10th Anniversary Season
Singing with Strings
ONLINE ONLY
Here (on our website) all day and night March 28 and 29
Video to be recorded a week earlier in Kinderhook, NY and posted here March 28
Works of Butterworth, Respighi, Barber, Victoria Bond, Osvaldo Golijov, and a surprise from Puccini!
Singers from the Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program
- CodyRay Caho, baritone
- AddieRose Forstman, soprano
- Wayne Arthur Paul, baritone
- Chloë Schaaf, mezzo-soprano
- Margaret Tigue, soprano
Broad Street Chanber Players String Quartet
- Elizabeth Silver, violin
- Jessica Belflower, violin
- Christine Orio, viola
- Erica Pickhardt, cello
Concerts in the Village continues its 10th Anniversary Season on Sunday March 22nd: “Singing with Strings”. Singers from the Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program and the Broad Street Chamber Players String Quartet join in offering five magically diverse works for solo voice and strings.
This program, originally scheduled for March 22 in Van Buren Hall, Kinderhook, is being made available to all by visiting us here (www.concertsinthevillage.org) at any time on Saturday or Sunday, March 28-29. Although a contribution is invited, no payment is required to enjoy this virtual audio-video concert experience. Please return here for further details, including a concert leaflet, texts and translations to be available as of Friday, March 20. This special online accessibility is made possible by the CITV Emerging Singer Fund, and at least in the region is believed to be a unique use of online technology for concert purposes. The original program and performers remain unchanged.
Those singing include recent or current students in the Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program. Mezzo-soprano Chloë Schaaf will perform Il Tramonto (The Sunset), Ottorino Respighi’s lyrical, richly textured setting of a poem by Shelley. Baritone CodyRay Caho will offer the seldom-heard cycle Love Blows as the Wind Blows by George Butterworth. Soprano AddieRose Forstman will sing excerpts from Victoria Bond’s Molly Manybloom, a 1990 setting of texts from James Joyce’s Ulysses. Baritone Wayne Arthur Paul, who recently performed in the Metropolitan Opera’s widely-acclaimed Porgy and Bess, returns to CITV to perform Samuel Barber’s moving setting of Matthew Arnold’s lyric poem Dover Beach, which is eerily suggestive of the brooding period just prior to World War II. Soprano Margaret Tigue makes her CITV debut singing Osvaldo Golijov’s passionate setting of Lúa Descolorida (Moon colorless – “like the color of pale gold”). Chloë Schaaf and Margaret Tigue have been Tanglewood Vocal Fellows.
The string principals of CITV’s Broad Street Orchestra form the experienced quartet for this concert: Violinists Elizabeth Silver and Jessica Belflower, violist Christine Orio and cellist Erica Pickhardt. The quartet itself will offer Puccini’s richly textured Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums).
Mezzo-soprano Chloë Schaaf is a graduate of Juilliard, the Guildhall School (London), and the Bard program, and also about to begin her second year as a Vocal Fellow at Tanglewood. Her appearances have included engagements with the Albany Symphony Orchestra and taken her to Britain, Canada, China and the Netherlands. Ms. Schaaf will perform Il Tramonto (The Sunset), Ottorino Respighi’s lyrical, richly textured setting of a poem by Shelley.
Baritone CodyRay Caho, a current student at Bard who performed in CITV’s recent offering of Handel’s Acis and Galatea, returns to sing the seldom-heard cycle Love Blows as the Wind Blows written in 1911-12 by the British composer George Butterworth. Butterworth was a close friend of Ralph Vaughan Williams, with whom he travelled the countryside documenting over 450 folksongs. Tragically, in 1916 Butterworth lost his life in World War I, thereby depriving later generations of his exceptional talents.
Soprano AddieRose Forstman, a 2019 Bard graduate, brings to this concert her exceptional knowledge of recently composed music with a performance of excerpts from Victoria Bond’s Molly Manybloom, a 1990 song cycle setting text selected from James Joyce’s Ulysses. Bond makes particularly imaginative use of the string quartet, drawing from it no fewer than six instrumental combinations, while presenting Ms. Forstman both as a singer and as a speaker.
Baritone Wayne Arthur Paul was received with great enthusiasm for his CITV appearances as Handel’s Polypheme last November and as bass soloist in Mozart’s Requiem a year earlier. He returns to perform Samuel Barber’s setting of Matthew Arnold’s great lyric poem Dover Beach, eerily suggestive of the brooding period just prior to World War II. Mr. Paul’s recent engagements have included a Metropolitan Opera debut in the ensemble of its acclaimed new production of Porgy and Bess.
