Love and nature: a match made by music
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 12:48PM By Alicia Kroell///Staff Writer
With Valentine’s Day in our recent past, there seems to be a taste of romantic dualism left in everyone’s hearts. However, the “Into the Wild” recital this Sunday afternoon will transcend all Hallmark quip and sentiment. Complete with e.e. cummings texts and songs celebrating a cowgirl’s “riding skills,” the music featured marks the multi-faceted nature of love.Each piece has been selected and will be performed by Assistant Professor of Music Katherine FitzGibbon. Each song uses nature as metaphor for love, whether soft and yearning or boisterous and sassy.
“There are so many great art songs that use nature as a metaphor that this is really becoming an excuse to choose music I’ve been wanting to sing someday, by composers I love,” FitzGibbon said.
The bill of composers includes contemporary American composer Jake Heggie and German Romanticist Felix Mendelssohn. FitzGibbon has been looking forward to performing pieces by Reynaldo Hahn and Richard Strauss since she was in college.
“Because classical singing voices aren’t considered fully mature until the singer is in her 30s, there were pieces that I had heard in college that really spoke to me, but I was told that my voice wasn’t physically ready to perform them,” she said. “It’s really nice to realize that I’m ‘grown up’ enough to perform some of these works I’ve dreamed of doing.”
Backing FitzGibbon’s soprano voice will be long time collaborator pianist Michael Barnes, an artist she appreciates for his sensitivity in accompaniment. Additionally, she will be singing several duets with Hannah Penn. While the two have worked together on a previous performance that FitzGibbon conducted, this is the first time they will be singing together.
“We immediately clicked, musically,” FitzGibbon said. “I thought at the time that I’d really enjoy having the opportunity to sing with her at some point, as it seemed like our voices and musical style would match well. Singing several groups of duets on the recital with her is a real treat.”
Evans Hall, Feb. 26, 2 p.m., free.
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