CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Performance
Wednesday, Jan 18, 2012 | 5:30 PM
The Song Continues... Duo Recital
Weill Recital Hall
Seating
Chart
The Song Continues … workshop brings young singers together from around the world each January. On this recital, a dazzling soprano from Canada, Mireille Asselin, and a dashing baritone from Washington State, José Rubio, come together on the Weill Recital Hall stage.
Performers
- Mireille Asselin, Soprano
- José Rubio, Baritone
- Bryan Wagorn, Piano
Program
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MOZART
"Das Veilchen," K. 476
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SCHUBERT
"Viola," D.786
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DEBUSSY
"Apparition"
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JOSEPH SCHWANTNER
"Black Anemones"
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SCHUBERT
"Prometheus"
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SCHUBERT
"Der Zwerg"
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IVES
"Charlie Rutlage"
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IVES
"Songs My Mother Taught Me"
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IVES
"The Circus Band"
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Encore:
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HAHN
"Nous avons fait un beau voyage" from Ciboulette
Bios
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Mireille Asselin
Soprano Mireille Asselin is a young artist at the onset of an exciting career. She
obtained a master's degree from Yale University in 2010 and is currently a member of the
Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio. This season with the COC, she performs the title
role in Handel's Semele (Ensemble Studio performance), Contessa Ceprano in
Rigoletto, and Second Priestess in Iphigénie en Tauride, while also
covering Olympia (Les contes d'Hoffmann), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi) and
Semele. In addition, she performs with Opera Hamilton (Popera Plus),
Boston Early Music (Flore and Proserpine in La descente d'Orphée) and Glimmerglass
Festival (Phénice and Lucinde in Armide). She also appears on concert stages
across North America and in England singing Brahms's Eindeutsches
Requiem, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and Handel's Messiah.
In 2010-2011, she debuted at Carnegie Hall singing Vaughan Williams's Dona nobis
pacem with the The Yale Symphony Orchestra, performed the roles of Galatea (Acis
and Galatea) and Servilia (La clemenzadi Tito) with Opera Atelier in
Toronto, and was a semi-finalist in the Das Lied International Song Competition in Berlin.
Ms. Asselin is a devoted recitalist who has studied song literature with Roger Vignoles,
Sir Thomas Allen, and Malcolm Martineau.
Ms. Asselin's career highlights include performances as Adele (Die Fledermaus)
with Opera Hamilton; First Witch (Dido and Aeneas) with Opera Atelier on its tour
to Seoul; and Pamina in the feature film Magic Flute Diaries (2007). Next season,
she will be featured in two lead roles on the COC main stage. Visit mireilleasselin.com for
more information.
More Info
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José Rubio
Internationally acclaimed baritone José Rubio has quickly established himself as an
important young artist on both the operatic and concert circuits. In 2011, he performed the
title role of Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Music Academy of the West,
and was the runner up in the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. While in Santa Barbara, he was
personally selected by Marilyn Horne to perform for William and Catherine Windsor, the
newlywed Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, at a high-profile charity event at the Santa
Barbara Polo Club.
In 2011, Mr. Rubio had his New York operatic debut with Encompass Opera as the male lead
in the world-premiere production of Angel of the Amazon. In 2010, he completed a
two-year engagement as a studio artist with the Portland Opera, where he performed more
than 12 roles for the main stage and two recitals as part of the Portland Opera's recital
series. Mr. Rubio's leading operatic credits include Marcello, Gianni Schicchi, Figaro,
Schaunard, Dr. Rappaccini, Papageno, Sam, Masetto, Mercurio, Fiorello, Marullo, and Barone
Douphol. He has been featured in concert with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and Oregon
Sinfonietta, and as a guest artist in recital at the New Mexico State University and the
University of Texas.
Mr. Rubio is an artist-diploma candidate at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
He is a three-time alumnus of the prestigious Music Academy of the West and has also spent
three summers in Italy with the Opera Theater and Music Festival of Lucca.
More Info
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Bryan Wagorn
Canadian pianist Bryan Wagorn is in his first year of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann
Young Artist Development Program. He has performed throughout Canada, the US, Europe, and
Asia as vocal accompanist, soloist, and chamber musician, and has been broadcast on CBC
Radio, Radio-Canada, Chinese Central Television, and Rogers TV. This summer, he will act as
accompanist for the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival.
Mr. Wagorn made his recital debut at New York's Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in
2009, and has partnered with such musicians as Kenneth Cooper, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Carol
Wincenc. He has toured twice under the auspices of Jeunesses Musicales Canada, and has also
toured China with Canada's Tabaret Ensemble. Mr. Wagorn has performed for The Marilyn Horne
Foundation, Banff International Keyboard Festival, The International Holland Music
Sessions, and the Centre d'arts Orford.
Since 2007, Mr. Wagorn has been on faculty of Canada's National Arts Centre Summer Music
Institute, directed by Pinchas Zukerman; he has also formerly taught at the Manhattan
School of Music. He graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Music with distinction, holds
a bachelor's degree in music from the University of Ottawa, as well as a master's degree in
music from the Mannes College The New School for Music. He is currently a doctoral
candidate at the Manhattan School of Music.
More Info
At a Glance
We begin with four very different songs
that invoke flowers. The inspiration for many of Mozart’s songs arose from
personal relationships (a musical thank-you note) or private circumstances. Art
song did not yet have the prolific presence it gained in the 19th century.
However, if Mozart’s songs are few in number, they are gems in quality;
tonight, we hear his only setting of a poem by Goethe.
This evening’s program features three Schubert ballads in different moods: We
hear a flowery ballad on themes of shame and early death, an example of Antikenlieder(songs about
Greek mythology), and a “horror ballad.”
An early song by Debussy set to a poem by symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé follows—a
wonderfully airy confection that soars up to high C.
Joseph Schwantner, whose Aftertones
of Infinityreceived the 1979 Pulitzer Prize, is one of
America’s most important living composers. He has been honored by commissions
and performances worldwide and is the recipient of numerous grants and awards.
We hear his “Black Anemones” this evening.
Charles Ives—the great rebel of early–20th-century American music—wrote inimitable
songs; we hear two ebullient, even boisterous, specimens and one tender
remembrance of a mother’s music.
Program Notes