II. Collage New Music presents: “I Shall Be Brave: A Celebration in Song”

Tony Arnold, SOPRANO (2024-25 Collage Artistic Partner)
Lucy Shelton, SOPRANO
William Sharp, BARITONE 
Christopher Oldfather, PIANO 

Students from Longy's Historical Performance and Vocal Studies Programs


The Ann Teixeira Concert

November 3, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. EDT
Longy School of Music
, Pickman Hall (27 Garden St., Cambridge, MA) 

Post-Concert Talkback with Artistic Director Eric Nathan and guest soloists

$35 General Admission; $15 Students (Longy Students and Faculty: Free)


ABOUT

Collage presents an intimate vocal concert highlighting 2024-25 Artistic Partner Tony Arnold and friends, including a collaboration with a choir of Longy School of Music students. The program centers on the bravery of finding one’s voice and giving voice to others. The centerpiece is the Boston premiere of Eric Nathan and librettist Mark Campbell’s dramatic song cycle, Some Favored Nook—called “quietly compelling” (Boston Globe) and “the best musical tribute Emily Dickinson has ever received” (Fanfare)—the story of two individuals and their struggles—Emily Dickinson’s to be a poet as a woman in a patriarchal society, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s to fight for the abolition of slavery and advocate for female writers’ voices.


PROGRAM


Amy Beach, I Shall Be Brave
Text by Katharine Adams
Lucy Shelton, soprano; Christopher Oldfather, piano 

Margaret Bonds, When the Dove Enters In
Text by Langston Hughes
William Sharp, baritone; Christopher Oldfather, piano 

Florence Price, Hold Fast to Dreams
Text by Langston Hughes
Lucy Shelton, soprano; Christopher Oldfather, piano 

Sofia Gubaidulina, Aus den Visionen der Hildegard von Bingen (1994)
Lucy Shelton, solo soprano 

Hildegard von Bingen, O Virtus Sapentiae
Hildegard von Bingen, Karitas habundat

Students from Longy's Historical Performance and Vocal Studies Programs
Coach: Pamela Dellal, Longy faculty

Hildegard von Bingen, Ave Generosa
Students from Longy's Historical Performance and Vocal Studies Program
With Tony Arnold and Lucy Shelton, sopranos

Bernard Rands, Memo 7 (2000)
Text by Emily Dickinson (“Bind me—I still can sing”)
Tony Arnold, solo soprano 

Intermission

Eric Nathan, Some Favored Nook (2017; Boston Premiere) 
Texts by Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson  (adapted by Mark Campbell and Eric Nathan)
Tony Arnold, soprano; William Sharp, baritone; Christopher Oldfather, piano
 

The concert will conclude by 4:30 p.m.
Please join Collage for Post-Concert Talkback with the artists from the stage, followed by a reception