An Evening with New York's Brightest Young Classical Stars
Monday, August 1, 8 PM
The Lensic Performing Arts Center
211 West San Francisco Street/ Santa Fe
Tickets at the Lensic: 988-1234
Tickets priced from $15- $45
This performance was supported by The Lensic Performing Arts Center
There's no question about New York… this City reins supreme: Wall Street-Financial capitol of the world; 7th Avenue-Fashion Capitol of the world; Broadway- theatre capitol of the world… Most particularly noted is the love affair between New York City and classical music. The Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, American Ballet Theater, Julliard… To play these esteemed halls and be compared to such former New York greats as Leontyne Price, Beverly Sills, Leonard Bernstein, is the highest accolade one can obtain… in New York and in the world.
Ellie Dehn, headliner at the Metropolitan Opera, is at the top of her game.
Respected and admired for her exceptional artistic skills, American soprano Ellie Dehn has or will have engagements through 2012 in many of the world's leading opera houses including Teatro all Scalla, Metropolitan Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Geneva, Bologna, Santa Cecillia and Houston Opera. This summer she will debut at the Santa Fe Opera in the world premiere of Spratlan's Life is a Dream. Ms. Dehn will perform the Countess with the San Francisco Opera Company and the Houston Grand Opera and will return to the Metropolitan Opera as Musetta. Looking ahead, she makes her debut with Teatro all Scalla as Antonia in Les Contes d'Hoffman.
She has found a niche for bringing life to several of Mozart's heroines and continues to collect acclaim for her concert performances.
Ms. Dehn recently won first prize in the 2007 George London Competition and the Gerda Lissner Foundation. Other honors and awards include the James McCracken Award in the 2006 Elardo International Opera Competition, the 2005 National Grand Finalist Award in the Metropolitan National Council of Auditions, 2nd place in the 2004 Licia Albanese/Puccini Foundation Competiton and 1st place in the 2004 JP Italian Opera Competition.
From the George London Foundation Recital with Samuel Ramey:
"Since a career on the operatic stage seems in the cards, let's look at what this particular recital revealed about her chances for success… Confidence and professionalism, Ellie Dehn has got it. No hesitation, no self effacement, no false modesty. She sings out with great verve and gusto. There is a star waiting to burst out here." The New York Sun- Fred Kirshnit
As Donna Anna:
"American Soprano Ellie Dehn's Donna Anna was a revelation. Her horror at her father's murder was palpable, and her satiny soprano unleashed a torrent of desperation and passion as she veered between mourning and a thirst for vengence." The Chicago Sun-Times Wynne Delacoma
As Cressida:
"The star of the show was Ellie Dehn as Cressida, a charismatic soprano with great stage presence and a voice combining metallic clarity and sensual richness." The Wall Street Journal- Heidi Waleson.
www.elliedehn.com
Spencer Myer, Pianist. Gold Medalist of the 2008 New Orleans International Piano Competition, SPENCER MYER is garnering stellar audience and critical acclaim from around the globe, rapidly establishing himself as one of the most outstanding pianists of his generation.
Currently in the midst of a summer that has included an encore collaboration with the Miami String Quartet at the Kent/Blossom Festival, returns to the Quad Cities and Cape Cod Chamber Festivals, and debuts with the Mendocino Festival Orchestra and Guadalajara's Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, Spencer Myer includes in his upcoming season returns to the Bozeman and Wyoming Symphony Orchestras, debuts with the Juneau, Acadiana and Springfield Symphonies and Boston's Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, his fifth return tour to South Africa, and solo recitals throughout the United States.
Spencer Myer's orchestral, recital and chamber music performances have been heard throughout North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. He has been soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Louisiana and Dayton Philharmonic Orchestras, the Bozeman, Indianapolis, Knoxville, New Haven, Phoenix, Richmond (IN), Santa Fe, Southeast Iowa, Tucson and Wyoming symphony orchestras, and Beijing's China National Symphony Orchestra, collaborating with, among others, conductors Nicholas Cleobury, Neal Gittleman, Jacques Lacombe, Jahja Ling, Maurice Peress, Matthew Savery, Klauspeter Seibel, Arjan Tien and Victor Yampolsky.
Spencer Myer's recital appearances have been presented in New York City's Weill Recital Hall, 92nd Street Y and Steinway Hall, Philadelphia's Kimmel Center and London's Wigmore Hall, while many of his performances have been broadcast on WQXR (New York City), WHYY (Philadelphia), WCLV (Cleveland) and WFMT (Chicago).
