Joel Engel's "Jewish Folksongs" Volumes I & II
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Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert Series
The Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert Series is made possible by a generous gift from the Estate of Sidney Krum. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. Admission: Free Register for an email reminder. |
Join us for a performance of Joel Engel's Jewish Folksongs (Volume I, 1909/ Volume II, 1912). These 20 arrangements, which frame the folksongs with classical piano accompaniments, proved to be very influential. They inspired the Society for Jewish Folk Music and the composers affiliated with it to create a vast oeuvre of similar work. Engel's work also provided a source for a variety of other composers who used Yiddish folksongs in their music including, famously, Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes whose second theme is taken from the second song of this cycle. These 20 songs will be performed by singer Lucy Fitz Gibbon with pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, with a special guest appearance by Yurie Mitsuhashi.
About the Performers
Soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon and pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough have been making music together since 2006, giving their first joint recital in Sacramento, California, in 2009. As both musical and life partners, Fitz Gibbon and McCullough bring an intimacy to their performances that speaks to their many years of collaboration. The husband-and-wife duo has performed throughout North America and Europe in such venues as New York's Merkin Hall, Park Avenue Armory, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Di Menna Center; London's Wigmore Hall; and Toronto's Koerner Hall. Their growing joint discography includes forthcoming CDs with Albany Records (Descent/Return, featuring works by John Harbison and James Primosch, and another featuring the collected works of Sheila Silver alongside luminaries Dawn Upshaw, Stephanie Blythe, and Gilbert Kalish) and Acte Préalable (mid-century Polish art song).
Committed to the performance of contemporary works alongside the art song canon, Fitz Gibbon and McCullough have worked closely with emerging and established composers alike. Among the body of works dedicated to them are compositions by Niccolo Athens (Five Poems of Sara Teasdale), Dante De Silva (A Year of Strife), Andrew Hsu (Reticence), Anna Lindemann (The Colony), Pablo Ortiz (California Songs), and Alan Louis Smith (Surfing the Thin Places). They have also given premieres of works by John Harbison (Seven Poems of Lorraine Niedecker) and James Primosch (Descent/Return, The Pitcher, The Old Astronomer) and have worked closely with Sheila Silver on numerous projects. Through the guidance and research of musicologist Mackenzie Pierce, Fitz Gibbon and McCullough have given the US premieres of numerous works by mid-20th century Polish composers ranging from the early and late works of Roman Palester (Three Songs to Texts of Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna, Monogramy) and a modern setting of 16th century religious texts (Tadeusz Kassern's Tryptyk żałobny), as well as songs by Grażyna Bacewicz and Alexander Tansman (Ponctuation Française). They have also brought new life to Milton Babbit's lyrical Du and Adela Maddison's lush Cinq mélodies, while championing long-form songs by Schubert (Viola, Vergissmeinnicht) and Prokofiev (The Ugly Duckling).