English Songs à la française

Baritone Tyler Duncan and Pianist Erika Switzer
Internationally Acclaimed Guest Artists from New York

Sunday, May 13, 2018 | 7pM

Tickets: $25 General Seating

Unitarian Church of Vancouver
949 West 49th Avenue, Vancouver

Join us for a very special Mother's Day evening concert of "English Songs à la française", performed by the stellar duo-partnership of baritone Tyler Duncan (VWMS scholarship '98) and pianist Erika Switzer from New York. Don't miss this exceptional opportunity to hear these two internationally renowned artists take to the stage in Vancouver. 

PROGRAMME

Five Little Songs (Stevenson) - Reynaldo Hahn
    The Swing
    Windy Nights
    My Ship and I
    The Stars
    A Good Boy
Sweet Baby Sleep (Wither) - Charles Gounod
Child Poems (Tagore), Op. 36 - Darius Milhaud
    When and Why
    Defamation
    Paper Boats
    Sympathy
    The Gift
Fancy (Shakespeare) - Francis Poulenc
Love, my heart longs day and night from Two Love Poems (Tagore), Op. 30 - Darius Milhaud
Cherry-Tree Farm (Lennard) - Camille Saint-Saëns
‘Tis Better So (Tannehill) - Camille Saint-Saëns
A Voice by the Cedar Tree (Tennyson) - Camille Saint-Saëns
A Farewell (E. Oliphant) - Albert Roussel
A Flower Given to my Daughter (Joyce) - Albert Roussel
Chanson écossaise (Burns) - Maurice Ravel
If thou art sleeping maiden, awake! (Longfellow) - Charles Gounod
Beware! (Longfellow) - Charles Gounod
Maid of Athens (Byron) - Charles Gounod
Peace, my heart from Two Love Poems (Tagore), Op. 30 - Darius Milhaud

BIOGRAPHIES

Canadian baritone Tyler Duncan recently performed at the Metropolitan Opera as Prince Yamadori in Puccini’s Madam Butterfly. At the Spoleto Festival he debuted as Mr. Friendly in the 18th-century ballad opera Flora, returning the next season as the Speaker in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Other appearances have included the role of the Journalist in Berg's Lulu and Fiorello in Rossini's Barber of Seville, both at the Metropolitan Opera, Raymondo in Handel’s Almira with the Boston Early Music Festival, Dandini in Rossini’s La cenerentola with Pacific Opera Victoria; and Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Princeton Festival. Issued on the CPO label is his Boston Early Music Festival recording of the title role in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis.

Mr. Duncan’s concerts include Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the American Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony, Berlioz L’enfance du Christ with the Montreal Symphony; both Bach and Mendessohn’s Magnificat with the New York Philharmonic; Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Munich Bach Choir, Montreal Symphony, and the Oregon Bach Festival; Haydn’s The Creation with the Québec, Montreal, and Winnipeg symphony orchestras; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Calgary Philharmonic and Philharmonie der Nationen in Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt; Haydn’s The Seasons with the Calgary Philharmonic; Handel’s Messiah with Tafelmusik, the Montreal and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, Handel and Haydn Society, San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque, and Portland Baroque; Mozart’s Requiem with the Montreal, Toronto, and Salt Lake City Symphony Orchestras. He has also performed at Germany’s Halle Händel Festival, Verbier Festival, Vancouver Early Music Festival, Montreal Bach Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Lanaudière Festival, Stratford Festival, Berkshire Choral Festival, and New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Frequently paired with pianist Erika Switzer, Tyler Duncan has given acclaimed recitals in New York, Boston, and Paris, and throughout Canada, Germany, Sweden, France, and South Africa. Mr. Duncan has received prizes from the Naumburg, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Munich’s ARD competitions, and won the 2010 Joy in Singing competition, 2008 New York Oratorio Society Competition, 2007 Prix International Pro Musicis Award, and Bernard Diamant Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. He holds music degrees from the University of British Columbia, Germany’s Hochschule für Musik (Augsburg), and Hochschule für Musik und Theater (Munich). He is a founding member on the faculty of the Vancouver International Song Institute.

Mr. Duncan’s recordings include Bach’s St. John Passion with Portland Baroque and a DVD of Handel’s Messiah with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony from CBC Television. On the ATMA label are works by Purcell and Carissimi’s Jepthe with Les Voix Baroque.

Erika Switzer is an internationally active pianist, teacher, and arts administrator. Heard on the stages of New York’s Weill Hall (Carnegie), Geffen Hall, Frick Collection, and Bargemusic, at the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC), the Bard Music Festival, and Stanford Live, she has also appeared across Canada at festivals including Toronto’s Canadian Voices, Debut Atlantic, and the chamber music festivals of Vancouver, Montreal, and Ottawa. During her seven-year sojourn to Germany, she performed at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the Munich Winners & Masters series, and she won numerous awards, including best pianist prizes at the Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf, and Wigmore Hall International Song Competitions. Further European appearances have included recitals for Pro Musicis at the Salle Cortot in Paris, for the Académie Francis Poulenc at the L’Hôtel de ville de Tours, and the Göppingen Meisterkonzerte.

Devoted to the performance of new music, recent premieres include the 5 Boroughs Music Festival Songbook II (Matthew Aucoin, Jonathan Dawe, Evan Fein, Whitney George, Laura Kaminsky, Missy Mazzoli, Paola Prestini, Kamala Sankaram), the Brooklyn Art Song Society (Andrew Staniland), and Vancouver’s Music on Main (Jocelyn Morlock, Caroline Shaw).

Ms. Switzer has been recorded by the CBC, Dutch Radio (Radio 4), SWR and the Bayerische Rundfunk in Germany, WQXR New York and WGBH Boston. An upcoming recording release, “English Songs à la française” features her long-standing duo-partnership with baritone Tyler Duncan.

Erika Switzer is on the music faculty at Bard College and the Vocal Arts Program of the Bard Conservatory of Music, where her work centers on diction for singers, vocal coaching, and chamber music. She has been on the faculty of several summer programs, including the Vancouver International Song Institute, the CoOPERAtive Program at Westminster Choir College, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar at Stanford. She received her doctorate from The Juilliard School.

Together with soprano Martha Guth, Erika co-founded Sparks & Wiry Cries (sparksandwirycries.org), which contributes to the future of art song performance through publication of The Art Song Magazine, presentation of the Casement Fund Song Series in NYC, and the commission of new works.