Cantata Singers&Ensemble | Concert Schedule

BIOGRAPHIES

Composer John Harbison is among America's most prominent artistic figures. He has received numerous awards and distinctions, including two of the most prestigious: the MacArthur Foundation's "genius" award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Harbison has composed music for most of this country’s premiere musical institutions, including the Metropolitan Opera (for whom he wrote The Great Gatsby), the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Symphony, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Born in New Jersey in 1938, he received an undergraduate degree from Harvard and the MFA from Princeton before joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he currently occupies an Institute Professorship, the highest academic distinction MIT offers to resident faculty. He also serves as President of the Copland Fund. His works include four string quartets, four symphonies, a ballet, three operas, and numerous chamber and choral works, more than fifty of which have been recorded on leading labels such as Harmonia Mundi, New World, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, and Koch. Mr. Harbison has been composer-in- residence with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the American Academy in Rome, and numerous festivals, including Tanglewood, Marlboro, and Aspen. He is currently principal guest conductor of Emmanuel Music in Boston.

Harbison's music is distinguished by its exceptional resourcefulness and expressive range. He has written for every conceivable type of concert performance, ranging from the grandest to the most intimate, pieces that embrace jazz along with the pre-classical forms. Harbison is also a gifted commentator on the art and craft of composition and was recognized in his student years as an outstanding poet (he wrote his own libretto for Gatsby). Today, he continues to convey, through the spoken word, the multiple meanings of contemporary composition.

Three major works will anchor the 2005-06 season: Milosz Songs, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for long-time Harbison champion Dawn Upshaw; the Concerto for String Bass, commissioned by the International Society of Double Bassists for a consortium of major orchestras; and But Mary Stood: Sacred Symphony for Soprano, Chorus, and Strings for the Cantata Singers of Boston. Also forthcoming are the sinfonietta Umbrian Landscape for the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and chamber works for cello and piano, horn quartet, and percussion ensemble. Other recent works include Darkbloom (Boston Symphony), Songs America Loves to Sing (Atlanta and DaCapo Chamber Players), Symphony No. 4 (Seattle Symphony), Piano Trio No. 2 (Amelia Trio), the motet “Abraham” (commissioned for the Papal Concert of Reconciliation in Rome), Requiem (Boston Symphony Orchestra), Piano Sonata No. 2 (for Robert Levin), and String Quartet No. 4 (Orion Quartet).

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KARYL RYCZEK, soprano, has performed widely throughout the northeast corridor on the opera, oratorio and concert stage. A frequent soloist with the Cantata Singers, Ms. Ryczek has also appeared with Boston Baroque, the Monadnock Music Festival and the Boston Academy of Music. Ms. Ryczek made her Boston operatic debut with Collage New Music in the premiere performance of Charles Fussell’s opera, The Astronaut’s Tale. She has performed in concert with The Symphony by the Sea, The Concord Orchestra and The New Bedford Symphony. Favoring the recital stage, she has performed at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the French Library, Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Memorial Auditorium and the Edward M. Pickman Concert Hall. Ms. Ryczek sang the Boston premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis’ song cycle, Valentines, at the Longy School of Music. She has performed the widely popular Third Symphony of Gorecki with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Ryczek has performed the children’s operas of Robert Kapilow, Green Eggs and Ham and Gertrude McFuzz, with the Hingham Symphony. Ms. Ryczek made her Symphony Hall debut with the Cantata Singers in a world premiere of T.J. Anderson’s Slavery Documents 2 and a remounted performance of Donald Sur’s Slavery Documents. Ms. Ryczek essayed the role of Madame Dubarry in the opera Grace, a production for Opera on the Edge. She has performed at the Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival, featuring Charles Wuorinen’s Fenton Songs. Ms. Ryczek serves as Chair of the Voice Department at the Longy School of Music. She also serves on the voice faculty at Bridgewater State College. She has been a member of the Cantata Singers ensemble for eleven years.

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