Robert G. Boehmler Community Foundation Series
Paul Sperry, American song scholar and vocalist
Masterclass: Friday, October 24 at 4:00 in the Hockett Family Recital Hall
Masterclass: Saturday, October 25 at noon in the Presser Room, JJWCM 3102
Masterclass with student composers: Saturday, October 25 at 4:00 in the Iger Lecture Hall, JJWCM 2105
Masterclass: Sunday, October 26 at 3:00 in the Hockett Family Recital Hall
Lecture/Recital: Monday, October 27 at 7:00 in the Hockett Family Recital Hall
Ithaca College is proud to welcome tenor Paul Sperry as this year's Robert G. Boehmler Community Foundation Series concert performer.
Sperry earned degrees from Harvard University and the Sorbonne, and considers his major musical influences to be Pierre Bernac, Jennie Tourel, and Paul Ulanowsky. He has performed with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Boston and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, the Amsterdam Concertgebauw, and the Moscow Philharmonic; his repertoire includes hundreds of songs, cycles, oratories, and chamber works in more than a dozen languages and a host of musical idioms.
Many leading composers -- including Robert Beaser, William Bolcom, Tom Cipullo, Daron Hagen, Richard Hundley, Libby Larsen, Harold Meltzer, John Musto, and Stephen Paulus -- have written especially for him. He sang the starring role of Michael in the world premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen's opera Donnerstag aus Licht at Milan's La Scala and premiered Jacob Druckman's "Animus IV" for the opening of the Pompidou Center in Paris.
With the New York Philharmonic, Sperry gave the premiere performance of Bernard Rands' Pulitzer Prize-winning "Canti del Sole," which he has recorded for CRI. He has also recorded several CDs of American songs for Albany Records and chamber works on various labels. Zephyr Records has issued Les chemins de l'amour: Songs of Poulenc; Great Composers Love Folksongs Too; Schubert's Winterreise; and a two-CD box, Byways of French Song, all with pianist Ian Hobson.
He also has edited collections of American songs for G. Schirmer, Peer-Southern, Boosey and Hawkes, Dover Publications, Carl Fischer, and the Oxford University Press.
Sperry is on the faculty of the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Brooklyn College and Conservatory. He taught at the Aspen Music Festival and School from 1978 to 2002, and from 1991 to 1997 was director of the vocal program at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. In 2004 he joined the faculty of the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Since 1987 he has served as the director of Joy in Singing, an organization dedicated to helping young singers and American composers and fostering the art of song.
Paul Sperry, American song scholar and vocalist
Masterclass: Friday, October 24 at 4:00 in the Hockett Family Recital Hall
Masterclass: Saturday, October 25 at noon in the Presser Room, JJWCM 3102
Masterclass with student composers: Saturday, October 25 at 4:00 in the Iger Lecture Hall, JJWCM 2105
Masterclass: Sunday, October 26 at 3:00 in the Hockett Family Recital Hall
Lecture/Recital: Monday, October 27 at 7:00 in the Hockett Family Recital Hall
Ithaca College is proud to welcome tenor Paul Sperry as this year's Robert G. Boehmler Community Foundation Series concert performer.
Sperry earned degrees from Harvard University and the Sorbonne, and considers his major musical influences to be Pierre Bernac, Jennie Tourel, and Paul Ulanowsky. He has performed with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Boston and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, the Amsterdam Concertgebauw, and the Moscow Philharmonic; his repertoire includes hundreds of songs, cycles, oratories, and chamber works in more than a dozen languages and a host of musical idioms.
Many leading composers -- including Robert Beaser, William Bolcom, Tom Cipullo, Daron Hagen, Richard Hundley, Libby Larsen, Harold Meltzer, John Musto, and Stephen Paulus -- have written especially for him. He sang the starring role of Michael in the world premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen's opera Donnerstag aus Licht at Milan's La Scala and premiered Jacob Druckman's "Animus IV" for the opening of the Pompidou Center in Paris.
With the New York Philharmonic, Sperry gave the premiere performance of Bernard Rands' Pulitzer Prize-winning "Canti del Sole," which he has recorded for CRI. He has also recorded several CDs of American songs for Albany Records and chamber works on various labels. Zephyr Records has issued Les chemins de l'amour: Songs of Poulenc; Great Composers Love Folksongs Too; Schubert's Winterreise; and a two-CD box, Byways of French Song, all with pianist Ian Hobson.
He also has edited collections of American songs for G. Schirmer, Peer-Southern, Boosey and Hawkes, Dover Publications, Carl Fischer, and the Oxford University Press.
Sperry is on the faculty of the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Brooklyn College and Conservatory. He taught at the Aspen Music Festival and School from 1978 to 2002, and from 1991 to 1997 was director of the vocal program at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. In 2004 he joined the faculty of the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Since 1987 he has served as the director of Joy in Singing, an organization dedicated to helping young singers and American composers and fostering the art of song.