RIDER UNIVERSITY
Westminster Choir College
Lindsey Christiansen
Art Song
Festival 2022 Ancient Cabaret & Cabaret Songs
William Bolcom, composer | Arnold Weinstein, lyrics Lydia Brown, piano
Sunday, May 8 at 3 p.m. Gill Memorial Chapel Rider University
Lindsey Christiansen Art Song Festival 2022 Ancient Cabaret & Cabaret Songs William Bolcom, composer | Arnold Weinstein, lyrics Lydia Brown, piano Sunday, May 8 at 3 p.m. Gill Memorial Chapel Rider University
Westminster College of the Arts WESTMINSTER CHOIR COLLEGE
About the Program The cabaret has long been known as a space where open-minded artists, including composers and singers from the worlds of concert and popular music, are able to collaborate in a more casual way, as well as have a drink! One could say the same of the cabaret song itself, which has a long tradition that many say peaked in 1920’s Berlin. Composer and pianist William Bolcom and his longtime friend and lyricist Arnold Weinstein, are best known for their work on two ambitious operas, McTeague and A View From the Bridge. They kept this partnership in song and from 1963 to 1996 they collaborated on 24 cabaret songs, all but one written specifically for the mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, Mr. Bolcom’s wife and a most unique interpreter of American popular music from the Colonial era to the present. The Bolcom-Weinstein Cabaret Songs, which have been published in four volumes, will all be performed in today’s program along with a group of five more-recent songs, published in 2005, called Ancient Cabaret. These five songs open the program and include Latin and Greek texts loosely translated by Mr. Weinstein. According to Preston Stahly, director of the New York Art Ensemble “The complete Cabaret Songs of William Bolcom and Arnold Weinstein have taken American art song to a new level—to ‘high cabaret.’ It’s a unique, eclectic, and sophisticated amalgam of musical drama and expression.” These songs are among the composer’s most popular and characteristic works. The lyrics tell of life’s heartaches and the darker side of love with tales centered on societal misfits and outcasts, but always with a wry humor and affection. Each of the four volumes of songs take the listener on a marvelous musical journey. Volumes I and II, published in 1978, contain twelve songs. He Tipped the Waiter, The Actor, and Over the Piano, are songs that explore cabaret life, and then there are those examining more mundane, but in many aspects, more human concerns like Toothbrush Time. We even hear some expressionistic fervor in Surprise. Volumes III and IV are darker. Within all of these songs Bolcom always finds fitting, smart and expressive music that resonates the ever-shifting moods and complicated situations found in Weinstein’s lyrics. Love in the Thirties, is a dialogue between a young boy and his cash-strapped father during the Depression, Mr. Bolcom provides a wonderfully enigmatic accompaniment with crunchy chords and an easy swing. We also hear comic music found in shifting keys and insinuating harmonies over a steady one-two pulse in Song of Black Max, a story told to Mr. Weinstein and Mr. Bolcom by their friend Willem de Kooning, about an infamous enticing character who
walked the streets of a Rotterdam neighborhood when de Kooning was a child. Can’t Sleep and At the Last Lousy Moments of Love offer funny, sardonic and sometimes bittersweet views of life and love. Among his stylistic trademarks are the myriad of ways in which Bolcom blends both vernacular and classical music idioms in concert works and operas. In the Cabaret Songs, he mixes styles with subtlety as his task is to place the music completely at the service of the texts. What we hear are fluently melded art songs with elements of American musical vernacular— ragtime, jazz, and popular song. Here the question of genre seems irrelevant. When we listen closely, we hear that the piano parts provide invigorating rhythmic invention, harmonic complexity, chromaticism and even some 12-tone elements. These songs are deceptively difficult and present an interesting challenge for the artists, as they must seem spontaneous and be delivered with personality and charisma. These singers and Ms. Brown spent several hours rehearsing and working together to bring this afternoon of songs to you. We sincerely hope you will delight in these color-filled musical stories that, when presented in this collection, help us connect to the broadest parts of our human experience. — Victoria Browers
Program Ancient Cabaret No. 1
On a Statue of a Runner Kathryn Corbino, soprano
No. 2
Unlucky Eutichus Kamryn Austin, mezzo-soprano
No. 3
An Encaustic Painting Mary Fetterman, soprano
No. 4
Timomarchus’s Picture of Medea, in Rome Amanda Duspiva, soprano
No. 5
Praxiteles’ Aphrodite Abigail Bohn, soprano
Cabaret Songs VOLUME I 1.