Soprano Margaret Tigue, a second year student at Bard, makes her CITV debut singing Osvaldo Golijov’s passionate setting of Lúa Descolorida (Moon colorless – “like the color of pale gold”). The original poem is written in Gallego (the language of the Galicia region in Spain), by the poet Rosalía de Castro. This coming summer Ms. Tigue returns to Tanglewood as a Vocal Fellow. She has appeared with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, most recently on very short notice, but to widespread acclaim, in a performance of Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915.
CITV Artistic Director David Smith observes, “What a thrill it will be to celebrate five outstanding singers at the beginning of their careers – and to experience them in ensemble with the principal string players of our own Broad Street Orchestra. In the current very challenging circumstances, that it remains possible for us to offer this very appealing program for the enjoyment of both regular and new CITV listeners is very gratifying for all involved. I especially thank recording engineer Brian Peters.”
To conclude CITV’s 10th Anniversary Season two concerts follow “Singing with Strings”: On April 5th Haydn’s oratorio The Creation and on April 26th excerpts from Mozart’s Da Ponte operas: The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. The rescheduling of these concerts remains a very likely possibility. Please visit us here for ongoing updates.
CodyRay Caho
Singer, performer, an
d teacher CodyRay Caho finds a well of encouragement springing from the many processes of art and its creation. Her curiosity in our world’s stories lies at the heart of her work. CodyRay holds a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia, and a Master of Music degree in opera performance from Arizona State University, and is now attending the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory of Music. She has performed with organizations such as Arizona Opera, Cincinnati Opera, American Lyric Theater, the Aspen Summer Music Festival, and Tri Cities Opera, among others. Contemporary music remains the core of CodyRay’s interests. Most recently they have collaborated with Aural Compass Projects’ inaugural performance, Songs of the Rainbow, an LGBTQIA celebration of 20th and 21st century works by queer composers from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. She was also seen with the Nahant Music Festival in Massachusetts for the world premiere of Francine Trester’s chamber opera Keepers of the Light. In the summer of 2018, they appeared in the US premiere of Another Brick in the Wall as an ensemble performer with Cincinnati Opera – an operatic adaptation of Pink Floyd’s heralded album/later-turned movie The Wall. With some beautiful experience behind her, CodyRay looks forward to sharing with the Hudson Valley in the coming years. CodyRay’s first CITV appearance was in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, in the fall of 2019.
AddieRose Forstman
Originally drawn to singing through traditional Scottish and American songs, soprano AddieRose Forstman strives to bring the simplicity and authenticity of folk music to the Operatic and Art Song repertoire. In January, 2020 AddieRose, along with pianist Edward Forstman, presented the first rendition of “I am a smiling a woman . . .” at the Jule Colins Smith Museum of Fine Art in Auburn, Alabama. A program of contemporary repertoire, “I am a smiling woman…” is inspired by the life and works of Sylvia Plath, and explores depression, suicide, and loss. AddieRose spent the summer 2019 season with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble in NYC. She performed the role of Isabella Beecher in scenes from Victoria Bond’s Mrs. President, sang the world premiere of Martha Sullivan’s song cycle Selon . . ., and covered the title role, as well as singing in the chorus, of Princess Maleine, a world premiere opera by Whitney E. George, with libretto by Bea Goodwin. In April, 2019 AddieRose was the soprano soloist in Schubert’s Mass in G, with the SUNY New Paltz Choral Ensembles, and made her National Sawdust debut in “First Songs”, a program of New York premieres, presented by members of the Bard Vocal Arts Program, along with internationally acclaimed soprano Dawn Upshaw. Earlier in the 2018-19 season AddieRose performed selections from Joseph Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne with the Broad Street Orchestra, conducted by Noah Palmer, and was the soprano soloist in Giovanni Gabrieli’s In ecclesiis, led by James Bagwell. During the summer of 2018 AddieRose and pianist Edward Forstman took their program of song and contemporary keyboard works, “Flowers of Summer”, on a small tour of New York, Pennsylvania, and Alabama. Highlights from 2017-18 were singing Danica in Ana Sokolović’s Svadba, and making her debut with the Grammy-Award Winning Albany Symphony, conducted by David Alan Miller, as Papagena in a retelling of The Magic Flute for young children. Upcoming engagements include a performance of “I am a smiling woman…” at the Saint Anne Salon Series in New Windsor, NY, a return to SUNY New Paltz in April 2020 as the soprano soloist for Haydn’s “Lord Nelson” Mass, and, also in April 2020, an appearance with Cutting Edge Concerts as Elizabeth Tilton in a concert performance of Victoria Bond’s Mrs. President at Symphony Space in New York City. AddieRose will also return to dell’Arte Opera Ensemble for their summer 2020 festival as 1st-Lady-in-Waiting in Donizetti’s opera Anna Bolena. In addition to performing, AddieRose is a dedicated voice teacher, and a seamstress at the Fisher Center costume shop at Bard College. This spring she is assistant costume designer 
