BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS AND COMMUNICATIONS
School of Music
Guest Artist
Erin Morley, soprano
with
Ken Noda, piano
7:30 p.m.
28 October 2016
Madsen Recital Hall
Harris Fine Arts Center
PRO GR A M
Lied der Delphine
Franz Schubert
¿ De dónde venís, amore?
Therese
El mirar de la maja
Joaquin Rodrigo
Johannes Brahms
Enrique Granados
Když mne stará matka zpívat
Margaritki
Der Himmel hat eine Träne geweint
Amor
Antonín Dvořak
Sergey Rachmaninoff
Robert Schumann
Richard Strauss
I N T E R M I S S ION
Le garçon de Liège
Das verlassene Mägdlein
Als Luise die Briefe
Francis Poulenc
Hugo Wolf
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Dans I’herbe
Zur Rosenzeit
Auflösung
Francis Poulenc
Edvard Grieg
Franz Schubert
Little Lamb
The Praises of God
Litany
Den li tsarit?
Zueignung
Ralph B. Woodward
Samuel Barber
John Musto
Pyotr Ill’yich Tchaikovsky
Richard Strauss
“I’m honored to be at BYU, in my home state, to share this music with you tonight.
Our program tonight is called “Love Songs.” We have chosen six groups of songs to
represent different aspects of love. Our first song stands alone as an introduction to
the evening: “Delphine” represents love’s beginnings, adolescent love, or the first time
one falls in love. Then we move into the more sensual aspects of love: temptation and
passion. To end the first half, I’m singing songs of motherly love (or songs that represent
the love a teacher has for her students) and closing with “Amor,” as the Brentano/
Strauss depiction of Cupid reminds me so much of my wily and lovable daughter. After
a pause, we have three tales of unrequited love and betrayal. We advance from there
towards grief, the three songs here representing three progressive stages of grief. Lastly,
we have five songs which offer sincere expressions of what I call “sacred love”: love from
the divine, brotherly love, and the holiest aspect of romantic love. “Zueignung” ends
the evening as my personal dedication and expression of gratitude to God, who gave
me my life and the gift of love in all of these forms.”
—Erin Morley
Erin Morley is one of today’s most sought after coloratura sopranos. She has stepped
into the international spotlight in recent years with a string of critically acclaimed
appearances in the great opera houses of the world. Ms. Morley has brought what the
New York Times called the “silken clarity of her voice and the needlepoint precision” of
her coloratura to the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna Staatsoper, Munich’s Bayerische
Staatsoper, Opéra National de Paris, Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Spain, and Santa
Fe Opera. Renowned for her musicality and deft phrasing, she has also appeared
as a soloist with America’s premier symphony orchestras, including the Cleveland
Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York
Philharmonic.
Ms. Morley’s 2016–2017 season features a return to the Metropolitan Opera to sing
Sophie in a new production of Der Rosenkavalier and performances of Zerbinetta in
Ariadne auf Naxos with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. In concert, she will sing
Sophie with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and reprise Angelica in Handel’s Orlando
with Harry Bicket’s renowned orchestra, The English Concert, on tour in Ferrara,
Italy. Ms. Morley will also be heard in recital at Alice Tully Hall and at Brigham Young
University. Future projects include returns to the Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne
Festival Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Santa Fe Opera, and Carnegie Hall, all in leading
roles. The 2015–16 season took Ms. Morley back to Munich (Fiakermilli in Arabella)
and Paris (Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier), and included debuts at the Minnesota Opera
(Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos), the Opéra de Nancy (the title-role in Lucia di
Lammermoor) and The English Concert in a European and North-American tour
singing Angelica in Orlando with a final performance at Carnegie Hall.
A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development
Program, Ms. Morley has sung more than 70 performances at the Metropolitan Opera.
She was hailed by critics as “a major success” when she stepped in last-minute to sing
Sophie in an entire run of Der Rosenkavalier in the 2013–14 season. (She will return to
the Met as Sophie in a new production alongside Elīna Garanča and Renee Fleming,
with James Levine at the podium.) Met audiences also heard Ms. Morley’s role debuts
as Olympia (in Les Contes d’Hoffmann) in the 2014–15 season, and Sister Constance
(in Dialogues des Carmélites) in 2013–14, among others. Equally at home in chamber
music, Ms. Morley has appeared with Louis Langrée and the Mostly Mozart Festival
Orchestra, with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, in a recital tour with
pianist Vlad Iftinca (Salt Lake City’s Virtuoso Series and Carnegie’s Weill Hall),
and with pianist Ken Noda (in Webern’s Four Songs) and James Levine and the Met
Chamber Ensemble in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (in Satie’s Socrate).
In commercial recording, Ms. Morley can be seen as Sandrina (in La Finta Giardiniera)
with conductor Emmanuelle Haïm in the Opéra de Lille production for Erato; as
Woglinde (in Götterdämmerung) with conductor Fabio Luisi in the Metropolitan
Opera’s Grammy Award-winning Lepage Ring Cycle for Deutsche Grammophon; and
can be heard as Marguerite de Valois (in Les Huguenots, live from Bard SummerScape),
for the ASO label; in Carl Nielsen’s Symphony no. 3, “Espansiva” with Alan Gilbert
and the New York Philharmonic for Da Capo Records; as Sylvie in Gounod’s opéracomique La Colombe with Mark Elder and The Hallé Orchestra for the Opera
Rara label and as a guest soloist with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on their 2015
Christmas album, Hallelujah!.
The daughter of a violinist, Ms. Morley spent her early years studying violin and piano,
and frequently collaborated with her mother. While obtaining her undergraduate voice
degree from Eastman, she continued her piano studies, and accompanied singers in
lessons and recitals. She went on to earn her master of music voice degree from The
Juilliard School and her artist diploma from The Juilliard Opera Center in 2007, where
she received the Florence & Paul DeRosa Prize. Ms. Morley won first Place in the
Licia Albanese – Puccini Foundation Competition in 2006, third Place in London’s
Wigmore Hall International Song Competition in 2009, and received the Richard
Tucker Career Grant in 2013.
Ken Noda is musical assistant to James Levine and coach for the Lindemann Young
Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera, where he began working
in l991. Born in New York City to Japanese parents in October 1962, he studied with
Daniel Barenboim and performed as soloist with such orchestras as the Berlin, Vienna,
New York, Israel, and Los Angeles Philharmonics; the London, Boston, Chicago, San
Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, and National Symphonies; the Cleveland Orchestra,
Orchestre de Paris, and Philharmonia Orchestra of London, under such conductors
as Abbado, Barenboim, Chailly, Kubelik, Levine, Mehta, Ozawa, and Previn. He has
also collaborated as chamber musician with Maestro Levine (at two pianos), Itzhak
Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Nigel Kennedy, and the Emerson Quartet; and as
accompanist to Kathleen Battle, Hildegard Behrens, Maria Ewing, Aprile Millo, Kurt
Moll, James Morris, Jessye Norman, Matthew Polenzani, Dawn Upshaw, and Deborah
Voigt. He has been a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival and taught at the
Renata Scotto Opera Academy at the invitation of Miss Scotto. He also gives annual
opera masterclasses at Juilliard.
This musical event is the 24th performance sponsored by the
BYU School of Music for the 2016–2017 season.