Two Toronto Musicians to Perform at Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar

POTSDAM, NY (05/08/2012)(readMedia)-- Two Toronto musicians are among only 10 rising musicians chosen to take part in an ambitious new music festival in Potsdam, N.Y.

Toronto residents Zachary Finkelstein, a tenor, and Ryan McCullough, a pianist, will be featured in the premiere season of the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar from May 21 to May 26 at The Crane School of Music at The State University of New York at Potsdam.

Stephanie Blythe '92, the Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano with a "once-in-a-generation" voice, decided to bring her artistic vision back to her alma mater, SUNY Potsdam, for this program.

The inaugural season of the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar is aimed at reinvigorating individual artistry through the American art song by energizing up-and-coming young singers from across the United States and Canada. North Country audiences will be able to take in world-class recital performances throughout the week.

Participants this season were selected from a competitive national audition. This distinguished group of artists includes:

• Steven Brennfleck, a tenor from Ewing, N.J.
• Carola Emrich-Fisher, a mezzo-soprano from Boston
• Zachary Finkelstein, a tenor from Toronto
• Matthew Gemmill, a pianist from Wheaton, Ill.
• Bridget Hough-Meynenc, a pianist from Santa Barbara, Calif.
• Grant Knox, a tenor from Newport, Ky.
• Ryan McCullough, a pianist from Toronto
• Lauren Michelle, a soprano from Los Angeles
• Adrienne Pardee, a soprano from New York City
• Jason Weisinger, a tenor from Baldwin, N.Y.

The Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar embarks on its inaugural season realizing a dream that SUNY Potsdam alumna Stephanie Blythe shared with her former undergraduate opera director, Dr. Carleen Graham.

The seminar was founded as a venue for emerging singers and collaborative pianists between the ages of 23 and 35, to promote individual artistry through the art song genre. The Metropolitan Opera star is joined by Dr. Graham and their former vocal coach, Alan Smith, a prominent collaborative pianist, vocal coach and composer.

"Coming back to Potsdam is like completing a circle for me. SUNY Potsdam and The Crane School of Music put me on a road to self-discovery as an artist and a person. This place gave me the courage to search out my dreams and succeed, and now it will be a place where I can share what I can with the next generation of musical interpreters," Blythe said. "Being an artist is about finding a voice, about discovering how to get your point of view across to an audience by taking risks in interpretation, saying something real with music and poetry, giving voice in a personal way to great composers and poets. I took my first steps in musical interpretation here at The Crane School of Music, and I am thrilled to be developing this exciting seminar in this wonderful place."

They have developed an intensive week of music making for the 10 invited participants that will incorporate related aesthetics and what it means to be a performing artist in today's society. All music will be performed in English and will feature a number of living composers, many of whom Blythe has professionally collaborated with. The participants will be treated to a full week of masterclasses, coachings, discussions and recitals led by Blythe, Smith and Crane School of Music Professor Dr. Gary Busch.

"Poetry and art song often find a way to connect with us through images in nature, creating sensory memories that evoke very personal responses from their audiences. When Carleen and I were discussing what we wanted to call this vocal seminar, we searched to find that same kind of connection with a name. Fall Island seemed a natural fit. Providing Potsdam with one of its most picturesque views, the island surrounded by the beautiful waters of the Raquette River has a special significance. To anyone who has weathered a Potsdam winter, watching the trees and water spring to life as the cold fades away brings a sense of renewal and beauty that makes everyone a poet. Fall Island is a perfect symbol for an artistic endeavor," Blythe said.

About the local artists:

