Christopher Herbert in revolutionary Wall Street concert

Christopher Herbert

On April 21st, Barihunk Christopher Herbert will return to Trinity Wall Street for a concert that's part of a series called "Revolutionaries: The late works of Beethoven & Ginastera." He will be the baritone soloist along with NOVUS NY, Trinity Wall Street's contemporary music orchestra, in both the Ginastera Cantata Bomarzo and Faure's Requiem.

Ginastera played a key role in the unrest that led to the Argentine Revolution of the 1960s and '70s. Having lost an early teaching position for protesting the dismissal of his colleagues, he went on to lose his directorship of the conservatory that he himself had founded, for resisting orders to name it for Eva Perón. Several of his works were banned in his homeland, and he spent much of his life in self-imposed exile.

Ginastera was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1916 to a Catalan father and an Italian mother. In 1934 he won 1st prize of the musical society El Únisono for his Piezas Infantiles for piano. His next piece of importance was Impresiones de la Puna. As a young professor,  Ginastera taught at the Liceo Militar General San Martín. In 1946-1947 he traveled to the USA on a Guggenheim fellowship and studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood. Returning to Argentina, he co-founded the League of Composers and served as director of the Conservatory of the province of Buenos Aires in La Plata. He then taught at the Argentine Catholic University and also was a professor at the University of La Plata. Among his notable students was Ástor Piazzolla.

Christian Gerhaher sings the baritone solo from Fauré's Requiem:

Five of the seven sections of the Fauré Requiem were completed by January 1888 and performed that month at the Madeleine for the funeral of the architect Joseph Lesoufaché. Fauré continued to work intermittently on the Requiem, and by 1893 he judged the score ready to be published. For the 1893 version a baritone solo, two bassoons, four horns and two trumpets are added to the original scoring. When possible Fauré employed a mixed choir and a female soprano soloist, partly because the soprano lines, particularly the solo in the Pie Jesu, are difficult to sing and demand excellent breath control, easier for adult women than for boys.

You can see the entire Revolutionaries concert schedule HERE. The concert will be available online.

Christopher Dylan Herbert in Fauré/Vaughan Williams program

Christopher Dylan Herbert

Christopher Dylan Herbert will be the featured soloist in two performances of Ralph Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs and the Fauré Requiem in New York City next week.

The first performance is at Hunter College in Lenox Hill on Thursday, April 16 with a subsequent performance on April 18 at Our Savior's Atonement Lutheran Church in Washington Heights.

Ralph Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs were written between 1906 and 1911 to texts by the seventeenth-century Welsh-born English poet and Anglican priest George Herbert (1593–1633). The poems come from his 1633 collection The Temple: Sacred Poems.

While Herbert was a priest, Vaughan Williams himself was an atheist at the time, though this did not prevent his setting of verse of an overtly religious inspiration.

Andrew Garland sings Easter from Five Mystical Songs:

The songs supposed to be performed together as a single work, but the styles of each vary quite significantly. The first four songs are quite personal meditations in which the soloist takes a key role, particularly in the third - Love Bade Me Welcome, where the chorus has a wholly supporting role, and the fourth, The Call, in which the chorus does not feature at all. The final Antiphon is probably the most different of all: a triumphant hymn of praise sung either by the chorus alone or by the soloist alone; unlike the previous songs, a separate version is provided for a solo baritone. It is also sometimes performed on its own, as a church anthem for choir and organ: Let all the world in every corner sing.

On May 24th, Christopher Dylan Herbert rejoins the group New York Polyphony for their European tour, which takes them to Amsterdam and then Germany. Check out their website for dates and locations.

Hanno Müller-Brachmann's West Coast Debut & Only US Performance in 2014

Hanno Müller-Brachmann in Cosi fan tutte in Berlin

American fans of the amazing gifted German barihunk Hanno Müller-Brachmann will have one chance to see him in 2014, when he makes his West Coast debut with the San Francisco Symphony on May 29 and 30. Müller-Brachmann will be performing Fauré's Requiem under the baton of Charles Dutoit along with soprano Susanna Phillips. Tickets are selling fast and are available online.

