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Art Song Festival Winter Mini-Festival: Costanzo & Wagorn at CSU (Dec. 10)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Singing was regarded as one of the riskiest of activities in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and both the 2020 Art Song Festival — scheduled for May of that year — and its replacement were scuttled.

Last week with proof of vaccinations required and other public health protocols in place, the Festival rose again as a winter mini-event. From December 9-11, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and pianist Bryan Wagorn gave masterclasses and a riveting Friday evening recital in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University, a temporary venue also due to the pandemic, rather than at its official home at the Cleveland Institute of Music. [Read more…]

Winter Art Song Mini-Festival features Anthony Roth Costanzo and Bryan Wagorn from December 9-11

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by Daniel Hathaway

It’s been rough going recently for the Cleveland Art Song Festival, which moved back in 2017 to the Cleveland Institute of Music, where the biennial event was founded by voice professor George Vassos in 1985.

In normal times, the weeklong festival that features master classes with teams of singers and pianists, celebrity recitals, and a participant concert, alternates in “off” years with a recital by a well-known artist.

First, Vassos, who taught at CIM for 50 years and served as the festival’s artistic director, died in February, 2020. Then COVID-19 arrived in March. As Festival executive director Dean Southern put it, “We had just finished Magic Flute at CIM, went away for spring break, and never came back.” That year’s full Festival, scheduled for the end of May, was postponed.

A comeback was planned for May of 2021, when most of the artists were still available, but due to the continuing pandemic, was replaced by a virtual event last April. “Instead, we invited singers from CIM, Baldwin Wallace, and Oberlin to an online master class with Warren Jones at the Institute, using a low-latency studio,” Southern said in a recent telephone conversation. “We made it work, and nearly 200 people logged on from around the world.”

Now, the organization has announced a winter Mini-Festival at CIM for this coming weekend, featuring a recital and master classes by countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and pianist Bryan Wagorn — Vassos’ choices for the cancelled event in 2020, the last festival he designed. Happily, both were available to coach and perform. [Read more…]

Art Song Festival: Benjamin Appl & James Baillieu at CIM (Jan. 18)

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by Daniel Hathaway

In a Cleveland Art Song Festival gap year recital on January 18, Benjamin Appl and James Baillieu proved to a large audience in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music how utterly compelling a solo song recital can be. The German baritone and South African-born pianist, both in their mid-30s and making their first U.S. tour, brought new vibrancy to familiar works by Schubert, Schumann, and Duparc, and introduced striking songs by Nico Muhly and Edvard Grieg that were likely new to many. [Read more…]

Art Song Festival: a conversation with baritone Benjamin Appl

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by Daniel Hathaway

As a stop on his first United States tour, Benjamin Appl will visit Cleveland for a recital in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music on Friday, January 18 at 8:00 pm. The German-born baritone, 36, said in a telephone conversation from his New York hotel that he’s delighted to be sponsored by the Cleveland Art Song Festival. “Especially in the United States, art song recitals are quite rare and it’s very difficult to find promoters who trust there will be enough of an audience,” he said. “My agency in New York told me that it’s absolutely wonderful because the Cleveland organization is a real flagship for this art form.”

Appl, who began his singing career as a treble in the Regensburger Domspatzen — the “Sparrows” of the famous Bavarian cathedral choir of boys and men — spent his early adult years in finance and business administration. Then he became Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s last student, and his life changed.

Since then, Appl has etched out distinguished international credentials in opera and concert music, but he has specialized in Lieder, a subject he now teaches at the Guildhall School in London. It’s music dear to his heart, but he knows it’s often a hard sell in the 21st century. “When I decided to do a lot of song recitals, I knew this would not be an easy step,” he said. [Read more…]

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