by Daniel Hathaway
It’s been rough going for Art Song Festival for the past two years. Founder George Vassos passed away after a long teaching and entrepreneurial career in February of 2020, and although detailed plans were in place to hold the festival that year, concerns about the well-documented spread of COVID via aerosols among singers dictated a postponement.
“It feels like such a gift that the Art Song Festival is actually happening,” director Dean Southern said in a recent phone conversation. “It’s also time for reflection, and I find myself getting to a really reflective place.
“More than two years ago, George, Tamara Wilson, and Warren Jones were planning the 2020 Festival, The Cleveland Orchestra was going to do Otello, and we worked it out so that Tamara could do both, then that all got canceled. We postponed to 2021, when it all got canceled again. So it feels quite amazing that it’s all going to come back this year. For me, spring and Art Song Festival just go together.” [Read more…]
[Editor’s note: Stephanie Blythe withdrew from her recital due to illness less than two hours before the performance. We regret that there was no time to post a notice to that effect.] Bass-baritone John Relyea, who was scheduled to perform on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series this weekend, has withdrawn due to illness. He will be replaced by the renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, who will be joined by the originally-announced collaborative pianist Warren Jones. The concert will take place in Oberlin’s historic Finney Chapel on Thursday, April 2 at 8:00 pm, when Ms. Blythe will sing music by Francis Poulenc, Léo Ferré, Jacques Brel, Benjamin Britten and Noël Coward. Program and ticket details 
[Editor’s note: John Relyea was forced to cancel his appearance due to illness. Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe agreed to step in for him, but fell ill herself and cancelled shortly before the performance on April 2.] Choosing repertoire for a solo recital is not an easy task when you’re a bass-baritone. “The bass voice is often put into dramatic dark territory, and maybe that’s because of the way people heard the color of the voice lending itself to the mood of the poetry,” bass-baritone John Relyea said during a telephone conversation. “I’m always looking for songs to sing that have more positive, less depressing texts.”
American baritone Andrew Garland presented a recital dubbed “The Quest — Don Quixote and Other Wanderers, ” as the second faculty performance of the 22nd Art Song Festival in Gamble Auditorium at Baldwin Wallace University on Thursday evening, May 22.
The twenty-second Art Song Festival, now firmly established at Baldwin Wallace University, got down to business on Monday, May 19 and will culminate in a free recital by ten singer-pianist