Over the Piano Joseph Richwine, baritone
2.
Fur (Murray the Furrier) Joseph Richwine, baritone
3.
He Tipped the Waiter Kathryn Corbino, soprano
4.
Waitin Abigail Bohn, soprano
5.
Song of Black Max (as told by the de Kooning boys) Joseph Richwine, baritone
6.
Amor Mary Fetterman, soprano
VOLUME II 1.
Places to Live Amanda Duspiva, soprano
2.
Toothbrush Time Kamryn Austin, mezzo-soprano
3.
Surprise! Kathryn Corbino, soprano
4.
The Actor Abigail Bohn, soprano
5.
Oh Close the Curtain Mary Fetterman, soprano
6.
George Amanda Duspiva, soprano
VOLUME III 1.
The Total Stranger in the Garden Kamryn Austin, mezzo-soprano
2.
Love in the Thirties Kathryn Corbino, soprano
3.
Thius, King of Orf Joseph Richwine, baritone
4.
Miracle Song Amanda Duspiva, soprano
5.
Satisfaction Mary Fetterman, soprano
6.
Radical Sally Kamryn Austin, mezzo-soprano
VOLUME IV 1.
Angels are the Highest Form of Virtue Amanda Duspiva, soprano
2.
Poet Pal of Mine Kathryn Corbino, soprano
3.
Can’t Sleep Abigail Bohn, soprano
4.
At the Last Lousy Moments of Love Kamryn Austin, mezzo-soprano
5.
Lady Luck Mary Fetterman, soprano
6.
Blue Kamryn Austin, mezzo-soprano
Texts Ancient Cabaret
Lyrics by Arnold Weinstein
1. On the Statue of a Runner The breathful of hope on the brink of his lips Comes from strong lungs of bronze. The runner leaps to the wreath, The base will not hold him still. Oh art Faster than the wind! 2. Unlucky Eutichus Behold the painter Eutichus Who never got a likeness once Not even from a self portrait Not even from his seven sons 3. An Encaustic Painting I was a courtesan in Byzantine Rome, All the love that money could buy. Look at me now in immortal readiness. My name is Callirhoe the whore. This painter was glad to pay madly for me to burn his love into my thighs So you can watch us both in the melting wax forever. 4. Timomarchus’s Picture of Medea, in Rome Medea, you killer of children, Look at your face on the wall, Murderous mother, motherly murderess, Your eyes full of tears, And the sword in your hand is dripping too. And the painter’s hand is dripping With your cruelty, your craziness, your grief. How did the artist mix the horror and pity of your gaze? Blood is thicker than water, But paint is thicker than blood. 5. Praxiteles’ Aphrodite Aphrodite came floating from above. To see the latest statue of herself. This was the nakedest nude that ever was, Was the buzz among the gods. Please turn the page quietly.
The goddess looked it up and down, Walked all around the statue, Liked it a lot. Not that she didn’t have a question For the artist: Praxiteles. When did you see me in this position? When did you see me like this, Praxiteles?
Cabaret Songs VOLUME I 1. Over the Piano He sang songs to her over the piano. Sang long songs to her over the piano. Low slow songs, lusty songs of love. Loving songs of long lost lust just to her, just for her, over the piano. Until at last at half past four Ev’rybody out the door! She asked him please play me one more. Which he did and as he did Slid off the bench and said to her over the piano Goodbye. 2. Fur (Murray the Furrier) My Uncle Murray the furrier was a big worrier but he’s no hurrier not today. He’s good and retired now, didn’t get fired, now fulfills his desires on half of his pay. He eats in the best of dives although he dines alone. He buried two wonderful wives and he still has the princess phone. It’s the best of all possible lives owning all that he owns on his own. You see, he never took off a lot, and used to cough a lot, fur in his craw from hot days in the store.
