The use of cameras or recording equipment during the 

performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phones,

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

Please note that late entry or reentry of

the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-seventh Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,697th Concert

New York Opera Society

Mariann Fjeld Olsen, soprano

Siv Iren Misund, mezzo-soprano

Didrik Solli Tangen, tenor

Patrik Landgren, baritone

Danielle DeSwert, piano

Presented in conjunction with the

Norwegian Christmas Festival at Union Station

December 14, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
made possible in part by a grantfrom

Royal Norwegian Embassy.

This concert is

the

Program

Performed without intermission

Part i: Scandinavian songs

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

Jeg elsker Dig

En Svane

En Drom

Varen

Christian Sinding (1856-1941)

Rav

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

Flickan kom ifran sin alsklings mote

Wilhelm Peterson-Berger (1867-1942)

Boljebyvals

Gustaf Nordqvist (1886-1949)

Till havs

August Soderman (1832-1876)

Kung Eieimer och Aslog
Part n: Familiar operatic selections

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

Chi il bel sogno di Doretta

From La Rondine

Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)

Belle nuit, 0 nuit d’amour

From Les Contes d’Hoffman

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

La ci darem la mano

From Don Giovanni

Soave sia il vento

From Cosifan tutte

Salvatore Cardillo (1874-1947)

Core ‘ngrato

Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)

Mesicku na nebi hlubokem

From Rusalka

Eduardo di Capua (1865-1917)

O sole mio

Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

Pres des ramparts de Seville

Votre toast,je peux le rendre

From Carmen

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Part hi: Jul (Scandinavian Christmas songs)

The performers will announce their selections,

taken from the songs listed below.

Mitt hjerte alltid vanker

Jul,jul, stralandejul

Koppangen

O helga natt

Gladejul

Deilig erjorden

Jeg syngerjulekvad

Jeg gikk meg over sjo og land
The Musicians

NEW YORK OPERA SOCIETY

The New York Opera Society (nyos) benefits artists and audiences alike through

high quality, performance-driven, just-in-time productions here and abroad, 

offering fresh and sometimes provocative interpretations of contemporary and

classical works. In its current season, nyos has already featured acclaimed 

Liederabends with Dutch baritone Hans Pieter Herman, a new production of

Falstaffunder the baton ofEmmanuel Plasson for its southern France festival,

and a contemporary Spanish opera at the United Nations, nyos regularly 

hosts an annual festival in southwest France, a Salon Series, an “International

Artist in Residence” program, “Outreach in Underserved Communities,” and

a training program, “Jeunes Solistes.” Its artistic endeavors regularly involve

local practitioners, organizations, and musicians. The Society is led by a dedicated and select Board of Directors and Jennifer Cho, a dual degree alumna of

the Northwestern University School ofMusic and College ofArts and Sciences,

who has received numerous awards for her work in music since completing

her studies with distinction.

MARIANN FJELD OLSEN

Norwegian soprano Mariann Fjeld Olsen graduated from tire University

College of Opera in Stockholm, Sweden, in December 2004. She has since

sung lead roles at opera houses in Norway and Sweden, including Conhdencen/Ulriksdal’s Royal Theatre in Stockholm, The Folk Opera and The

Royal Opera in Stockholm, Malmo Opera and Music Theatre, and the

Norwegian National Opera. In 2007 Olsen was the first prize winner of

both the Malmo vocal competition and the national finals ofthe Queen

Sonja Music Competition. She also won the Joel Berglund prize in 2003

and the Jenny Lind scholarship in Stockholm in 2004, which led to a recital

tour in the United States. She was recently awarded a prize by “Concerts

Norway,” leading to a two-year series ofrecitals in that country and abroad.

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SIV IREN MISUND

Norwegian mezzo-soprano Siv Iren Misund graduated from the Norwegian

Academy of Music in 2007 with a masters in performing arts. Since then

she has sung recitals in and around Oslo, participated in several festivals, 

including Asolo Songfestival (Italy), the London Song Festival, and Oslo 

Operafestival, and has sung the role of Mercedes in Bizet’s Carmen. She is

currently studying with the American countertenor Michael Harper in

London and working as a freelance singer.

DIDRIK SOLLI TANGEN

Didrik Solli Tangen is a 21-year-old tenor from Porsgrunn, Norway. He

proved his talent at an early age, when, at sixteen, he won the grand prize at 

his school—the Children’s Grand Prix in Skien—and was chosen to attend

the Youth Cultural Meeting in Trondheim. The lead singer of his own pop

band, he began lessons in opera and classical singing with Anders Vangen

in 2004. Tangen has toured the United States with the big band Suoni, and

has performed Guttorm Guttormsen’s opera buffa Faevlane veit. This year he

received scholarships from the Norwegian lottery company, Norsk Tipping,

and Thorild Staahlen.

