Description:

This special Tichio Vocal Master Class features celebrated composer Jake Heggie at the piano, accompanying Bienen School students in performances of his songs. The Wall Street Journal calls Heggie “arguably the world’s most popular 21st-century opera and art song composer.” His operas Dead Man Walking, Moby-Dick, Great Scott, Three Decembers, To Hell and Back, Out of Darkness, At the Statue of Venus, and The Radio Hour: A Choral Opera have been produced on five continents. His latest opera—It’s a Wonderful Life, based on the classic Frank Capra movie and written with librettist Gene Scheer—premiered at Houston Grand Opera during the 2016 holiday season. A Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the Eddie Medora King Prize from the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music, Heggie is a frequent guest artist and master teacher at universities, conservatories, and festivals throughout North America. He has collaborated as composer and pianist with such opera-world luminaries as Kiri Te Kanawa, Renée Fleming, Frederica von Stade, Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham, Bryn Terfel, Nathan Gunn, and Robert Orth.

Part of the Robert M. and Maya L. Tichio Vocal Master Class Series.

Eric McConnell, bass
"In the beginning" from Of Gods and Cats

Kaileigh Riess, soprano
"Irenka" from Farewell, Auschwitz

Maxwell Seifert, baritone
"She called him Curt" from Three Decembers

Ann Margaret Barrett, mezzo-soprano
"Daybreak" from Three Decembers

Sam Grosby, tenor
"By the Spring, at Sunset" from Of Laughter and Farewell

Gabrielle Barkidjija, mezzo-soprano
"Winged Victory: We're Through" from Statuesque