(Weinstein)
Worked his way up to the top. Was the steward of the shop. Has a son who is a cop and he is free! My Uncle Murray the retiree loves this democracy and says it very emphatically. He lives where he wishes, when he wants does the dishes, eats greasy knishes, yes siree! He is free! No guilt, no ghost, no gift for no host, he goes, coast to coast, coughing coughing. My Uncle Murray the furrier no, no worrier he. 3. He Tipped the Waiter He tipped the waiter in the dining car for a seat near the lady with flowing fur and took off his glove and kissed her hand and yet his monocle was steaming wet. O so nervous! O so grand! Greasing that palm and kissing that hand. What baby brain pushed his button so his gravy train would glide across the Elysian plain to Rome by night. I met him on a Roman night and then again by Venice light among a flock of latest loves counting up his conquests on grey suede gloves then shooed us all away like turtle doves. And then he vowed out loud to the cooing crowd “A guy gotta lay low!” and gave me pause to realize he would if he could seduce a halo the great hole in the skies! Please turn the page quietly.
His were not lies Not merely lies. Lies were his form of merchandise. What baby brain pushed his button so his gravy train could keep on puffing across the plain to Rome by night and the Venice light. O so nervous! O so grand! greasing that palm and kissing that hand. 4. Waitin Waitin, waitin I’ve been waitin, waitin, waitin, all my life. That light keeps on hiding from me, but it someday just might bless my sight. Waitin, waitin, waitin 5. Song of Black Max (as told by the de Kooning boys) He was always dressed in black, long black jacket, broad black hat, sometimes a cape, and as thin, and as thin as rubber tape: Black Max. He would raise that big black hat to the big-shots of the town who raised their hats right back, never knew they were bowing to Black Max. I’m talking about night in Rotterdam when the right night people of all the town would find what they could in the night neighborhood of Black Max. There were women in the windows with bodies for sale dressed in curls like little girls in little dollhouse jails. When the women walked the street with the beds upon their backs, who was lifting up his brim to them? Black Max!
And there were looks for sale, the art of the smile— (only certain people walked that mystery mile; artists, charlatans, vaudevillians, men of mathematics, acrobatics, and civilians). There was knitting-needle music from a lady organ-grinder with all her sons behind her, Marco, Vito, Benno (Was he strong! though he walked like a woman) and Carlo, who was five. He must be still alive! Ah, poor Marco had the syph, and if you didn’t take the terrible cure those days you went crazy and died and he did. And at the coffin before they closed the lid, who raised his lid? Black Max. I was climbing on the train one day going far away to the good old U.S.A. when I heard some music underneath the tracks. Standing there beneath the bridge, long black jacket, broad black hat, playing the harmonica, one hand free to lift that hat to me: Black Max, Black Max, Black Max. 6. Amor It wasn’t the policeman’s fault in all the traffic roar Instead of shouting halt when he say me he shouted Amor Amor, Amor, Amor Even the icecream man (free ice creams by the score) Instead of shouting Butter Pecan one look at me He shouted Amor Amor, Amor Please turn the page quietly.
All over town it went that way Ev’rybody took off the day Even philosophers understood How good was the good ‘cuz I looked so good! The poor stopped taking less, The rich stopped needing more. Instead of shouting no and yes Both looking at me shouted Amor (Scatting) My stay in town was cut short I was dragged to court. The judge said I’d disturbed the peace and the jury gave him what for! The judge raised his hand And instead of Desist and Cease Judgie came to the stand, took my hand, and whispered amor, Amor, Amor, Amor, Night was turning into day I walked alone away. Never see that town again. But as I passed the church house door Instead of singing Amen The choir was singing Amor (scatting) Amor, Amor, Amor, Amor. VOLUME II 1. Places to Live Places to live! Give me places to love! Wonders to wander to places to live! My feet are dreaming of new dust, new dirt My hips want to swing in a cellophane skirt Give me my change in a celluloid note While I buy wooden hats from the factory boat Places to live! Give me places to love! Wonders to wander to places to live! My tonsils are longing to hum a new tune I’m dying to dance by the dark of the moon With mustachioed Mounties in deep purple kilts And me in blue velvet on flaming red stilts
Places to live! Give me places to love! Wonders to wander to places to live! My soul is keening for new forms of faith! I need a new God more than Henry the Eighth To take off my feathers and give me release And I’ll kneel in the sand and I’ll drown my valise Places to live! Give me places to love! 2. Toothbrush Time It’s toothbrush time Ten a.m. again and toothbrush time Last night at half past nine it seemed okay But in the light of day not so fine at toothbrush time Now he’s crashing round my bathroom Now he’s reading my degree Perusing all my pills Reviewing all my ills And he comes out smelling like me Now he advances on my kitchen Now he raids every shelf Till from the pots and pans and puddles and debris Emerges three eggs all for himself Oh, how I’d be ahead if I’d stood out of bed I wouldn’t sit here grieving Waiting for the wonderful moment of his leaving At toothbrush time, toothbrush time Ten a.m. again and toothbrush time I know it’s sad to be alone It’s so bad to be alone Still I should’ve known That I’d be glad to be alone I should’ve known, I should’ve known Never should have picked up the phone and called him “Hey, uh, listen, um Oh, you gotta go too? So glad you understand And ...” By the way, did you say Nine tonight again? See you then Toothbrush time Please turn the page quietly.
