American soprano Lisa Delan has won acclaim as an outstanding interpreter of a vast repertoire and is recognized for her versatility and breadth of accomplishment in opera, song, and recording. As a recital artist, her repertoire encompasses the Baroque to the contemporary, and she is privileged to collaborate with composers whose musical lives are still works in progress: Ms. Delan has performed and recorded the music of William Bolcom, John Corigliano, David Garner, Gordon Getty, Jake Heggie, Andrew Imbrie, Lewis Spratlan and Luna Pearl Woolf, among others. Angel Heart is her first recording with Oxingale Records. Ms. Delan’s recordings for PentaTone Classics include And If the Song Be Worth a Smile, The White Election, Phenomenon, and the just released The Hours Begin Sing. After reviewing Ms. Delan’s recent recordings, Sequenza 21 declared that “As a song interpreter she may well be unequaled.”
Called “blazingly ardent and softly haunting “ by the New York Times, the music of composer Luna Pearl Woolf offers penetrating insight into its subjects, creating acoustic sound worlds that evoke and inspire. Her innovative collaborations with authors, filmmakers, dancers and musicians tell original stories or respond to history and current events.
Academy Award winning actor Jeremy Irons narrates Woolf’s Angel Heart, a setting of a new story by bestselling children’s author Cornelia Funke. The album, Angel Heart, a music storybook (Oxingale Records), features performances by Matt Haimovitz & Uccello with singers Frederica von Stade, Sanford Sylvan, Daniel Taylor, Zheng Cao and Lisa Delan.
Woolf’s Après Moi, le Déluge, was described by the New York Times as “an unsentimental but moving tribute.” Other recent projects include Suspense, music for the 1913 silent film by Lois Weber and two song cycles commissioned by frequent collaborator soprano Lisa Delan, both recorded for PentaTone Classics.
Woolf’s music has been featured on NPR’s From the Top, the BBC’s The World and on NPR’s All Things Considered as well as Opera News, Strings Magazine, the New York Times and the Boston Globe.
Cornelia Funke was born and raised in Germany. She grew up in a small town called Dorsten. Books were, as Cornelia says, her windows and doors to the world. They promised adventure and hundreds of interesting characters she couldn't find in the streets of her hometown. Nevertheless she never imagined that one day she'd write books herself. She thought this to be quite a magical skill only performed by very mysterious beings who for sure were either very old or very dead.
Since then she has written over 50 books! Best known for her Inkheart trilogy, Dragon Rider, The Thief Lord, and now Fearless, Cornelia is an internationally bestselling and award–winning author. She has been named by Time magazine as one of the "100 most influential people in the world today." Cornelia currently lives in Los Angeles, California, with her daughter Anna, her son Ben and her dog Luna.
Jeremy Irons won the Academy Award® for Best Actor for his performance as Claus von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune. He is also a Golden Globe® Award, Primetime Emmy® Award, Tony Award®, and SAG Award® winner.
The British Irons has an extraordinary legacy of film, television and theatre performances including: The French Lieutenant's Woman, in which he starred opposite Meryl Streep; The Mission; and David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers. Irons starred in Damage and M. Butterfly before he made pop culture history as the voice of the evil lion Scar in Disney’s classic The Lion King. Irons showed his grasp of the action genre starring opposite Bruce Willis in Die Hard: With A Vengeance, and also starred as Humbert Humbert in Adrian Lyne's Lolita. Other career highlights include: Being Julia with Annette Bening; Appaloosa with Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen; and Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty. Irons received a Tony for his performance in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and most recently appeared in London in the National Theatre’s Never so Good and in the Royal Shakespeare Company's The Gods Weep. Irons is probably best known for his role as Charles Ryder in the cult TV serial Brideshead Revisited. Irons joined Helen Mirren and director, Tom Hooper in the award-winning television miniseries Elizabeth I. He was also recently lauded for his portrayal of iconic photographer Alfred Stieglitz in the award-winning biographical picture Georgia O’Keeffe.
Irons' latest role sees him taking on the mantle of the eponymous Rodrigo Borgia in Showtime's epic TV drama series The Borgias, now in its third season of production. In 2012 Irons was also seen on the big screen in the award winning independent feature Margin Call with Kevin Spacey and The Words, with Bradley Cooper, featured closing night at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. 2012 also saw Jeremy Irons playing Henry IV, directed by Richard Eyre, in a series of three films for the “Cultural Olympiad for Britain 2012”: Henry IV parts 1 and 2, Henry V, and Richard II—BBC2 adaptations for a Shakespeare season created in collaboration with Oscarwinning film-maker, Sam Mendes. Irons has also completed production on The Night Train to Lisbon, directed by Bille August, as well as Beautiful Creatures, shot in Louisiana and directed by Richard LaGravenese. Jeremy Irons adds the credit of executive producer and featured actor in TRASHED, a Blenheim Production feature documentary directed by Candida Brady, which received a special screening at the 2012 Cannes film festival.
