For Immediate Release
Contact: Stephanie Janes PR, (617) 419-0445, [email protected]
Celebrity Series of Boston
Gary Dunning, President and Executive Director
Presents
Dawn Upshaw, soprano
Gilbert Kalish, piano
Saturday, October 17, 2015, 8pm — NEC’s Jordan Hall
Upshaw high-resolution photo | Celebrity Series Press Room
(Boston) Celebrity Series of Boston will present soprano Dawn Upshaw on Saturday, October 17, 2015 at 8pm
at NEC’s Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, MA. Media partner is 99.5 WCRB.
Tickets start at $40, and are available online at www.celebrityseries.org, by calling CelebrityCharge at (617) 4826661 Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., or at the Jordan Hall Box Office.
This performance marks Ms. Upshaw’s eighth recital appearance with Celebrity Series; her first was in 1992 and
most recent was in 2011.
Dawn Upshaw has achieved worldwide celebrity as a singer of opera and concert repertoire ranging from the
sacred works of Bach to the freshest sounds of today. Her ability to reach to the heart of music and text has
earned her both the devotion of an exceptionally diverse audience, and the awards and distinctions accorded to
only the most distinguished of artists. In 2007, she was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation, the first
vocal artist to be awarded the five-year “genius” prize, and in 2008 she was named a Fellow of the American
Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Her acclaimed performances on the opera stage comprise the great Mozart roles (Susanna, Ilia, Pamina,
Despina, and Zerlina) as well as modern works by Stravinsky, Poulenc, and Messiaen. From Salzburg, Paris and
Glyndebourne to the Metropolitan Opera, where she began her career in 1984 and has since made nearly 300
appearances, Dawn Upshaw has also championed numerous new works created for her including The Great
Gatsby by John Harbison; the Grawemeyer Award-winning opera, L’Amour de Loin and oratorio La Passion de
Simone by Kaija Saariaho; John Adams’s Nativity oratorio El Niño; and Osvaldo Golijov’s chamber opera
Ainadamar and song cycle Ayre.
She is a favored partner of many leading musicians, including Gilbert Kalish, the Kronos Quartet, James Levine,
and Esa-Pekka Salonen. In her work as a recitalist, and particularly in her work with composers, Dawn Upshaw
has become a generative force in concert music, having premiered more than 25 works in the past decade.
From Carnegie Hall to large and small venues throughout the world she regularly presents specially designed
programs composed of lieder, contemporary works in many languages, and folk and popular music. She furthers
this work in master classes and workshops with young singers at major music festivals, conservatories, and
liberal arts colleges. She is Artistic Director of the Vocal Arts Program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music,
and the Head of the Vocal Arts Program at the Tanglewood Music Center.
A five-time Grammy Award winner, she most recently received the 2014 Best Classical Vocal Solo Grammy for
Maria Schneider's Winter Morning Walks on the ArtistShare Label. She is featured on more than 50 recordings,
(more)
Celebrity Series of Boston
Dawn Upshaw press release, Page 2 of 3
including the million-selling Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Gorecki for Nonesuch Records. Her discography also
includes full-length opera recordings of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro; Messiaen’s St. Francois d’Assise;
Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress; John Adams’s El Niño; two volumes of Canteloube’s “Songs of the Auvergne,”
a dozen recital recordings, and an acclaimed three-disc series of Osvaldo Golijov’s music for Deutsche
Grammophon. Ms. Upshaw has recorded extensively for the Nonesuch label. She may also be heard on
Angel/EMI, BMG, Deutsche Grammophon, London, Sony Classical, Telarc, and on Erato and Teldec in the
Warner Classics Family of labels.
Dawn Upshaw holds honorary doctorate degrees from Yale, the Manhattan School of Music, the Juilliard School,
Allegheny College, and Illinois Wesleyan University. She began her career as a 1984 winner of the Young
Concert Artists Auditions and the 1985 Walter W. Naumburg Competition, and was a member of the Metropolitan
Opera Young Artists Development Program. She is currently the head of the vocal program at the Tanglewood
Music Center and Artistic Director, Graduate Vocal Arts Program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Program:
Franz Schubert
Im Frühling, D.882
Geheime, D.719
Gretchen am Spinnrade, D.118
Lied der Mignon (Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt), D.481
Rastlose Liebe, D.138
Maurice Ravel
(1875-1937)
Histoires Naturelles
Le paon
Le grillon
Le cygne
Le martin–pêcheur
La pintade
Sheila Silver
(b. 1946)
On Loving (Boston premiere)
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright
Sonnet: Mindful of you the sodden earth in spring
Love is a magic ray
Leoš Janáček
(1854-1928)
from In the Mists
I. Andante
IV. Presto
Mr. Kalish
Béla Bartók
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Fekete föd
Egy Kicsi madarka
Ifjúság mint sólyommadár
Eddig való
‘Hatforintos’ Nota
William Bolcom
(b. 1938)
Song of Black Max
Toothbrush Time
Waitin’
George
About Celebrity Series of Boston
Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario Aaron Richmond. Over the course of its
77-year history, Celebrity Series has presented an array of the world’s greatest performing artists, including
Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arturo Toscanini, Ignace Paderewski, Artur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould,
Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Andrés Segovia, Kirsten Flagstad, Marian Anderson, Luciano
Pavarotti, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Martha Graham, Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo, Mikhail Baryshnikov,
Mstislav Rostropovich, and the New York City Opera Company.
Celebrity Series of Boston
Dawn Upshaw press release, Page 3 of 3
The Celebrity Series has been bringing the very best performers–from orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal
and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, and more–to Boston’s major concert halls for 77 years. The Celebrity
Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life
experiences, transform lives and build better communities. Through its education initiatives, the Celebrity Series
seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared
experience–on stages, in schools, at home– everywhere. For more information on Celebrity Series of Boston, call
(617) 482-2595 or visit us online at www.celebrityseries.org.
The Celebrity Series of Boston, Inc. receives generous support from Amy & Joshua Boger; Donna & Mike Egan;
Gabor Garai & Susan Pravda; The Garbis & Arminè Barsoumian Charitable Foundation; Stephanie L. Brown;
David & Harriet Griesinger; Paul L. King; Jann Leeming & Arthur Little; The Royal Little Family Foundation;
Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation; Stewart Myers; Eleanor & Frank Pao; The John S. and Cynthia Reed
Foundation; Stiffler Family Foundation; Sanjay & Sangeeta Verma; Nancy Richmond Winsten; Charlesbank
Capital Partners LLC; EMC Corporation; Foley & Lardner; Massachusetts Cultural Council; National Endowment
for the Arts; The Peabody Foundation; PTC; Tufts Health Plan; The D.L. Saunders Real Estate & Hotel
Investment Group, AMO; Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
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