3. Surprise! Surprise! Her twenty-fifth year at the office! They threw her a surprise party! Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! And were they surprised when she tried to drink iodine from the paper cup at the water cooler of cool spring water. 4. The Actor A man I know to keep alive Dies for a living To survive to keep alive Dies for a living Stands upon a stage each night Matinees from two to five To keep the show alive Dies for a living I’ve taken the position, do or die Not to survive for Nor to keep alive for Not to die for a living 5. Oh Close the Curtain Oh close the curtain I can’t stand the skies. Am I uncertain or is this room full of sighs? What a wonderful party, Never heard such lies! And oh I want so to be in with these guys. And there is more booze than you could refuse, More domestics paddling around than you could ever lose, But no one could find my mind, My heart or my shoes So slip into the bathroom and blow out your blues. Two pacifist brothers are having a fight. A wife’s getting loose ‘cause her husband is tight. Hear marriages breaking all over the night. And the host and hostess took flight. Oh don’t close the curtain I must see the skies. My heart is hurt in this room full of sighs. What a terrible party They ran out of lies.
And oh I want so to be gone from these guys. Prince Charming moves in as you crush a yawn. Will you make it? Will you muck it? Oh fuck it! He’s gone. So I open the window to stare down the dawn. The little blue gardener smiles at me from the lawn. 6. George My friend George used to say “Oh call me Georgia, hon, get yourself a drink,” and sang the best soprano in our part of town. In beads, brocade and pins, he sang it you happened in through the door he never locked and said, “Get yourself a drink,” and sang out loud till tears fell in the cognac and the choc’late milk and gin and on the beads, brocade and pins. When strangers happened through his open door, George said, “Stay, but you gotta keep quiet while I sing and then a minute after. And call me Georgia.” One fine day a stranger in a suit of navy blue took George’s life with a knife George had placed beside an apple pie he’d baked and stabbed him in the middle of Un bel di vedremo which he sang for this particular stranger who was in the United States Navy. Please turn the page quietly.
The funeral was at the cocktail hour. We knew George would like it like that. Tears fell on the beads, brocade and pins in the coffin which was white because George was a virgin. Oh call him Georgia, hon, get yourself a drink. “You can call me Georgia, hon, get yourself a drink!” VOLUME III 1. The Total Stranger in the Garden Sitting across the table In the garden of our garden apartment I stared at the paper my husband was reading And I said to him: “You’re a stranger A total stranger Always have been Always will be Sitting there Hiding there Behind that printed mask Stop reading, stop reading me out of house and home Must I ask till my mouth fills up with foam? You total stranger You stranger, you!” Then he lowered the paper And I saw it was not my husband But a total stranger. A total stranger who said to me: “I am a kind of hobo of space Trying to find a mask to erase The mask behind the face.” 2. Love in the Thirties Dad, Can we live in the elevator building? Kid, With our luck we’d live on the ground-floor. Dad, why aren’t we communists?
