The Gerda Lissner Foundation, in Association with The Liederkranz Foundation (5/1/23)

The Gerda Lissner Foundation, in Association with The Liederkranz Foundation
Presents in Concert
Winners of the Lieder/Song Vocal Competition and
International Vocal Competition 2022/2023

Well, that was quite a mouthful, eh? But wait … there’s more. The performance took place at Carnegie Hall, and all of the various winners were very ably accompanied/assisted by pianist Arlene Shrut. The program listed all of the winners, though they did not sing in this order. What I’ve decided to do is list the winners (and what they sang) in the order they were first listed in the program. Trust me, I made the logical/easy choice.

Lieder/Song Vocal Competition 2022
First Prize: Joseph Parrish, bass-baritone – “Calling You” from Baghdad Café – Bob Telson; “Fussreise” from Mörike-Lieder – Hugo Wolf; “Sred’ shumnogo bala” (Amid the Din of the Ball), Op 38, No. 3 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Second Prize: Liederkranz Foundation – Alice Chung, mezzo-soprano – “George” from Cabaret Songs – William Bolcom; “Longing for GeumGang Mountain”, poem by Han Sang-eok – Choi Young-Sup
Third Prize: Erik Grendahl, baritone – “The Virgin in the city” from Petersburg, a vocal Poem – Georgy Sviridov; “Ballade des femmes de Paris” from François Villon cycle – Claude Debussy

International Vocal Competition
Opera Division – Top Prize: Liederkranz Foundation – Sophia Hunt, soprano – “Das war sehr gut Mandryka” from Arabella – Richard Strauss; “E Susanna non vien?…Dove sono” from Le Nozze di Figaro – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
First Prize: Stephen De Maio Memorial Award – Vladyslav Buialskyi, bass-baritone – “Aprite un po’ quegli occhi” from Le Nozze di Figaro – Mozart; Si, morir ella de’!...” from La Giocanda – Amilcare Ponchielli
Second Prize: Jazmine Saunders, soprano – “Ach ich fühl’s…” from Die Zauberflöte – Mozart; “Caro nome” from Rigoletto – Giuseppe Verdi
Third Prize: Korin Thomas-Smith, baritone – Within this frail crucible of light” from The Rape of Lucretia – Benjamin Britten; “Hai già vinta la causa” from Le Nozze di Figaro – Mozart
Operetta and Zarzuela Division – Third Prize: Shaina Martinez, soprano – “Salida de Cecilia Valdés” and “Hija del Amor” from Cecilia Valdés – Gonzalo Roig

Another odd and fun thing was that all tickets were complimentary—my guess is that the two foundations picked up the tab. Even with that, it was not a totally full house. Since opera was the focus of the second half of the concert, there were obvious supporters—claques, if you will—offering their support via applause and shouts of encouragement from audience members. I know and understand that that goes with the territory but it’s not my favorite part of the tradition.

And new to me was zarzuela, a type of Spanish operetta. The two zarzuela songs we heard were written by a Cuban composer. While I enjoyed the operatic selections, I was more drawn to songs/lieder, especially the William Bolcom song, George (easy to find on YouTube, if you’re interested). All in all a fun evening at Carnegie Hall. And I didn’t even have to practice!

ConcertMeister