Müller-Brachmann's U.S. appearances are an unfortunate rarity. He made his New York  in 2000 debut at Carnegie Hall in Elliott Carter's opera "What next" with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim.

Hans Müller-Brachmann performs St. Matthew's Passion:

Upcoming European performances are focused on the Passions of Johann Sebastian Bach, as he takes on St. Mark's Passion with the Knabenkantorei Basel on March 20 and 21, St. Matthew's Passion with the Sinfonieorchester des Schwedischen Rundfunks on March 28 and 29, St. John's Passion with the Vienna Symphony on April 13 in Vienna and 15 in Aix en Provence, and finally returns to the St. Matthew's Passion with the Berlin Konzerthausorchester on April 18 and 19.

Nicholas Dinopoulos: Lots of sacred music and a free concert

Nicholas Dinopoulos

We were on a Down Under binge for awhile but lately we've been in a bit of a drought. Many singers have moved on from studying Australia, including Hadleigh Adams, who is in San Francisco, and Morgan Pearse, who is in London.

Fortunately for folks in the "Land of Plenty," Nicholas Dinopoulos is still around and keeping busy singing a series of masses. He'll be performing Fauré's Requiem at St. John's Anglican Church in Croydon on May 19 and again at St. Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne on June 8, as well as Rossini's Stabat Mater at Federation Hall in South Yarra on June 1 and Mozart's Missa Solemnis at St. Francis’ Church in Melbourne on June 2.
 
In August, he'll return to singing opera, performing in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra on August 9 and Piazzolla's María de Buenos Aires with Victorian Opera from August 21-24. 
 
On Sunday May 26th, you can see him with mezzo-soprano Sally-Anne Russell as part of the ABC Classic FM series for free in a program of music that evokes the sea, including Fauré's L'Horizon Chimérique,  Brahms' Four Duets (op. 28) and Sir Edward Elgar's famous Sea Pictures.

The event is at the Iwaki Auditorium near the Melbourne Arts Centre and is general admission. They are asking that all people be seated by 2:50 pm.

Dinopoulos is a core member of Songmakers Australia under the artistic patronage of famed musicologist and accompanist Graham Johnson. He can frequently be heard in live-to-air broadcasts on ABC Classic FM and 3MBS FM.

Daniel Cilli to perform Traviata in Napa; French music in New Orleans; Sing premiere with Opera Parallèle

Daniel Cilli in "City of Sin" at West Edge Opera

After seeing Daniel Cilli shirtless in West Edge Opera's "City of Sin," we realized that we've probably not featured him as regularly as we should. The singer emerged on the scene as a member of the Opera San Jose ensemble from 2006-2010, scoring critical acclaim in Eugene Onegin, Romeo and Juliet, Barber of Seville and the Marriage of Figaro. He's now been in two productions with the innovative West Edge Opera, which used to be known as Berkeley Opera.

Cilli has a new SoundCloud page where you can listen to some clips. He also has some interesting upcoming engagements, starting with the Baron in La Traviata with the Livermore Valley Opera. Performances run from March 9-17 in Livermore, with a performance at the historic Napa Valley Opera House on March 13. It's believed to be the premiere of La traviata at the Napa Valley Opera House. Click HERE for additional performance information or tickets.

Daniel Cilli as Mercutio at Opera San Jose

On May 9 and 10, he'll appear with the Louisiana Philharmonic in the Fauré Requiem as part of their French Master series. There are performances in New Orleans and Covington and tickets are available online.

On June 7th he premieres the role of Carlo Gesualdo in Dante De Silva’s Gesualdo, Prince of Madness​ with San Francisco's Opera Parallèle.

You can check out his artistry on his new SoundCloud site.