cowden Hall, both within a week. Both were accompanied by Walter Huff. The following selections are from one of those recitals.

19 O kühler Wald (Johannes Brahms)
20 Feldeinsamkeit
21 Traum durch die Dämmrung

Francis Poulenc

La fraîcheur et le feu

Poulenc's La fraîcheur et le feu is probably an extreme opposite in mood and effect from his "Tel jour telle nuit". It is angular, biting and intense in its word-painting and can be a very effective work when programmed. Walter and I also performed it at The Phillips Collection. I prepared this work with Gérard Souzay in 1983 at the Ravel Academy in St. Jean de Luz, France.

23 VI. Homme an sourire tendre

Jacques Leguerney

Le Carnaval

Jacques Leguerney, who died in 1999, had a fondness for French Renaissance poets such as Ronsard, and the songs are tinged with elements of both Impressionism and earlier-sounding, sort of modal harmonies. He claimed he had been born 400 years too late; but, thankfully, he wrote more than fifty mélodies. His cycle "La Nuit" is especially evocative.

I had the honor of meeting M. Leguerney for the first time when I sang excerpts from Pelléas et Mélisande for him and Gérard Souzay in Princeton, N.J. M. Leguerney was visiting and being honored at the annual summer Westminster Art Song Festival at Westminster Choir College. Our next meeting was while I was a contestant in the Concours International de Chant de Paris. We later enjoyed a spectacular dinner at a favorite local restaurant of his.


Alice Tully Hall

Joy In Singing

Upon arriving in New York for good, in the fall of 1983, the first little piece of advice was to call Winifred Cecil. She was an American soprano, singing in Italy, during the late 1940s who suffered a tragic accident that left her paralyzed from the neck down. She immediately started teaching in Manhattan where she founded the Joy In Singing Awards, whose prize is a recital in a major New York hall.

I called her and asked if I could sing for her (the competition begins with one singing in a public master class she holds gives). She said, in her usual abrupt speech, "You're too late. The deadline was yesterday." I begged, pleaded and she consented to hear me. I sang for her at her Dakota apartment and she asked me to be the first singer of that season's first class.

This took place in January of 1984 and I was not in the best financial situation, to put it mildly. For the class, every stitch of visible clothing was borrowed. I looked good, but the minute she saw me, she said, "Is that what you're wearing for today's class?" I said it was. She said, "Hmph. I'll have to do something about that."

I sang Debussy's "Les cloches" and Wolf's "Verborgenheit". After the master class, she told me to call her the next day. I did and she then told me to be at her apartment at noon the following day.

I arrived and met another guest by the name of Gustl Breuer. A long time friend of "Winnie", he was Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's private secretary in America. Then Ms. Cecil announced that: 1) a anonymous friend has offered to buy me a new suit (the one I am wearing on the covers of DCzCDz and the tie was worn at this class); 2) another anonymous donor (though I came to know and love personally, Mary van Nes, a former pupil of Artur Schnabel) to give me $1000; and 3) tuition-free study at Yale School of Music and work with Tito Capobianco at the Opera Department.

I subsequently did not win the competition that year, due to allergies, but I re-entered the next year and received the award of a recital At Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall on November 4, 1985. Once again, my pianist was Walter Huff. Sadly, Winifred Cecil passed away the previous September.

In 1984, tenor Paul Sperry invited me over to his spacious Upper West Side duplex many times to read through new music. Composers would send him scores by the dozens for his perusal. One of these works that he introduced me to was Stephen Paulus' ArtSongs. Paul had given the world premiere of the 7 songs concerning works of Art for the Schubert Club of Minneapolis.

Later, as I started preparing my program for Alice Tully Hall, I decided to ask Mr. Paulus the honor of giving the New York premiere. This recording, is a selection from ArtSongs. I wrote out the entire cycle down one step from the original key. But that was a minor labor as this is great music. I have always been especially fond of "Seurat".



1987 - 1988


Gustav Mahler

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

"Songs of a Wayfarer" was assigned to me well before my arrival for my first summer at Marlboro. It is a chamber ensemble arrangement for ten instrumentalists prepared by the twelve-tone composer Arnold Schoenberg. He also began an arrangement of the same composer's "Das Lied von der Erde" but it was left unfinished. It is a faithful re-instrumentation of the original Mahler and every color seems to be in the Schoenberg score as it was in the original. We had many hours of "Marlboro rehearsals" and performed the work without a conductor. This performance took place on August 2, 1986.

The participants are:

Flute		Renee Krimsier
Clarinet		Daniel McKelway
Violin		Philipp Naegele
Violin		Florence Schwartz
VViola		Mary Hammann
Cello		Charles Curtis
Double Bass		Peter Lloyd
Piano		Derek Han
Harmonium		Wu Han
Percussion		Joseph Beiro

24 II. Ging heut morgen übers Feld


Robert Schumann

from Spanisches Liebeslieder

One might say that the main focus at Marlboro is on the strings, winds and piano. A vocal quartet is always on campus and available to perform works that require a singer or singers. Schumann's "Spanisches Liebeslieder is a vocal chamber work for quartet and piano four-hands. In this performance, I was joined by Claudia Visca, soprano, Katherine Ciesinski, mezzo soprano and Daniel Pincus, tenor. The two pianists at one are Judith Gordon and Luis Batlle. This performance of August 9, 1987 took place on a sunny Sunday afternoon concert in the Concert Hall.

The "Spanisches Liebeslieder" consists of two quartets, trios, duets and solos. "Flutenreicher Ebro" is a baritone solo, sometimes performed by the tenor, though the vocal line is written iin the bass clef.

Continure to CD 2

25 V. Flutenreicher Ebro



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