TORONTO, October 21, 2011 – Soprano Janet Obermeyer steps into the spotlight November 1 with her long-time collaborator, pianist Leslie De’Ath, in a recital of songs by Richard Strauss at York University’s Tribute Communities Recital Hall. This showcase performance is the second event in the 2011-12 Faculty Concert Series of York’s Music Department.
Obermeyer has held a lifelong affinity for the intimacy and emotional accessibility of the classical art song. Her program features some of the best-known and best-loved works in the genre: Strauss’ haunting Four Last Songs (Vier letzte Lieder). The final works completed by the composer, "Frühling" (Spring), "September", "Beim Schlafengehen" (Going to Sleep) and "Im Abendrot" (At Sunset) are a beautiful and profound meditation on death. Composed in the aftermath of WWII, shortly before Strauss’ death in 1949, the songs are suffused with a sense of calm, acceptance, and completeness.
The concert is a harbinger for the duo’s upcoming CD, Strauss - Four Last Songs - 14 Lieder. Slated for release in early 2012, the recording will be Obermeyer’s fifth and her second with De’Ath. Their previous album, Songs of Love and Longing, a collection of the lieder of Franz Liszt, drew international accolades. Described as “calm pools of pleasure and sorrow” by Soundscapes magazine, it was hailed as “ravishing” by the UK’s Daily Telegraph and “the best interpretation of these works heard in a long time...possibly ever!” by the Deutsche Schallplatten Awards.
Obermeyer travelled to the Netherlands, England and Scotland last year to perform Four Last Songs, accompanied by De’Ath for the UK portion of the tour. Her other recent appearances as a recitalist include the Liszt Memorial Museum in Budapest and Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels. Back home in Ontario, she is welcomed by enthusiastic audiences each year at the North American Liszt Society's Great Romantics Festival inHamilton.
Obermeyer has showcased her vocal gifts in performances with leading chamber ensembles and orchestras across Canada, the USand Europe. Her credits include Mozart's Requiem with the Rochester Philharmonic; Handel's Messiah and Mendelssohn's Lobegesang Symphony II with the Toronto Symphony and Vancouver Symphony; and Bach's Mass in B minor with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Among her career highlights has been the Canadian premiere performance of Gloria in excelsis Deo, a recently re-discovered seven-part masterwork for soprano by Georg Frederic Handel.
Her upcoming performances include Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Symphony Hamilton at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre on November 17 and Handel's Messiah with the Bach-Elgar Choir and Hamilton Philharmonic December 16.
Obermeyer teaches inYork’s burgeoning classical vocal performance program, whose graduates are starting to make their mark nationally and internationally. Recent alumni of the program include Stefanie True, winner of the Adair Prize at the 2011 London Handel Competition; Vanessa Lanch, third-place winner in the 2011 Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition, who is currently performing and recording under the baton of Andrea Mellis in Vienna; and lyric coloratura soprano Vania Chan, who made her Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Recital Hall as a first prize winner in the Barry Alexander International Vocal Competition and appears regularly with New York Opera Forum and Opera Manhattan Repertory.
De’Ath is a pianist, conductor, vocal coach, accompanist, author and educator. He has shared the stage and recording studio with many of Canada’s finest singers. He performs regularly with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and Canadian Chamber Ensemble and chamber groups including Contrasts, Trio Laurier and The Poulenc Trio. For more than three decades, he has been a member of the Faculty of Music at WilfridLaurierUniversity, teaching piano performance, lyric diction and piano literature, and serving as music director for the Opera Program. He is associate editor of the Journal of Singing.
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"The Lieder of Richard Strauss” featuring Janet Obermeyer is the second of four performances in the Faculty Concert Series spotlighting faculty artists in the Department of Music at YorkUniversity. Upcoming concerts will feature violinist Jacques Israelievitch and pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico (Jan. 17, 2012) and improv pianist Casey Sokol (Feb. 14, 2012).
What: York U Faculty Concert Series: Janet Obermeyer with Leslie De'Ath - The Lieder of Richard Strauss
When: Tuesday, November 1 at 7:30pm
Where: Tribute Communities Recital Hall, Accolade East Building, York University, 4700 Keele St.| Map
Admission: Single ticket $15, students & seniors $5 | Series tickets: three-concert package for $30
Box Office: 416.736.5888 | http://www.yorku.ca/perform/boxoffice
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Media Contact:
Amy Stewart, Communications, Faculty of Fine Arts,YorkUniversity
416.650.8469 | amy.stewart@yorku.ca