Kid, we can’t afford it. Dad, I saw the devil on the fire escape, long pointed pussy ears. What kind of devil is that, kid? No tail, no horns. Crawl into bed with your mother and me. Dad, is there a heaven? Heaven there is, kid, and it’s right here. People in heaven are dying to get into this place! Dad, what is a death wish? I hear this death wish, death wish, and I wish I was dead! Dad, who am I? That’s a good question, kid, we’ll let you know, you’ll see Dad, how will I see? You’ll see “by the light of your silvery heart.” I’m talking science now, kid. Dad, what is the soul? Sort of a sigh with a wink in it, something like that. Oh, what the hell. Gee, Dad, you know everything. Dad, will I always find you? Kid, behind the label, under the table you’ll find me and I’ll find you and I’m still talking science, BOOP BOOP A DOO! Dad? Kid, now close your eyes and you will see all right behind your sight a light the size of a poppy-seed on a Danish to go. Now let’s put out that light and go to sleep. 3. Thius, King of Orf Thius, King of Orf Kicked his uncle out of the cabinet. 4. Miracle Song This is a miracle Not the miracle of birth But the miracle of death Neglecting to remind us the yonder, The nearby yonder Please turn the page quietly.
So many deaths come across the desk Fret and weep Weep and fret And yet forget. Death in the paper death on the phone Death across a crowded closet Death on the street and third friend you meet: “Hello, so what else is dead?” My idea of a miracle Is not getting into it, Death Obituaries lapped up with the morning coffee Death in the evening song. Game show death! And the question “why wuz you born?” We was born to die! Right again! And every breath a pact with death, ah! A miracle! A fact. The news of the day. 5. Satisfaction When you look for something grand and ample Take a bee for a sample: Sits a second on a rose Sips a bit and goes Satisfaction after all, Can be sweet and small. 6. Radical Sally Radical Sally She was always there, always there No matter where she was there At Bradley’s Bar before it was a restaurant and it was just a bar Radical Sally Looking for a cause And we walked in, and there she’d be Staring like a dead tree, at you, at me Especially you. And the Five Spot, Monk and Trane and Lady Day sittin in Loud crowd hushed And there in the gloom
Radical Sally Sippin and grinnin in the applause Grinning at something someone said Maybe it was you? And in Elaine’s when it was one room Sally was lurking And wasn’t it ninety two? The day they closed the Lion’s Head, That one day And we swung by the next day and there it was! Open again. And leaning on the bar, sipping margaritas With a look of I knew you when When did she know? And the day in Big Sur She was at Nepenthe You and me in Monterey She and abalone stand away. Radical Sally Give me a break Radical Sally And she still looks at you like a long lost cause. Radical Sally Radical Sally VOLUME IV 1. Angels are the Highest Form of Virtue Angels are the highest form of virtue Saints are the very best of men Heroes are so strong they wouldn’t hurt you And martyrs gladly die and die again But the birds, the birds I love the most Because they’re teeny-weeny 2. Poet Pal of Mine Poet pal of mine! Dead but so what. Your words, Your verse, So striking! Who can ever forget The sonnet that began “Oh Russian wolf.” And ended in Japan. Please turn the page quietly.
And you did write, After all, that villanelle The world remembers well, with that recurring line: “Those bones in that cave.” Your loft, Modern as the inside of an ear! Your pride, Your poverty, Your weekly sestina, And in your radical phase, Your accusatory pantoum: “Time, get out of my hair” And on your death-bed, Your parting shot, Your deathless rondeau How did it go? I forgot. 3. Can’t Sleep Can’t sleep dreaming of you dreaming of me turning to you woken by me. Hush now, don’t cry. All I was doing was dreaming. 4. At the Last Lousy Moments of Love At the last lousy moments of love he wanted to tell me the truth. At the last writhing rotten moments of love he wanted to tell me the truth— About me, of course. Thanks, I’ll need this. At the last lousy moments of love, he wanted to tell me— That I wasn’t doing too well. I was eating and drinking and talking too much. He wanted to tell me as a friend at the last lousy moments of love. He wanted to tell me he was leaving, he’d waited too long— To tell me that I was self-righteous— Even when I wasn’t wrong, And I spoke about friendship, ‘till our friends gave me up as a friend for the season, For which reason, he wanted to tell me this truth. He wanted to tell me these things, as a friend, He wanted to tell me, but he didn’t in the end.
