FEBRUARY 26, 2017 • NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
mam

Edvard Munch, In Man's Brain (Head), c. 1897, National Gallery of Art..

Washington. Epstein Family Fund and the Director’s Discretionary Fund

PROGRAM

3:30 • West Building, West Garden Court

New York Opera Society

American Inspiration, Norwegian Innovation Concert

Program in collaboration with the Norwegian Embassy

Spiritual

Arr. K. Scott Warren

"I Want Jesus to Walk with Me," 

mezzo-soprano

Gisle Kverndokk (b. 1967)

Songs from Ruth Maier

"All the days get brighter," soprano 

"Beauty all around," soprano, 

mezzo-soprano, ensemble

"The words," mezzo-soprano

Joe Garland (1903-1977)

"In the Mood," dance

George Gershwin (1898-1937)

"Fascinating Rhythm," soprano

Eubie Blake (1887-1983)

"Charleston Rag," piano solo

Jerome Kern (1885-1945)

"OT Man River," baritone

Gisle Kverndokk

Opera excerpts from Upon this handful

of earth, medley, four voices

George Gershwin

"I Got Plenty 0' Nuttin'," baritone

"Bess, You Is My Woman Now,"

soprano and baritone

Gisle Kverndokk

Songs from Around the world in 80 days

"Liebe und Luft," mezzo soprano, tenor, 

and baritone

"Nur die Drache ist Frei," soprano 

"Zu Spat," baritone

Duke Ellington (1899-1974)

"It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got 

No Swing," dance

75th Season • 3
The Musicians

New York Opera Society

The New York Opera Society (NYOS) develops new audiences for opera by commissioning,

creating, and funding distinctive and high-quality productions. To that end, NYOS serves as

a conduit to the public by disseminating important messages, musical inspiration, and seminal

artistic performances through partnerships with major performance venues, corporations,

nonprofits, and governments to present the work of our artists in the United States and abroad.

NYOS annually tours new productions to international festivals and presents a contemporary

opera or new commission in the United States. It also hosts a salon series and oversees an

international artist-in-residence program and substantive outreach programs. Recent highlights 

include productions of Falstaff and Madame Butterfly for its annual festival in Southern France;

the Lincoln Center and Teatro Sao Pedro, Sao Paulo, Brazil, premieres of its contemporary

Spanish opera, Las Horas Vacfas, by Guggenheim fellow and Juilliard faculty member Ricardo

Llorca; three tours and a world premiere of the NYOS's commission of Max and Moritz: A

Cartoon Opera in Seven Pranks, by Gisle Kverndokk. Other notable NYOS evenings have taken 

place at the Chicago Cultural Center, the Embassy of Italy, New York's World Financial Center,

Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, and the United Nations. Audiences have included Supreme

Court Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the Royal Couple of Norway, the Joint Chiefs

of Staff, Queen Sofia of Spain, Stanley Tucci and Martin Scorsese (at a gala in their honor),

and nearly every European and South American embassy and consulate. During this current

season, NYOS has been favorably reviewed on PBS and in Time Magazine, GQ Magazine, Opera

News, and the Wall Street Journal. The New York Opera Society is led by a dedicated board

of directors and philanthropist, Lesley Silvester.

Gisle Kverndokk, Composer

Gisle Kverndokk is one of Norway's foremost composers of musical theater. His works have

been performed throughout Norway, Germany, Canada, and the United States. His opera

Around the world in 80 days was commissioned for the opening of the new opera house in

Oslo, and premiered there in 2010. Kverndokk has written two children's operas for the New

York Opera Society: Max and Moritz (2010) and Supersize Girl (2013). He also has an extensive

repertoire of symphonic works, chamber music, church music, and film music, and has collaborated with all the major orchestras in Norway. He studied at the Norwegian Academy of

Music, Oslo, and the Juilliard School, New York.

Sara Murphy, Mezzo-Soprano

Sara Murphy, "a gorgeous, deep, dark mezzo-soprano" (New York Times), is a vocal artist

who has been called "absolutely unforgettable for her versatility and ability to conquer any

sensitive soul" (El Nacional, Dominican Republic). The fall of 2016 marks her European debut

at Opera Theater of Rome as Ulrica in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera under the baton of Jesus

Lopez-Cobos. The current season continues with the role of the Wife in the world premiere

of Gisle Kverndokk's sacred opera Upon this handful of earth and concludes at Carnegie Hall

as Mary Magdalene in Elgar's The Apostles with the American Symphony Orchestra. Opera

News named the recent release of Hindemith's The Long Christmas Dinner, in which Murphy

portrays Mother Bayard and Ermengarde, one of the "Top Ten Opera Recordings of 2015."

