Concerts Series Presents Baritone

Nathan Gunn, one of America's most exciting young baritones, will be joined on Wednesday, February 5, by pianist Julie Jordan Gunn for the second offering in the yearlong Ithaca College Concerts Series "Introduction and Preludes." The performance will begin at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall. Patrick Hansen, director of opera and musical theater for the School of Music, will give a free pre-concert lecture at 7:30 p.m. in the Iger Lecture Hall; preferred seating in Ford will be held for those attending the lecture.

Tickets for the concert are available at the Clinton House ticket center, the Willard Straight Hall box office at Cornell University, or by telephoning 273-4497.

Prices are as follows:

• children, senior citizens, and Ithaca College students --- $10
• Ithaca College alumni, faculty, staff, and administrators; Friends of Ithaca College; other students --- $16.50
• general public --- $20

Gunn's program, which includes works by Duparc, Musto, Ibert, Barber, Poulenc, and Ives, demonstrates the range and power of this exciting young performer. Gunn made his New York City debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in 1998 and his London debut at Wigmore Hall a year later. His concert appearances include performances of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder and Handel's Messiah with the Minnesota Orchestra, Britten's War Requiem with Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and Mahler's Das Klagende Lied with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

As comfortable in the opera house as he is on the concert stage, Gunn has made numerous opera appearances. This season he will appear at the Royal Opera House in London as Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Anthony in Sweeney Todd, and at the Opera Company of Philadelphia as Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte.

Among the competitions and awards Gunn has won are the 1994 Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition, the 1996 Marian Anderson Award, a 1997 Tucker Foundation Career Grant, and the 1998 ARIA award.

Julie Jordan Gunn, Nathan's wife and accompanist, is an arranger and voice coach. She has served on the staffs of the Metropolitan Opera Young Artists' Development Program, Wolftrap Opera, St. Louis Opera Theater, and Illinois Opera Theater. Her orchestrations of Gene Scheer's Voices of World War II have been performed in Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Champaign, Illinois.

The Ithaca College Concerts 2002 - 3 series will conclude on March 21 with a performance by violinist and Grammy Award - nominee Midori.