Andrew Garland in recital of Jewish Composers

Andrew Garland as photographed by Matt Madison-Clark

Andrew Garland will be performing a recital of "Jewish Composers of the 19th & 20th Century" on Sunday, January 19 at 3pm. The recital is part of the Molly Blank Jewish Concert Series at the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta which celebrates the Jewish contribution to music. The concert series is a partnership with the Atlanta Opera.

Garland's recital will include music from the German Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn, late-Romantic Austrian composer Gustav Mahler, and American composer Leonard Bernstein. Garland will be accompanied by a string quartet made up of members of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra.

You also may want to check out the review of Andrew Garland's CD "American Portraits" from the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Journal, which is one of the best reviews we've ever read. You may recall that we named his CD one of our "Barihunks Best of 2013."

Accompanied by Donna Loewy on piano, Garland sings four song cycles, Stephen Paulus' "A Heartland Portrait,"  Tom Cipullo's "America1968" (dedicated to Garland and Loewy), Lori Laitmen's "Men with Small Heads" and Jake Heggie's  and "The Moon is a Mirror." You can order a copy at GPR Records.

Listen to the "Three Barihunks" from Montreal; Barihunks Sly and Brancy take 1st & 3rd

Sidney Outlaw, Philippe Sly and John Brancy

As a follow up to our post on Sunday about the Concours vocal competition in Montreal, we'd like to let readers know that the performances by the three barihunks who advanced to the finals are now available online. In fact, Sidney Outlaw, Philippe Sly and John Brancy perform one after another, providing an amazing opportunity to compare these three amazing artists.

We admit to being biased towards lower voices, but these three men are truly some of the best opera singers emerging on the scene today. The depth of their artistry and the quality of their voices is remarkable, especially considering that the youngest, Phillippe Sly and John Brancy, are just 23!

The winners will be officially revealed on Friday, but we've heard that Sly took away the top prize, shortly after having won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. The three top singers will appear in the Winners’ Gala Concert this Friday, June 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the Maison symphonique de Montréal. Under the direction of Alain Trudel, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal will accompany the winners. Tickets are available at 514 842-2112. The winners are:

FIRST PRIZE – $30,000

PHILIPPE SLY, BASS-BARITONE, CANADA

Added to the First Prize is the Career development programme, valued at $20,000.

SECOND PRIZE – $15,000

OLGA KINDLER, SOPRANO, SWITZERLAND

THIRD PRIZE – $10,000

JOHN BRANCY, BARITONE, UNITED STATES

For the finals, John Brancy kicked it off with Wagner's "O su mein holder Abendstern" from Tannhäuser,  Tchaikovsky's "Postoite na odno mgnovenye!" from Pique Dame, Mendelssohn's "Es ist genug" from Elijah and Rossini's "Largo al factotum" from the Barber of Seville. Phillipe Sly then follows with Stravinsky's "Come, master" from the Rake's Progress, Handel's "Invida sorte avara" from Ariodante, Mozart's "Hai già vinta la causa!" from Marriage of Figaro and Bach's "Mache dich, mein Herze, rein" fo from the St. Matthew Passion. Sidney Outlaw finishes up this amazing run of baritone music with Mendelssohn's "Draw near ye people....Lord God of Abraham" from Eljah, Handel's "Sibilar gli angui d'Aletto" from Rinaldo, Korngold's Tanzlied from Die tote stadt and Verdi's "Death of Rodrigo" from Don Carlo.  

Click here to listen to the performance. The barihunk run starts at about the 27 minute mark and is worth the listen.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Randal Turner takes on a role of biblical proportions

Randal Turner and the biblical Elijah

The Biblical figure Elijah was no slouch. After all, he raised the dead, brought fire down from the sky, and was lofted into the sky in a whirlwind by a chariot and horses. The role of Mendelsohn's "Elijah" is also no slouch and it requires some lofty singing from the baritone.

On Friday, May 4, 2012 at 8:00 PM, you can hear Randal Turner take on the role at the Spring Music Festival in Greenwich, Connecticut. He'll be joined by sopranos Hanna Golodinskii and Carolyn Paulus, treble Katie Weatherseed, mezzo-soprano Linnea Conley and tenor Christopher Pfund. The First Church Festival Chorus and chamber orchestra will be led by Craig Scott Symons. The concert is free of charge, but a donation is strongly encouraged (or Elijah will bring fire down upon your head).

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sings "It is enough" from "Elijah":  

The oratorio depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament. Mendelssohn made sure to include some of the grander episodes in Elijah's life, including the resurrection of a dead youth, the bringing of rain to parched Israel through Elijah's prayers, and the bodily ascension of Elijah on a fiery chariot into heaven. Perhaps the most dramatic episode is the "contest of the gods," in which Jehovah consumes an offered sacrifice in a column of fire, after a failed sequence of frantic prayers by the prophets of the god Baal.

For more information, visit the First Congregational Church of Greenwich website. 

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Local Paper Heralds Return of Gregory Gerbrandt

Colorado native Gregory Gerbrandt is returning to his hometown of Greeley to star in two performances. The Greeley Tribune ran this feature on the emerging star in anticipation of his performance with the Greeley Chorale on April 3 and a performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah and Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Got Me Flowers" at the Greeley Congregational Church on April 10.

Gerbrandt recently wowed audiences at the Hawaii Opera with his intense portrayal of Enrico in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." In July, his recording of Kamran Ince's "The Judgment of Midas" will be released on Naxos.

The singer comes from great musical stock, as his father led the University of Northern Colorado opera program for 21 years. 

Here is an amateur video of him singing "Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific.



Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

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