PATRIK LANDGREN

Baritone Patrik Landgren was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1974. Following his studies at The Opera Studio Sweden in Stockholm (Operastudio 67),

he attended the Oslo National Academy ofArts, completing a certificate in

opera in 2006. As a student he worked with conductor Kjell Ingebretsen in a

production of Cosifan tutte, and his teachers were Henry Herford, Jan Sodal,

and Ingvar Wixell. In 2005 Landgren sang the role of Black Bob in Britten's

Let’s Make an Opera at the National Opera in Oslo as well as additional roles as

Escamillo in Carmen, Lescaut in Manon Lescaut, Uberto in La Serva Padrona,

and Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. He is currently a freelance opera, 

oratorio, and concert singer in Oslo.

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DANIELLE DESWERT

Brussels-born pianist Danielle DeSwert is a freelance collaborative pianist

and coach and the music program specialist at the National Gallery of Art.

In 2003 DeSwert did all musical preparation for the world premiere of

Pontalba, presented by the New Orleans Opera Society. She worked closely

with composer Thea Musgrave, who wrote the opera to commemorate the 

bicentennial ofthe Louisiana Purchase. From 2004-2006 she was the 

principal repetiteur with the Baltimore Opera Company and Washington

Concert Opera. She is currently the principal pianist with the Inscape 

Chamber Music Project and a member ofthe National Gallery’s resident

piano trio. She holds a master ofmusic degree from the University of

Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she studied with Martin Katz, and a bachelor 

ofmusic degree from the University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara. She

also studied with Warren Jones and Anne Epperson at the Music Academy

ofthe West and was an apprentice coach with the Washington Opera,

working with Placido Domingo.

Danielle DeSwert will be heard again at the Gallery next week, when she 

performs Ernest Bloch’s Concerto Grosso no. lfor String Orchestra with Piano

Obbligato with the National Gallery Orchestra, Dingwall Fleary conducting.

Program Notes

This concert marks the sixth time that the National Gallery ofArt and the 

Royal Norwegian Embassy have collaborated on a concert in connection with 

the Norwegian Christmas Festival at Union Station. Participating guest

musicians have included accordionist Kier Draugsvoll, the chamber choir 

Nordic Voices, conductor Bjarte Engeset, pianist Havard Gimse, soprano Ise

Katharina Gericke, and violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival, now in its

eleventh year, provides the nation’s capital with a taste of Norway through

concerts, exhibits, a holiday bazaar, and special menus at Union Station and

other venues throughout the city. To launch each year’s festival, a thirty-twofoot Christmas tree is erected and decorated at Union Station—a gift from

Norway to the people ofWashington. The tree symbolizes the friendship

between the two countries and expresses Norway’s gratitude for assistance

received from the United States during World War 11. More information on

the Norwegian Christmas Festival is available at www.norway.org/xmas.

9
The Sixty-seventh Season ofConcerts

at the National Gallery ofArt

December 2008-January 2009

All concerts in the West Building, West Garden Court *

DECEMBER

21 Alessandra Marc, soprano

With the National Gallery

Chamber Orchestra;

Stephen Ackert and Dingwall 

Fleary, guest conductors;

Danielle DeSwert and

Lawrence Schreiber, pianists.

Music by Ernest Bloch and

other composers. Presented

in honor of Oceans, Rivers,

and Skies: Ansel Adams, Robert

Adams, and Alfred Stieglitz

28 National Gallery Orchestra

Manfred Knoop, guest conductor

New Year Concert

JANUARY

4 National Gallery String Quartet

with Menahem Pressler, pianist

Music by Mozart and Schumann

11 Ma’alot Wind Quintet

Music by Barber, Ligeti,

Mendelssohn, and Piazzolla. 

Presented in conjunction with

the Mendelssohn on the Mall

anniversary celebration

Preceded at 6:00 pm by a preconcert

talk by Christopher With on 

Mendelssohn’s drawings

(West Building Lecture Hall)

18 National Gallery Orchestra

Kenneth Slowik, guest conductor

Music by Mendelssohn and Schubert.

Presented in conjunction with

Mendelssohn on the Mall

25 Fine Arts Quartet

String Quartets by Mendelssohn

Presented in conjunction with

Mendelssohn on the Mall

* unless otherwise indicated

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