Matt Haimovitz is acclaimed for his artistry and as a musical visionary – pushing the boundaries of classical music performance, championing new music and initiating groundbreaking collaborations, all while mentoring an award-winning studio of young cellists at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music in Montreal. Haimovitz made his debut in 1984, at the age of 13, as a soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic; at 17 he made his first recording for Deutsche Grammophon (Universal Classics) with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Haimovitz made his Carnegie Hall debut when he substituted for his teacher, the legendary cellist Leonard Rose, in Schubert’s String Quintet, alongside Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman and Shlomo Mintz. Haimovitz’s recording career spans more than 20 years of award-winning work on Deutsche Grammophon and his own Oxingale Records. His recent release Meeting of the Spirits with Uccello was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album.
Matt Haimovitz’s all-cello ensemble, UCCELLO, features the next generation of cellists from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, where Haimovitz is Professor of Cello. Their most recent critically acclaimed recording, Meeting of the Spirits, featuring jazz milestones re-imagined for a big band of cellos, was nominated for a 2010 GRAMMY AWARD for Best Classical Crossover Album. The album charted on U.S. College Radio and reached No. 1 on the Canadian College Jazz Charts. In March 2011, Uccello received a special invitation by Austin’s SXSW to perform the Prelude to the Keynote Address by Bob Geldof. Uccello has performed on Boston’s Celebrity Series, New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center, as well as clubs such as Arlington’s Iota, Seattle’s Tractor Tavern, and Eugene’s Sam Bond’s Garage. Uccello has joined Haimovitz on two Oxingale recordings in addition to Meeting of the Spirits, Goulash! and VinylCello.
Described by the New York Times as "one of America's finest artists and singers," mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade continues to be extolled as one of the music world's most beloved figures. Miss von Stade's career has taken her to the original_artistss of the world's great opera houses and concert halls. She began at the top, when she received a contract from Sir Rudolf Bing during the Metropolitan Opera auditions, and since her debut in 1970 she has sung nearly all of her great roles with that company. In addition, Miss von Stade has appeared with every leading American opera company, including San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Los Angeles Opera. Her career in Europe has been no less spectacular, with new productions mounted for her at Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, and the Paris Opera. She is invited regularly by the finest conductors, among them Claudio Abbado, Charles Dutoit, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Leonard Slatkin, and Michael Tilson Thomas, to appear in concert with the world's leading orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Washington's National Symphony, and the Orchestra of La Scala. For the last six or seven years, Miss von Stade has been volunteering at St. Martin de Porres and helped establish a music program including, choir, piano, and violin.
CONTENT COMING SOON
An exclusive recording artist for Sony Classical Masterworks, Daniel Taylor is one of the most sought-after countertenors in the world and recognized as Canada's finest. He appears on more than 100 recordings on Sony, DG Archiv, Decca, Harmonia Mundi, BIS, Analekta,Teldec, Erato and Universal. Daniel has performed with the New York Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne, Rome Opera, San Francisco Opera, Welsh National Opera, Montreal Opera, Canadian Opera, at the Edinburgh Festival and at the Royal Albert Hall/BBC Proms. He recently took a role in the world premiere of the Robert Lepage staging of Ades ‘The Tempest’. He works with the Tonhalle Zurich, Toronto, Gothenburg, Rotterdam, St. Louis and Cleveland Orchestras. In recital, he has sung at the Wigmore Hall, in Beijing, Barcelona and across North America. Daniel sang on Parliament Hill for Queen Elizabeth and the Prime Minister of Canada. Daniel is a Professor of Voice and Head of Early Music at the University of Toronto, Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa and Artist in Residence at the Opéra de Montréal. Daniel is Artistic Director and Conductor of the Choir and Orchestra of the Theatre of Early Music. The Theatre of Early Music performs more than 30 concerts every year in concert halls all over the world. He is also Artistic Director of the Quebec International Festival of Sacred Music.
From Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin and the Passions of J.S. Bach to the operas of John Adams, American baritone Sanford Sylvan displays a remarkable range of vocal expression and communicative power. On the concert original_artists and in recordings, his radiantly pure, lyric tone, clarity of diction and profound understanding of both words and music speak directly and intimately to his audience.
Deeply committed to the art of the vocal recital, Mr. Sylvan and his long-time collaborator, pianist David Breitman, have performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe, in major venues in London, New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco. Theirrecitals and recordings have earned exceptional praise from critics and audiences, including five Grammy nominations.