In 2008, American-born Canadian tenor Zachary Finkelstein left political consulting to become an opera singer. Four years later, Zach has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall and in operatic roles at Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Tanglewood's Seiji Ozawa Hall. In his operatic debut at Lincoln Center, Zach performed Tenor 1 (Rooster) in Stravinksy's "Renard" with the Mark Morris Dance Group, conducted by Stefan Asbury. After three sold-out shows, Mark Morris re-hired Zach to sing in spring 2012 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; this time in three more sold-out performances as St. Chavez and St. Stephen in Thomson's "Four Saints in Three Acts." Finkelstein made his solo debut at Carnegie Hall for the Weill Institute's Song Continues Workshop with Marilyn Horne, Renée Fleming, Graham Johnson and Warren Jones. Over the summer, will return to Tanglewood as a vocal fellow, where he will perform the Cat/Milkman in Oliver Knussen's "Higglety Pigglety Pop!" at the Festival of Contemporary Music. Finkelstein is also focusing on the Evangelist repertoire under the tutelage of Rufus Müller. In 2011-12, he performs as a guest soloist with the Talisker Players Orchestra and the Toronto Classical Singers, the Kitchener Philharmonic, the Toronto Sinfonietta, the Toronto Philharmonia, the Hamilton Philharmonia and the Mark Morris Dance Group Ensemble. Zach also toured two new music works in March 2012, which were written for him with orchestral accompaniment, including "Hold back thy hours" by Tanglewood alum John Liberatore with the Eastman Sinfonietta, and "Threshold," by Rome Prize-winning composer Jesse Jones with the Cornell Festival Orchestra. Hailed by Opera Canada as "a lovely light tenor," Finkelstein was selected as a 2011 Opera Valedictorian by the CBC to perform Mozart arias on "Saturday Afternoon at the Opera" and also performed opera excerpts on Classical 96.3 FM. Recent opera roles include Belmonte, Tamino, Tito, Gonzalve (Ravel's 'L'heure Espagnole'), Pasquin/Silvio/Dr. Miracle (Bizet's 'Docteur Miracle') and Charlie (Weill's 'Mahagonny Songspiel'). Finkelstein also attended the 2010 International Vocal Arts Institute in Montreal, Quebec, where he worked with Joan Dornemann. He graduated with an artist diploma in voice performance from the Royal Conservatory of Toronto's Glenn Gould School in 2011, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from McGill University. Currently, he studies voice with Lorna MacDonald in Toronto and coaches with Martin Katz in Ann-Arbor.

Award-winning pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough is beginning to make his mark as an artist of great versatility and musical fervor. Born in Boston and raised in Eureka, Calif., he has developed a diverse career as recitalist, concerto soloist, vocal and instrumental chamber musician, as well as frequent collaborator with established and up-and-coming composers. In a performance of Chopin, "his virtuosity was evident and understated, his playing projected a warmth ... that conjured the humanity of Artur Rubinstein," according to the Boston Musical Intelligencer, and in a performance of contemporary music, his playing was described as having "found a perfect balance between the gently shimmering and the more brittle, extroverted strands ... and left you eager to hear the rest," according to the New York Times. Notable concerto engagements have included performannces of works by Gershwin, Beethoven, Carter Pann, Chopin and Rachmaninov with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Colburn Conservatory Orchestra, the World Festival Orchestra and the Orange County Wind Symphony. 2011-12 concerto engagements will include Chopin's 1st concerto with the Inland Valley Symphony, Rachmaninov's 3rd concerto with the Eureka Symphony, and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the Sarasota Festival Orchestra. In addition to concerto and recital engagements, McCullough has performed in collaboration with the Mark Morris Dance Group and eighth blackbird, as well as in numerous other vocal, chamber and contemporary music settings at the Tanglewood Music Center. In the fall of 2011, he was awarded the Tanglewood Music Center's Henri Kohn Memorial Award for musical achievement and was subsequently invited back for a third consecutive summer as a piano fellow. McCullough has additionally won prizes from the Milosz Magin Piano Competition, the World Piano Competition, the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition and the Bronislaw Kaper awards, and was recipient of the 2011 Outstanding Graduate Award from the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. He has worked closely with composers John Harbison, Andrew McPherson, Dante De Silva and Carter Pann, and has commissioned or been dedicatee of works by James Primosch, John Liberatore, Shawn Allison and Dante De Silva. In 2008, McCullough released a CD of solo piano music by 20th century Polish-French composer Mi?osz Magin on the Polish label Acte Prealable. In 2012, McCullough will release a recording on Innova Records of composer Andrew McPherson's "Secrets of Antikythera," a work written for the Magnetic Resonator Piano, an electro-acoustic instrument designed and built by the composer to augment the sounds of a standard concert grand piano. McCullough holds his bachelor's from Humboldt State University and master's from the University of Southern California, as well as an artist diploma from the Colburn Conservatory. His primary teachers have been Dr. Deborah Clasquin and John Perry. McCullough currently resides in Toronto where he is in the studio of John Perry and David Louie at the Glenn Gould School.

For more information about the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, visit www.potsdam.edu/fallisland.

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, and is celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2011-12.

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Posted Tuesday May 08, 2012 at 11:30 am by SUNY Potsdam
Last Updated Friday May 11, 2012 at 01:08 pm