4 • National Gallery of Art

Past season highlights include Ligeti's Requiem, Schnittke's Nagasaki, Hindemith's The Long

Christmas Dinner with the American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon Botstein, and

Verdi's Otello, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Mahler's Symphony no. 8, Beethoven's Symphony no. 9,

and Tchaikovsky's Ode to Joy at the Cincinnati May Festival conducted by James Conlon. Her

portrayal of Britten's Phaedra, Barber's Dover Beach, and the High Priestess in Verdi's Aida at

Ravinia with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Conlon won acclaim from

the Chicago Tribune: "a rich, voluminous mezzo voice, excellent diction and an acute feeling

for words and music." Murphy enjoys frequent performances of Verdi's Requiem, Handel's 

Messiah, Mahler's Symphony no. 8, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, Mahler's Ruckert Lieder, and

Elgar's Sea Pictures. Murphy holds degrees from Oberlin College and Catholic University. She

is a first-prize winner of the Oratorio Society of New York Solo Vocal Competition and a grant

recipient of Inter-Cities Performing Arts and the Wagner Society of New York.

Aksel-Otto Bull, Librettist

Aksel-Otto Bull is a Norwegian stage director and playwright. He has directed over sixty

theater productions throughout Norway. He has been artistic director of the National Theatre 

in Bergen and has for many years worked in theater education at the Nordic Institute for

Stage and Studio and the Bardar Academy in Oslo. He studied at the London Academy of 

Music and Dramatic Art and the Drama Studio, London. Bull and Kverndokk's first opera

collaboration was Easter, commissioned by the Bergen National Opera. It premiered in 2014

at Kilden, Kristiansand, directed by Bull. Their next collaboration was the musical Ruth Maier,

commissioned by the Music Theatre Forum in Oslo. It was presented at the New York Theatre 

Barn's New Work Series, 2015.

Kenneth Overton, Baritone

As a leading baritone, Kenneth Overton has sung with the San Francisco Opera, Opera

Memphis, Nashville Opera, Connecticut Opera, Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, Boheme

Opera NJ, Houston Ebony Opera Guild, Opera Delaware, Sacramento Opera, and Opera

Carolina. His roles with these companies include Papageno (Die Zauberflote), Sharpless

(Madame Butterfly), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Schaunard (La Boheme), Ping (Turandot),

Angelotti (Tosca), and Bello and Sid (La Fanciulla del West). Overton's interpretation of the 

title role in Porgy and Bess has been acclaimed as "breathtaking." This season Overton returns 

to David Geffen Hall in Mozart's Requiem with the National Chorale and debuts with the

Hungarian State Opera as Porgy.

Andrew Rosenblum, Collaborative Pianist and Music Director

Andrew Rosenblum, Chicago-based pianist and harpsichordist, has worked as a staff or faculty

keyboardist at Northwestern University, DePaul University, the Cleveland Institute of Music,

the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and the Heifetz International Music Institute. Highlights of

his 2015-2016 season included coaching and performing in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Second Nature, a children's opera by Matthew Aucoin, and soloing with the Civic 

Orchestra of Chicago in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 5. Rosenblum has performed in

many prominent venues in the United States, including the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall,

and Severance Hall, and he has concertized internationally in Guadalajara, Mexico, Gros

Islet, St. Lucia, and Banff, Canada.

75th Season • 5
John Tiranno, Tenor

John Tiranno has had his singing called "ardent and mellifluous" by the New York Times. Notable performances include the world premiere of Gisle Kverndokk's Upon this handful of earth

(a coproduction of the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space and the New York Opera Society), 

Berlioz's Requiem (La Jolla Symphony and Chorus), Mahler's Symphony no. 8, Paul Moravec's 

The Blizzard Voices (Oratorio Society of New York), Richard Strauss's Deutsche Motette (Musica

Sacra), Saint-Saens Requiem (Festival Internazionale di Musica e Arte Sacra), the role Trouble 

in Kverndokk's Max and Moritz (New York Opera Society), Bach's Mass in B Minor, and the

U.S. premiere of Juraj Filas's Requiem — Oratio Spei (Sacred Music in a Sacred Space).