In the realm of opera, Mr. Sylvan is an acclaimed Mozartean. His portrayals of Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte have been seen internationally, including PBS "Great Performances." He has been much acclaimed for the role of Leporello in Don Giovanni, which he sang for his Glyndebourne Festival debut and with New York City Opera, where he has since become a regular performer in such operas as The Magic Flute, Ariodante, The Rape of Lucretia and Handel’s Semele. Sanford Sylvan is closely associated with the productions of renowned directors: Peter Sellars in works of John Adams, Mozart and Stravinsky; Robert Wilson in Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts, as well as Sir Peter Hall and Andrei Serban. He has developed longstanding relationships with major composers who have written for him: John Adams' Nixon In China (Chou En-Lai), the title role of The Death of Klinghoffer and the song cycle, The Wound Dresser; and numerous works of John Harbison. He was in the US premiere of The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies, the world premiere of Philip Glass' The Juniper Tree, and sang Sir Michael Tippett's The Ice Break at the BBC Proms. He portrays Klinghoffer in the film of John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer; receiving much acclaim and numerous international awards including a Grammy nomination. 2008 brought another Adams role for his debut with the Chicago Opera Theater: the Storyteller in John Adams’ The Flowering Tree conducted by the composer. He repeated this role at the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia (those performances won Australia’s 2009 Helpmann Award for Best Symphony Orchestra Performance) and again at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. In 2011, to much acclaim, he sang the title role in Hindemith’s Cardillac with Opera Boston.
Sanford Sylvan has performed with many of the leading orchestras of the world including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Royal Concertgebouworkest, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestras, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich, Academy of Ancient Music, Melbourne Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra and the NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) Symphony. He has collaborated with such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, James Levine, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Herbert Blomstedt, Christopher Hogwood, Kent Nagano, Edo De Waart, Leonard Slatkin, Helmuth Rilling, Bruno Weil and Roger Norrington, among many others. The Los Angeles Philharmonic commissioned Steven Stucky’s American Muse for him; the premiere was conducted by Esa Pekka Salonen. Again with Maestro Salonen and the LA Philharmonic, he sang Haydn’s Creation opening the first subscription week of concerts in the new Walt Disney Concert Hall in fall 2004. Highlights of recent seasons include Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron with the Boston Symphony under James Levine, the world premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Requiem with the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Disney and Adams’ The Wound Dresser with the Baltimore Symphony, conducted by the composer. 2011 brought two Carnegie Hall appearances: the role of Moses in the US premiere of Paul Dessau’s Haggadah shel Pessach with the American Symphony Orchestra and John Adams’ The Would Dresser with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Sylvan's many festival appearances have included the Edinburgh, Tanglewood, Vienna, Holland, Schleswig-Holstein, Ojai and the Oregon Bach Festival. His longstanding relationships with the Carmel Bach Festival and the New England Bach Festival brought annual appearances for many years. As a chamber musician he has performed, toured and recorded with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music from Marlboro, the Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble, Ensemble Sequentia, Emmanuel Music and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players with whom he recorded John Harbison's Words from Paterson.
Sanford Sylvan's recordings are known throughout the world and appear on the Nonesuch, Decca, Harmonia Mundi, Musicmasters, Bridge, Koch, Virgin Classics, New World and CRI labels. A Grammy and Emmy Award winner for his role in John Adams' Nixon In China, he has received five additional Grammy nominations: for his recordings with David Breitman, L'Horizon Chimérique of chansons of Gabriel Fauré; Beloved That Pilgrimage, American songs of Barber, Copland and Chanler; John Adams' The Wound Dresser; the film soundtrack for Adams’ The Death of Klinkghoffer; and in 2009 for Charles Fussell’s Wilde with Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Recent recordings include Stucky’s American Muse with BMOP, Marjorie Merryman’s Jonah with The Washington Chorus and his third recording of John Adams’ The Wound Dresser with the Oregon Stmphony under Carlos Kalmar. He can be seen in numerous productions on DVD including John Adams’ Nixon in China and Klinghoffer and Peter Sellars’ productions of Cosi fan tutte and Nozze di Figaro.
Mr. Sylvan is currently on the vocal faculty of McGill University in Montreal.
CONTENT COMING SOON
In 2010, Saint Martin de Porres Catholic School planted the seeds for a combined chorus and violin program. Through the vision and creative force of Frederica von Stade, over 50 students now participate in the school’s growing music program. Many students, whose families struggle to pay tuition, are playing the violin or singing in the choir. Today the choir consists of students from fourth through eighth grades, along with violinists and clarinetists! They love learning different styles of music as well as the opportunity to perform in public. Most importantly, they come alive when their hearts and minds connect with music!
Saint Martin de Porres is a kindergarten through 8th grade regional Catholic school within the Diocese of Oakland, which serves the families of North and West Oakland. The school was formed in 1996 as a consolidation of three inner city Catholic schools in the Diocese of Oakland and is comprised of two campuses: a K-5 campus at Sacred Heart Parish in North Oakland, and a middle school campus at St. Patrick Parish in West Oakland. St. Martin de Porres remains the only Catholic school serving the neighborhoods and families of North and West Oakland.
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