by Timothy Robson
On Tuesday, May 24, French baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer and pianist Jason Paul Peterson opened the 2016 edition of the Baldwin Wallace Art Song Festival with a recital in Gamble Auditorium. Now in its 30th year, the week-long festival, which focuses on the combination of solo singer and piano, is the brainchild of retired Cleveland Institute of Music voice professor George Vassos. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
British baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer sang a brilliant recital in March of 2013 as an off-year event of the biennial Baldwin Wallace Art Song Festival. He returns to Berea this week to give a recital with pianist Jason Paul Peterson on Tuesday, May 24 at 8:00 pm, and to coach some of the week-long Art Song Festival’s ten singer-pianist teams in master classes on Wednesday, May 25.
Crossley-Mercer was “discovered” by Art Song Festival artistic director George Vassos through YouTube videos. The baritone spoke with us three years ago for a pre-concert interview while preparing to sing the role of Don Giovanni in Dijon. We reached him by Skype at his home in France’s Auvergne region to catch up on his recent activities and talk about his Tuesday recital. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Art song fans had a tough choice between two fine baritones last Sunday afternoon. Thomas Hampson’s recital on the Tuesday Musical Series, rescheduled from last Fall, went up at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron at 2:30. And Edwin Crossley-Mercer was to make his United States recital debut courtesy of the Baldwin Wallace Art Song Festival in Gamble Auditorium in Berea at 4:00. Alas, even the Star Trek transporter couldn’t get you to both performances. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
This
is the gap year for the biennial Baldwin Wallace Art Song Festival — and time for a solo recital to keep the buzz going for next year’s week-long event. This year’s invitee is the rising young French baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer, who will join pianist Semjon Skigin for his U.S. solo recital debut on Sunday, March 3 at 4 pm in Gamble Auditorium at the BW Conservatory in Berea. We reached him via Skype in Dijon, France, where he had just begun his rehearsals for the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Opéra Dijon. [Read more…]