for the March 2020 premiere of Rest In Pieces, a pastiche “in memory of opera” conceived and directed by Stephanie Blythe and John Jarboe, and created by the current students of the Vocal Arts Program. AddieRose holds a Master’s degree from The Graduate Vocal Arts Program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and a Bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from the Eastman School of Music, as well as an advanced diploma in classics from The Lancaster Center for Classical Studies. www.addieroseforstman.com
Wayne Arthur Paul
Baritone Wayne Arthur Paul is a versatile singer whose heartfelt intelligence is well-suited for many genres. In 2016 Wayne was a featured soloist in Kathleen Battle’s “Underground railroad: A Spiritual Journey” at the Metropolitan Opera House. This season he returns to the Met, making his debut in the ensemble of the new production of Porgy & Bess. In 2015 he made his LA Opera debut in Song from the Uproar by Missy Mazzoli. Wayne has been an Eva & Marc Stern Fellow at SongFest, at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. He appeared with the Face the Music Ensemble at National Sawdust in Courtney Bryan’s Yet Unheard. Wayne was also recently a featured soloist in the Pyer Moss fashion week show at Brooklyn’s King Theater. He has appeared as a performer in Derrick Adams’ ON at Pioneer Works. Wayne holds a BM in vocal performance from New England Conservatory and is currently pursuing an advanced degree at the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory of Music. This afternoon’s appearance is his third with Concerts in the Village, the first having been as bass soloist in the Mozart Requiem in November, 2018, and the second as Polypheme in last fall’s offering of Handel’s Acis and Galatea.
Chloë Schaaf
Mezzo-soprano Chloë Schaaf has recently appeared as a soloist with the Albany Symphony, the Helena Symphony, and the Orchestra of the League of Composers. In summer 2019, Chloë was a Vocal Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she performed as a soloist in Bach’s cantata BWV 161 and George Crumb’s Madrigals Book III in Seiji Ozawa Hall, as well as performing Berg’s Vier Gesänge, Op. 2 in The Linde Center for Music and Learning. Chloë was a first place winner in Sparks & Wiry Cries’ 2019 songSLAM, a competition for world premiere art songs. A passionate performer of contemporary and chamber music, she has performed in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, The Miller Theater, and National Sawdust. An avid lover of oratorio, recent solo appearances include Verdi’s Requiem (The Orchestra Now, 2019), Duruflé’s Requiem (Northern Berkshire Chorale, 2019), Mozart’s Requiem (Concerts in the Village, 2018), Handel’s Messiah (The Helena Symphony, 2017) and Bach’s Magnificat (Greenwich Choral Society, 2017). Operatic roles include the Ant and Owl in Richard Ayres’ The Cricket Recovers (Tanglewood Music Center, 2019), The Queen in John Harbison’s Full Moon in March (The Fisher Center, 2018), Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina (OperaRox Productions, 2017), Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (New Jersey State Repertory Opera, 2016), Demoiselle d’Honneur in Chabrier’s l’Étoile (Dutch National Opera, 2015), and Don Ramiro in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera (The Juilliard School, 2012). Chloë has spent summers as a Young Artist with the iSING International Young Artists Festival, a member of the Aspen Opera Theater Center, a New Young Artist at The Victoria Bach Festival, and a Professional Fellow at Songfest. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School, The Guildhall School, and the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory of Music. In summer 2020, Chloë returns to Tanglewood Music Center as Vocal Fellow.
Margaret Tigue
Soprano Margaret Tigue has been a featured soloist with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, The Albany Symphony Orchestra, and The Orchestra Now. This summer she will be returning to the Tanglewood Music Center as a Vocal Fellow, and will also be a participant in Stephanie Blythe’s Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar. Margaret has been praised by OperaWire for “a power and seeming effortlessness that [is] quite amazing.” Her performance highlights include the role of Helena in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Blanche de la Force in excerpts from Poulenc’s Les Dialogues des Carmélites. In 2017, Margaret won an Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She studies with Lorraine Nubar. She is currently pursuing an advanced degree in the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory of Music. This is Margaret’s first appearance with Concerts in the Village.
CITV concerts are made possible by the generous support of many individual, institutional and business supporters, including the T. Backer Fund, CITV Emerging Singer Fund, The Alexander and Marjorie Hover Foundation, Hudson River Bank and Trust Company Foundation, Eugene M. Lang Foundation, Price Chopper Golub Foundation, and Stewart’s Shops. Kinderhook Reformed Church is especially acknowledged for its many in-kind donations
CITV Artistic Director David Smith was interviewed on WMHT Radio Feb 13, 2020 by Rob Brown:
https://www.wmht.org/blogs/classical/glorious-strings-in-a-glorious-space/