In 2004, Spencer Myer captured First Prize in the 10th UNISA International Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa. He is also the winner of the 2000 Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition, and subsequently enjoys a growing reputation as a vocal collaborator.
Spencer Myer is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with Julian Martin. Other teachers include Peter Takács, Joseph Schwartz and Christina Dahl. During the course of his undergraduate studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he was the recipient of numerous awards from that institution, while, in 2000, he was named a recipient of a four-year Jacob K. Javits Memorial Fellowship from the United States Department of Education. He has served on the faculties of the Oberlin and Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatories of Music as Visiting Professor of Piano. His Doctor of Musical Arts degree was conferred by Stony Brook University in 2005.
Spencer Myer can be heard on the Dimension Records label, performing music of the late Cleveland composer Frederick Koch and on a composer-conducted Naxos CD in performances of three concerti from Huang Ruo's Chamber Concerto Cycle. His debut CD for harmonia mundi usa - music of Busoni, Copland, Debussy and Kohs - was released in the fall of 2007.
Spencer Myer is a Steinway Artist.
Piano Recital A Ride from Melancholy to Euphoria- Moments before launching into Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata, pianist Myer offered an observation… Myer did more than play the complete "Moonlight" sonata. He actually did the music justice. Omaha World Herald John Pitcher
With crisp timing, exquisite touch and a firm grasp of musical proportion, American pianist Spencer Myer earned the top spot in the 20th annual New Orleans International Piano Competition on Sunday. Time –Picayune Chris Waddington
Over the years, the Young Artist Series has brought some serious talent to the Rinker Playhouse. Most of the musicians featured in the series are fresh out of conservatories
And have incredible technical skills but sometime lack true artistry. Once in a while, a true outstanding performance happens, and that was the case of Tuesday's piano recital given by Spencer Myer. Palm Beach Daily News
Myer delivered mature, polished artistry… A class act. Indianapolis Star
www.spencermyer.com
Program
Presenting works by: Mozart, Hahn, R. Strauss and the incredible
Franz Lizst.
Review: Santa Fe New Mexican Pasatiempo August 5-11, 2010
James Keller
A very impressive recital came by way of soprano Ellie Dehn and pianist Spencer Meyer at the Lensic Performing Arts Center on August 1, presented by Stars Never Fade Productions. Santa Feans will remember Dehn from her strongly etched interpretations of the noblewoman Rosaura in last summer's Santa Fe Opera premiere of 'Life is a Dream.' Since then she has kept busy with, among other things, engagements as Musetta in productions of 'LaBoheme' at the Metropolitan Opera and Rome Opera; next winter she takes the role to LaScala.
Again, this was not a classic lieder recital… it departed from the standard in a way that I found more pleasing. Yes, Dehn opened with an aria "Martern aller Arten" from Mozart's 'Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail- and who in her right mind opens a concert with such punishing music? The first item on a vocal recital usually provides a warm-up, and I guess the piece served as a psychological purpose for her; after "Matern aller Arten," the rest might seem like a cakewalk. The recital really got going, in spirit, with three dainty songs by Reynaldo Hahn, sensitively sharpened in introverted declamatory style, and with good French diction. The first half ended with three Strauss songs, of which the third, ('Amor;) fit her most naturally; here she nailed the coloratura that dedecks the slippery harmonic sidesteps, and she doled out a little extra leash to her full-bodied lyric soprano voice, which evinced considerable power.
In between those song sets- and here comes this concert's main departure from the standard song recital, pianist Myer played two solo movements from Book One of Debussy's Preludes. He also opened the concert's second half with two solo works: Liszt's 'Petrarch Sonnets' 104 and 123. I particularly admired his carefully calibrated Liszt playing. Myer is not a pianist for extroverted virtuosic display, but his musical decisions were everywhere intelligent, and by the end of Sonnet 123, he seemed to draw the entire audience into a profound reverie.
Dehn joined him for two sets Liszt songs, one in French, the other in German, all but one of them rarely programmed. This was serious song interpretation. She was intent on conveying the words and the atmosphere behind them, she emphasized her ideas through inflections of vocal color, she sustained moods she created, and she underscored her delivery with deft, pertinent and witty visual cues. The program closed with a few crowd-pleasers—Gershwin's 'Summertime' and musical theater items from 'The Secret Garden' and 'The Kissing Bandit'- but it was Dehn's work as a lieder singer that impressed the most.
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