At those last lousy moments of love— He said it all, with his body— To my best friend. 5. Lady Luck What do you like most about yourself? What do I like about myself most? Well, I hate to boast, But I must say I like My Luck! Whenever they told me “Scram!” I’d never slink out slow Like a hack to the back No! I’d let the door slam! And lo! And shazam! Friendship would suddenly show up, Like a telegram. 6. Blue This is what I want to do, my heart Is sit real still with you. After all that cruising, in around and out of town Put them down who dare refuse me And the same old line I threw Ah but up, up, up I grew And now all I want to do, my heart Is sit real still with you. After all that screeching, talking fast and slowing down Only now and then to reach you When you’d let me know I knew That what I preach is none too true That’s why all I want to do, my heart Is sit real still with you. Cause I do know this about people, and I don’t mean some Awfully smart people, are often awful dumb! Aren’t we? We just don’t realize, that behind the eyes Behind the mind, you’ll find the sweetest brilliance And a stillness of such blue That, that’s why all I want to do, sweet soul Is sit real still with you.
About the Composer and Lyricist WILLIAM BOLCOM, composer National Medal of Arts, Pulitzer Prize, and Grammy Award-winner William Bolcom is an American composer of keyboard, chamber, operatic, vocal, choral, band, and symphonic music. He is the 2021 winner of the Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition, awarded by the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. Born in Seattle, he began composition studies at the age of 11 with George Frederick McKay and John Verrall at the University of Washington while continuing piano lessons with Madame Berthe Poncy Jacobson. He later studied with Darius Milhaud at Mills College while working on his Master of Arts degree, with Leland Smith at Stanford University while working on his D.M.A., and with Olivier Messiaen and Milhaud at the Paris Conservatoire, where he received the 2éme Prix de Composition. He joined the composition faculty of the University of Michigan’s School of Music in 1973, was named the Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of Composition in 1994, and retired in 2008 after 35 years. Bolcom won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1988 for 12 New Etudes for Piano, and his setting of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience on the Naxos label won four Grammy Awards in 2005: Best Choral Performance, Best Classical Contemporary Composition, Best Classical Album, and Producer of the Year, Classical. Leonard Slatkin conducted that performance as well as an earlier performance in Carnegie Hall. As a pianist, Bolcom has performed and recorded his own work frequently in collaboration with his wife and musical partner, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris. Their primary specialties in both concerts and recordings are cabaret songs [written with Joan Morris’s voice in mind], show tunes, and American popular songs of the 20th century. They have recorded 25 albums together; Autumn Leaves was released in 2015. As a composer, Bolcom has written four violin sonatas; nine symphonies; four operas (McTeague, A View from the Bridge, A Wedding, and Dinner at Eight), plus several musical theater operas; 12 string quartets; two film scores (Hester Street and Illuminata); incidental music for stage plays, including Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass; fanfares and occasional pieces; and an extensive catalogue of chamber, choral, band, and vocal works. McTeague, A View from the Bridge, and A Wedding were commissioned by and premiered at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Dinner at Eight was commissioned by and premiered at Minnesota Opera.
Bolcom’s setting of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, a full evening’s work for soloists, choruses, and orchestra, culminated 25 years of work on the piece. The April 8, 2004, performance in the recentlyrenovated Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was recorded by Naxos. The CD won four Grammy Awards in 2005: Best Choral Performance, Best Classical Contemporary Composition, Best Classical Album, and Producer of the Year, Classical. ARNOLD WEINSTEIN, lyricist Arnold Weinstein was born in New York on June 10, 1927, to English-born parents Ada and Samuel Weinstein. During World War II, at the age of 16, Weinstein enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served on a destroyer as a fireman. Instead of writing letters, he often wrote poems to his friends back at home. After the War Weinstein studied Latin and Greek, and entered Hunter College (now Hunter College of the City University of New York) and graduated with a B.A. in 1951. As an undergraduate he also attended the University of London (1949–50). Weinstein then studied at Harvard University, earning a Rhodes scholarship and graduating with an M.A. in 1953. As a Fulbright fellow Weinstein continued his studies at the University of Florence in 1958-1960. While in Florence, Weinstein met with William Bolcom, who was a student of the French composer Darius Milhaud. Weinstein and Bolcom’s decades-long friendship and artistic collaboration resulted in a great body of work. In the 1950s–1960 Weinstein became affiliated with a group of poets, painters and musicians known as the New York School of Poets. Among his notable works of this period were The Red Eye of Love, a satire about an allmeat department store that had a long Off-Broadway run in 1961, and an adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (music by Tony Greco), which went to Broadway in 1971. Weinstein started working on a play The Red Eye of Love before going to Florence in 1958. The play first saw the stage after Weinstein’s return to the U.S. in 1960. In June 196, The Red Eye of Love opened with music by William Bolcom and was well received. Weinstein returned to collaborate with Bolcom in 1963, creating Dynamite Tonite, which was produced by the Actor’s Studio Theater, starring Barbara Harris and Alvin Epstein, Bolcom conducting. Dynamite Tonite was also produced by the Yale University School of Drama, and Weinstein was appointed chair of the Yale Drama School Playwright Department in 1965–1969. Weinstein’s collaboration with Bolcom resulted in the operas McTeague, A View from the Bridge (with Arthur Miller); A Wedding (with Robert Altman).
