Písně lásky a naděje | Songs of Love and Hope
Soprano Annie Gill, together with pianist Andrew Stewart, perform a program of Czech and Slovak folk songs, art songs, and opera arias. These works explore the human condition through the many ways we express our love for each other. The mission of this recital is to preserve and promote Czech and Slovak music. This repertoire reaches beyond the span of standard classical music and is not widely performed. Through this recital, the artists aspire to celebrate Czech and Slovak culture and preserve, but also introduce, unique repertoire that is not performed often.
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The Program
Písně milostné, Op. 83: Antonin Dvorak
Písně milostné, Love Songs, Op. 83
Text by Gustav Pfleger-Moravský (1833-1875) Moravian writer, poet and playwright. Translations by David Beveridge
From Jarní paprsky, Op. 36: Zdeněk Fibich
From Jarní paprsky, Spring Rays/Flashes of Spring, Op. 36
Translations by Mirka Zemanová
Och, jaký žal!...Ten lásky sen from Prodaná nevěsta [The Bartered Bride]: Bedřich Smetana
Text by Karel Sabina (1813-1877) Czech writer and journalist
Translation by Timothy Cheek
Sbohem a šáteček, Op. 14
Jablko s klína, Op. 10 : Vítezslava Kaprálová
Sbohem a šáteček, A Waving Farewell, Op. 14
Text by Vítězslav Nezval (1900-1958)
Translation by Timothy Cheek
Jablko s klína, An Apple from the Lap, Op. 10
Text by Jaroslav Seifert (1901-1986)
From Nové slovenské písně: Bohuslav Martinů
From Nové slovenské písně New Slovak Songs
Text – Volkslieder/Folksongs. Translation by Timothy Cheek
From Jabloňový vlak: Sylvie Bodorová
From Jabloňový vlak, Apple Train
Text – Traditional Prayer. Translation by Timothy Cheek
Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém from Rusalka: Antonín Dvořák
Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém from Rusalka
Text by Jaroslav Kvapil [1868-1950]
Music
Accompanied by Pianist Ju Young Lee
Photos
About the Pianist
Andrew Stewart, pianist, trained in California and has been based in Baltimore since 2000. Hailed as “a singer’s dream” by Gramophone Magazine, he has worked with countless vocalists and instrumentalists; premiered works by composers including Garth Baxter, Hollis Thoms and Daniel McDavitt; and performed with a great many organizations, among them the Bach Society of Baltimore, OperaBelle, the Atlantic Guitar Quartet, Baltimore Musicales, the Choirs of Goucher College, the Annapolis Chorale, and Assisi Performing Arts in Italy. He is featured on the albums
Katherine Keem Sings Songs and Arias by Garth Baxter (Centaur Records, 2014) and Ask the
Moon (Navona, 2018). Recent performance highlights include the complete songs of Henri Duparc with soprano Kimberly Christie, Messiaen's "Quartet For the End of Time" with Assisi Quartet at Princeton University and at the War Memorial in Baltimore, and a recital of arias and art songs with soprano Mary Claire Curran at Opera America in New York City.
He has been associated with the Maryland Opera Company, formerly Lyric Opera of Baltimore, since 2003. He gives upwards of seventy performances a year as part of its education component and teaches on the faculty of their four-week summer program, where he assists high school students in writing and producing their own short opera. Additionally he maintains a busy schedule as a theatrical musical director, having led more than forty productions since 2006. He has been the director of music at Our Lady of Grace Parish in Parkton since 2014, and the accompanist at Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase since 2009.
Mr. Stewart studied with Charles Asche at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and with Marian Hahn at the Peabody Conservatory. Other teachers include Marie Brown Curea and Sharon Mann. He lives in Lutherville, Maryland with his wife Zoë and their two sons.
