Upcoming Crane Faculty Recital to Feature Soprano Colleen Skull and Pianist François Germain

Related Media

Dr. Colleen Skull, soprano, will perform in a faculty recital at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music on Monday, Sept. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Snell Theater.

• Pianist Dr. François Germain will perform alongside soprano Colleen Skull in a Crane faculty recital on Sept. 12.

POTSDAM, NY (09/07/2016)(readMedia)-- SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music invites the public to enjoy a faculty recital featuring soprano Colleen Skull and pianist François Germain on Monday, Sept. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the Sara M. Snell Music Theater.

The performance will open with an aria by Ludwig van Beethoven and three art songs by Henri Duparc, followed by selections from "Tres Poemes, Op. 81" by the Spanish nationalist composer Joaquín Turina. Following a brief intermission, Skull and Germain will present three of Richard Strauss's most beloved songs, including "Allerseelen," "Ach Lieb, Ich Muss Nun Scheiden," and "Zueignung."

The recital will conclude with "Vignettes: Letters from George to Evelyn, From the Private Papers of a World War II Bride," a 2002 work by Alan Louis Smith. The text of this piece is based on letters written between Evelyn Semenza and her husband, George W. Honts, as he was deployed to Europe in World War II. Sadly for the newlyweds, Honts was killed in action in 1945 in Germany.

This event is free, and the public is invited to attend.

About the performers:

Dr. Colleen Skull is a visiting assistant professor of voice at The Crane School of Music. She has performed with Canada's leading orchestras under such conductors as David Atherton, Richard Bradshaw, Martin Isepp, Julian Kovatchev, Nicola Luisotti, Julian Reynolds and Timothy Vernon. In opera, she has worked with directors Tim Albery, Tom Diamond, Atom Egoyan, François Girard, Colin Graham, Christopher Newton and James Robinson. Skull has performed or covered more than 30 operatic roles at venues including the Canadian Opera Company, Pacific Opera Victoria, Manitoba Opera, Esprit Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony and others. Recent performances include the title roles of Ariadne in "Ariadne auf Naxos," Elle in "La Voix Humaine" and "Jen?fa." Other roles include Dido in "Dido and Aeneas," Mrs. Grosse in "The Turn of the Screw," Wellgunde in "Götterdämmerung," Alice Ford in "Falstaff," Fiordiligi in "Così fan Tutte," Agatha in "Der Freischütz," Jocasta in "Oedipus Rex," Lisa in "Pique Dame," Liu in "Turandot," Marina in "Boris Godunov," Zulma in "L'Italiana in Algeri," and Mère Marie de l'Incarnation in "Dialogues des Carmélites," as well as the roles of Waltraute, Rossweise and Siegrune in "Die Walküre." Equally active in orchestral and recital repertoire, she has performed as a soloist in works including Verdi's "Requiem," Handel's "Messiah," Bruckner's "Mass in D-Minor," Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony" and "Mass in C," and Mahler's Second, Third and Fourth Symphonies. Skull is a past member of the prestigious Canadian Opera Company Ensemble and has won many awards and prizes, including the Metropolitan Opera District Competition, a Chalmers Award and a Professional Artist Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. Radio and television appearances include performances on CBC Radio, CTV, "Definitely Not the Opera" with Sook-Yin Lee, "Breakfast Television," TVO and YTV.

Dr. François Germain is an assistant professor of piano and vocal coaching at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music. A pianist, he has performed extensively in Europe, the United States and Canada as soloist and accompanist. Originally from Aix-en-Provence, France, he is the recipient of many awards, including first prizes in the Radio-France Competition, the Madeleine de Valmalète Competition and the Paul and Verna Gelinas Competition. Germain holds a bachelor's degree in music from the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud, and both a master's degree and a doctorate in piano performance from the University of Montreal. Recent performances include such venues as the American Church in Paris, Steinway Hall in New York, the Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg and the Atheneum in Athens. A native French and German speaker, he specializes in French melodie, lied and art song. He served from 2002 to 2007 at the University of Montreal as a graduate vocal coach and assistant to Rosemarie Landry (a disciple of Pierre Bernac and Gerard Souzay), where he acquired a unique expertise in French lyric diction and style. He has given masterclasses and workshops on French repertoire in Europe and throughout the United States in institutions such as the Athens Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

This concert will be broadcast live on the SUNY Potsdam website at the performance time. To view the program and see other upcoming streaming performances, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/Crane/streaming.

For more information about SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

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.

###