Their one-woman opera Medusa written for Catherine Malfitano was performed in 2003 at the Carnegie Hall. Weinstein and Bolcom also created four volumes of cabaret songs (Volumes I–II in 1978, and Volumes III–IV in 1997), musical theater works Greatshot, Barnyard Boogaloo; Casino Paradise; choral Maha Sonnet; Miracle, madrigals for male chorus after Giovanni Pascol;, The Wind in the Willows, with Paul Sills; Ancient Cabaret; Idiot’s Delight; among other works. Weinstein worked with a number of important composers throughout his career, notably with composer Philip Glass; contemporary classical composer Francis Thorne; composer, arranger, and conductor for theater, television and film Laurence Rosenthal; the University of Michigan faculty member, composer, conductor, and pianist Bright Sheng; composer, conductor, performer and author David Amram; director and composer Tony Greco; the founder of Chicago’s Second City Theater Paul Sills; painters Andy Warhol, Marisol, Larry Rivers, Howard Kanovitz; scenic designer Robin Wagner; among other performing and visual artists. Translation was an important area of Weinstein’s theater work. He created a new translation of Berthold Brecht-Kurt Weill’s 1931 Mahagonny for the United States premiere in 1970. He also translated works of classical poets for Ancient Cabaret and Metamorphoses; from Federico Garcia Lorca for Gypsy New York (music by Tony Greco); and others. Weinstein taught English, creative writing, and playwriting at New York University, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Rutgers University, Yale University and Columbia University. He also served as Director of the drama workshop at Wagner College, summer writers conference, beginning in 1963. Arnold Weinstein died in New York in 2005.
About the Artists LYDIA BROWN Pianist Lydia Brown, in duo recitals, chamber music, and opera; has worked with a large number of distinguished colleagues, among them Anton Belov, Courtenay Budd, Catherine Cho, Robert de Maine, Robert Gardner, Ruby Hughes, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Rich King, Elizabeth Larson, John Moore, Charlie Neidich, Jennifer Parker Harley, Marina Piccinini, Brenda Patterson, Ed Parks, Susanna Phillips, Robin Scott, Sarah Shafer, and Sarah Wolfson.
After completing solo piano degrees at the Yale School of Music and the Eastman School, she received her Doctor of Musical Arts from the Juilliard School. Her principal teachers were Olga Radosavljevich, Nelita True, Peter Frankl, and Margo Garrett. Of special significance was a period of study at the Mozart Academy in Dobríš, Czech Republic. After completing the Lindemann Young Artists Program in 2006, she became an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera Company. She also joined the music staff of the San Francisco Opera Company in 2011. In these positions she has worked closely with many distinguished conductors, among them Jiri Belohlavek, James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Andris Nelsons, Gianandrea Noseda, Seiji Ozawa, and Esa Pekka Salonen. These associations brought her to performances at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Fest, the Académie musicale de Villecroze, and the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. Lydia Brown became chair of Collaborative Piano at the Juilliard School in 2018. She has also held previous academic and conservatory teaching positions at Yale University and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Her other primary affiliation is with the Marlboro Music Festival and School, where she oversees the Vocal Program. She has enjoyed close associations with the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. and the Gotham Chamber Festival, and is a yearly faculty member at SongFest. She maintains additional frequent associations with the Pro Musicis Foundation, Young Concert Artists, the Piatigorsky Foundation and Music from Marlboro. These have occasioned appearances at many of the world’s finest venues: Salle Cortot, Théâtre de Champs-Élysées, the Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress, the Phillips Gallery, Neue Gallery NYC, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall, and the many sites visited by Music from Marlboro. Recent music is a prime interest, including new song cycles by Renee Favand See, John Harbison, Richard Hundley, Libby Larsen, Paola Prestini, and David Sonenberg, including the U.S. premieres of Dusapin’s Faustus Last Night, Saariaho’s Émilie, and Picker’s Dolores Claiborne, and the New York premiere of Elliott Carter’s What Next? Lydia Brown has been a juror for the Naumburg International Vocal Competition, a mentor of the Duffy Institute for New Opera, and is the founder of the Cincinnati Chapter of Music for Food. Her current season, in addition to rejoining the Met Opera Staff for Madame Butterfly, includes recitals with oboist Hassan Anderson and flutist Julietta Curenton, a performance benefiting Music For Food in New York City, and the Music from Marlboro tour with hornist Radovan Vlatkovic and tenor Myles Mykkanen.