Nicole Tongue, Choreographer and Dancer

Born in London, Nicole Tongue trained at the Royal Ballet School, was a member of the

Birmingham Royal Ballet and is a graduate of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She has

choreographed for ballet, opera, theater, television, fashion, and commercials both nationally

and internationally with casts of 2 to 200. This year Tongue will be a creative producer on

the new musical "The Heroin Diaries," which tells the life story of Nikki Sixx and his time in

the infamous rock band Motley Crue.

Christopher Treece, Dancer

Christopher Treece is a New York City-based actor. His theater credits include national tours

of A Chorus Line and Hairspray, as well as productions of The Rocky Horror Show at the Old

Globe, Marne at the Goodspeed Opera House, West Side Story at Gateway Playhouse, Oliver!

at the John W. Engeman Theater, A Christmas Carol at the Hartford Stage Company, and My

Fair Lady at the Monomoy Theatre. He recently covered for Derek Hough in Radio City Music

Hall's New York Spring Spectacular starring the Rockettes. As choreographer, he toured Europe

and the United States with drag icon Sharon Needles's PG-73 world tour.

Mary Elizabeth Williams, Soprano

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a native of Philadelphia and currently lives in Milan, Italy. The

bulk of her repertoire is Italian romantic or verismo opera, and she is especially lauded for

her portrayals of dramatic coloratura heroines, like Norma (Norma), Abigaille (Nabucco),

Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), and Odabella (Attila). Williams recently made her debut at La

Scala as Serena in Porgy and Bess and will debut the role of Roselinde in Die Fledermaus with

the Welsh National Opera this spring.

Elizabeth Young, Violin

Elizabeth Young is the concertmaster and guest conductor of the New York Opera Society.

She has performed frequently at notable New York City venues including Carnegie Hall, New 

York City Center, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Radio City

Music Hall, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Trinity Church at Wall Street, and the United 

Nations. She has appeared on the BBC, CBS, and CNN, and as an orchestral and chamber

musician, she has performed numerous concerts with orchestras throughout North America

and Europe. Young is a member of the New Mexico Philharmonic and is a regular performer

with the Santa Fe Symphony and the Santa Fe Opera.

6 • National Gallery of Art

Upcoming Events of the Seventy- General Information

Fifth Season of The William

Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot

Belin Concerts

Carmen Balthrop, soprano 

Jose Caceres, piano 

"Washingtonians on Wednesdays"

Music by David DiChiera, Leslie Adams, 

Charles Davidson, and others

March 1,12:10

West Building, West Garden Court

Eya

Florence: The Cultural Crucible

Presented in honor of

Della Robbia: Sculpting with Color

in Renaissance Florence

March 4,12:00 and 2:00

West Building, West Garden Court

Ji, piano 

March 5, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Alexander Wu, piano, and the Serendip Trio

"Washingtonians on Wednesdays"

Return to Camelot: Music from the Kennedy

White House Concerts, 1961-1963

March 8,12:10

West Building, East Garden Court

Cappella Pratensis

Commemorating the 500th anniversary of

Hieronymus Bosch's death 

March 12, 3:30

West Building, East Garden Court

Admission to the National Gallery of Art

and all of its programs is free of charge,

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording equipment

during the performance is not allowed. 

Please be sure that all portable electronic

devices are turned off.

Concerts are made possible in part

through the generosity of donors to the

National Gallery of Art through The Circle. 

Reserved seating is available in recognition

of their support. Please contact the

development office at (202) 842-6450 or

circle@nga.gov for more information.

www.nga.gov

www.instagram.com/ngadc

www.twitter.com/ngadc

www.facebook.com/nationalgalleryofart

The department of music produced these

program notes. Copyright © 2ory Board of

Trustees, National Gallery ofArt, Washington

Back cover West Building, Constitution

Avenue entrance, viewed from Sixth Street NW,

1941, National Gallery of Art, Washington,

Gallery Archives

Inscape

"Washingtonians on Wednesdays"

March 15,12:10

West Building Lecture Hall