The Yale School of Music (YSM) will present the second concert in its new “Yale at Carnegie” series on October 29 at 8 p.m. in Weill Recital Hall.
The program will be devoted entirely to the songs of Charles Ives. Ives, the remarkable pioneer who helped give American music its voice, graduated from Yale College in 1898, having studied music with the YSM’s first Dean, Horatio Parker.
On October 29, six singers—two current students and four alumni—will perform 37 songs by Ives. The performers are Edward Parks (baritone) of the Yale Opera program; Joshua Copeland (baritone) of Yale Opera and the Early Music, Oratorio and Chamber Music programs; plus distinguished YSM alumni and Metropolitan and City Opera members Leah Wool (mezzo), Tamara Mumford (mezzo), Jennifer Casey Cabot (soprano) and Ryan MacPherson (tenor), all of whom appear on Yale’s upcoming recording of Ives’ songs on the Naxos label.
This concert was organized by Doris Yarick-Cross, artistic director of the Yale Opera and chair of the Voice and Opera program at Yale. She is also responsible for the important new recording of all 183 of Ives’ songs, performed by Yale singers and faculty, scheduled for release in early 2008. The 6-CD collection will be the largest project that Naxos has undertaken. Ives’ songs, written between 1887 and 1926, is a remarkable documentation of his changing compositional practices, philosophy and aesthetic development over four decades.
Along with its new series at Carnegie Hall, Yale has launched an ambitious series of netcasts to share its wealth of historical recordings with the public. Yale is among a handful of pioneers in the field of university podcasting, offering not only lectures, but also live music performances of historical and contemporary significance. In conjunction with the October 29 concert, Vivian Perlis and Libby van Cleve of the Oral History of American Music (OHAM) Project at Yale have compiled a 20-minute program of musical excerpts from OHAM’s archives and interviews with Ives’ family members, friends, business associates and colleagues. The podcast includes Henry Cowell, John Kirkpatrick, Lou Harrison, Nicolas Slonimsky, Elliott Carter and even Ives’ barber. The program concludes with a clip of Ives himself, thumping away at the piano and excitedly singing “They Are There!” Go to Apple’s iTunesU site or the School of Music Netcasts.