Mezzo-soprano KAMRYN AUSTIN is currently finishing her junior year as a Musical Theatre major with a minor in Arts Management and Entertainment Industries. She loves to write poetry, curate Spotify playlists, and go thrifting in her free time. Recent performance credits include a reading of Swimming Uptown with Cheryl L. Davis and Cabaret (Kit Kat Girl) at Rider University. She studies voice with Katherine Johnson. Soprano ABIGAIL BOHN is a sophomore BFA Musical Theatre Major. Some of her past roles include the Witch in Into the Woods and Sheila in A Chorus Line. She studies voice with Katherine Johnson. Soprano KATHRYN CORBINO is a second-year graduate student majoring in Vocal Pedagogy and Voice Performance. She enjoys performing all genres of music and has a special love for opera, art song, and new music. Her most recent performances have been her graduate recital, a Ballad singer in Ballymore: Winners! by Richard Wargo, as well as Gertrude in Humperdink’s Hänsel und Gretel. She studies with Lauren Athey-Janka. Soprano AMANDA DUSPIVA is a senior majoring in Vocal Performance. She is honored to return for her third Lindsey Christiansen Art Song Festival. She studies voice with Professor Lauren Athey-Janka, and has just presented her senior recital. Soprano MARY FETTERMAN is a senior Music Education major. Past opera engagements include productions with Westminster Opera Theatre, Lyric Opera Studio Weimar and Berks Opera Company. Upcoming performances include the world premiere of These Valleys and Mountains by Chris Heslop with Reading’s Berks Opera Company. She studies voice with Sally Wolf, Susan Ashbaker and Akiko Hosaki. Baritone JOSEPH RICHWINE is a junior majoring in Vocal Performance. He loves singing art songs as it gives him the freedom to express a more personal style within the text and music without constraint of a specific narrative. This summer he will be singing in the CoOPERAtive Program at Westminster. He studies voice with Carolann Page.
Lindsey Christiansen Art Song Festival For decades Westminster Choir College has been a center for the study of Art Song, which has included an annual Art Song Festival. After she passed away in 2017, the Festival was named for Lindsey Christiansen to honor her life and legacy. Professor of Voice at Westminster Choir College for 40 years, from 1977 to 2017, and Chair of the Voice Department for 18 years, Professor Christiansen specialized in German Lieder and was a life-long student and lover of the music of Franz Schubert. She was an exceptional voice teacher and a demanding professor of song literature classes, where she instilled in countless students a love for song.
The Lindsey Christiansen Art Song Festival Fund sustains the study and performance of art song at Westminster Choir College. Contributions may be made online at rider.edu/artsongfestivalfund or sent to: Westminster Choir College of Rider University Attn: Art Song Festival 2083 Lawrenceville Road Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
2022 LINDSEY CHRISTIANSEN ART SONG FESTIVAL COMMITTEE Christopher Arneson, artistic advisor Victoria Browers, producer & coordinator Lydia Brown, artistic programming director
Westminster College of the Arts WESTMINSTER CHOIR COLLEGE
2083 Lawrenceville Road Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
R I D E R.E D U/A RT S