The Crane School of Music Announces Fifth Season of Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar

2016 Fellows Announced for Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar; Composer Tom Cipullo to Join for Special Concert

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The Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music will present “An Evening with Tom Cipullo,” featuring a conversation with the composer, on May 25.

POTSDAM, NY (04/19/2016)(readMedia)-- The Crane School of Music is proud to announce the lineup for the 2016 Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar, which will be held from May 23 to May 29 at The State University of New York at Potsdam.

The Fall Island Vocal Arts seminar was founded by Artistic Director Stephanie Blythe '92 (Metropolitan Opera star and SUNY Potsdam alumna) and Executive Director Carleen Graham (SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music) as a venue for emerging singers and pianists to cultivate their artistry through contemporary American art song.

Nine emerging artists, including six singers and three pianists between the ages of 23 and 35, were selected from a competitive international audition for a fellowship to work with Blythe and Music Director Alan Smith. Smith is a noted pianist, vocal coach and composer, who is a member of the faculty at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music and the Tanglewood Music Center.

Alumni of the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar's Emerging Artist Fellowship Program have gone on to win distinguished competitions and participate in some of the top-tier young artist programs in the country.

This year's seminar includes a special guest, the noted composer Tom Cipullo, and the festival will culminate in an evening celebrating his work. Smith will engage Cipullo in a lively discussion about his life and work on stage in the event, which will also feature performances by Blythe, Smith and the 2016 Fellows.

"An Evening with Tom Cipullo" will be offered on Wednesday, May 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the Sara M. Snell Music Theater on the SUNY Potsdam campus. The event will also be livestreamed online, at www.potsdam.edu/academics/Crane/streaming.

Tickets for this event are $18 for general admission and $15 with a SUNY Potsdam ID. To purchase tickets, contact the Community Performance Series Box Office at (315) 267-2277 or visit www.cpspotsdam.org. All proceeds will benefit the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar.

Additional livestreaming events include:

  • Thursday, May 26 at 10:30 a.m.: Masterclass featuring Stephanie Blythe and Alan Smith working with the 2016 Fellows.
  • Sunday, May 29 at 2 p.m.: Final concert featuring the 2016 Fellows performing the music of living American composers.

The 2016 Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar Fellows are:

  • Fleur Barron, a mezzo-soprano from St. Ives, Cornwall, United Kingdom
  • Wee Kiat Chia, a countertenor from Johor Bahru, Malaysia
  • Keith Colclough, a bass from Claremont, Calif.
  • Lucy Fitz Gibbon, a soprano from from Davis, Calif.
  • Bridget Hough, a pianist from Santa Barbara, Calif.
  • Mario Antonio Marra, a pianist from New Haven, Conn.
  • Amy Petrongelli, a soprano from Harrison, Mich.
  • Annie Rosen, a mezzo-soprano from New Haven, Conn.
  • Blair Salter, a pianist from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

The Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar also offers a Program for Auditors, targeting collegiate-level voice and collaborative piano teachers and master's or doctoral-level students of vocal pedagogy or collaborative piano. Participants in the 2016 program include Judith May from the University of San Francisco, Dr. Kathleen Roland-Silverstein from the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University and Dr. Colleen Skull from The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam.

About the guest composer:

Hailed by the American Academy of Art & Letters for music that displays "inexhaustible imagination, wit, expressive range and originality," works by composer Tom Cipullo are performed regularly throughout the United States and with increasing frequency internationally. The winner of a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2013 Sylvia Goldstein Award from Copland House and the 2013 Arts & Letters Award from the American Academy, Cipullo has received commissions from SongFest, the New York Festival of Song, Music of Remembrance, the Mirror Visions Ensemble, Joy in Singing, Sequitur, Cantori New York, tenor Paul Sperry, mezzo-soprano Mary Ann Hart, the Five Boroughs Music Festival, pianist Jeanne Golan, soprano Martha Guth, the Walt Whitman Project, baritone Jesse Blumberg and many others. He has received multiple fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, as well as awards from the Liguria Study Center (Italy), the Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain), the Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus (Germany) and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. The New York Times has called his music "intriguing and unconventional," and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has called Cipullo "an expert in writing for the voice." Other honors include the Minneapolis Pops New Orchestral Repertoire Award (2009) for "Sparkler," the National Association of Teachers of Singing Art Song Award (2008) for the song cycle "Of A Certain Age" and the Phyllis Wattis Prize (2006) from the San Francisco Song Festival for "Drifts & Shadows." Cipullo's song cycles, "A Visit with Emily," "Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House" and "Of A Certain Age," are published by Oxford University Press. Other works are distributed by Classical Vocal Reprints. Cipullo's music has been recorded on the Albany, CRI, PGM, MSR Classics, GPR, Centaur and Capstone labels.

A complete list of all public performances that will take place at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music for the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar can be found at www.fallisland.org.

About the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar:

Now in its fifth season, The Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar fosters autonomous artistry in emerging artist-level performers through the study and interpretation of art song by living American composers. The seminar is comprised of three programs: the Emerging Artist Fellowship Program for emerging singers and collaborative pianists (ages 23-35), the Program for Auditors for collegiate-level voice teachers and collaborative pianists and master's or doctoral-level students of vocal pedagogy, and the Student Internship Program for Crane School of Music undergraduate students to assist with the daily functioning of the seminar. Led by Metropolitan Opera star Stephanie Blythe as Artistic Director, Music Director Alan Smith and Executive Director Carleen Graham, the seminar invites six singers and three pianists to Potsdam, N.Y., for a week of intimate and intensive study. To learn more about the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, visit www.fallisland.org.

About The Crane School of Music:

Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution. For more information, visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

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