Ravinia Steans Music Institute 2019

28 RAVINIA’S STEANS MUSIC INSTITUTE Kevin Murphy , Program Director and piano The MacLean Chair in honor of Christa Ludwig Pianist Kevin Murphy serves on the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Prior to returning to his alma mater, he was director of music administration at New York City Opera and served as the director of musical studies at the Paris Opera. In 1992 he was the first pianist to participate in the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. He has played continuo harpsichord with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in several productions as well as traveled with the company on tour in Japan. In addition to his on- and off-stage partnership with his wife, soprano Heidi Grant Murphy, he has collaborated in concert and recital with many of today’s leading artists. A native of Syracuse, New York, Kevin received his bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Indiana University and master’s in piano accompaniment from the Curtis Institute of Music. Javier Arrebola , Head of Piano Staff Javier Arrebola is a pianist, chamber musician, vocal coach, and scholar driven to enhance students’ and audiences’ understanding of music through the exploration of history, politics, literature, poetry, geography, artwork, and music theory. His professional activities have taken place in over ten countries throughout Europe, North America, and Latin America. Among engagements to lecture, teach, and give recitals at institutions such as University of Minnesota, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School of Music, Mr. Arrebola holds faculty positions at Tanglewood Music Center, SongFest at the Colburn School, and Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute, where he is the Head of Piano Staff in the Program for Singers. In the 2018/19 season, he also served on the faculty of Renée Fleming’s inaugural SongStudio program at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Mr. Arrebola has served on the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as Visiting Assistant Professor in Voice/ Collaborative Piano, and he is currently the Chair of the Collaborative Piano Department at Boston University. Marianne Barrett , German Marianne was born and educated in Germany, where she grew up in a family of music/opera lovers. She studied Voice at the Musikhochschule in Munich. After living in Albuquerque, singing, and teaching at the University of New Mexico, she came to New York, and quickly became the German Diction Coach at all three major conservatories. When the MET recruited her, she had to give up Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College of Music, but has continued to be on the faculty of The Juilliard School. How do you talk about highlights in this long career when you are fresh from coaching the MET’s 2019 RING under the exciting, young conductor Philippe Jordan? And this, a year after nine weeks in San Francisco coaching the RING under the great director Francesca Zambello . Other memorable collaborations at the MET: Die Zauberflöte, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Wozzeck, Salome, Die Meistersinger …, many under the baton of the eminent James Levine. And a glimpse into the future: Elektra and Der Fliegende Holländer under the new acclaimed Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin in 2017. Marianne is a big Lieder fan and is very proud of her work with Brian Zeger in preparing his annual recital at Alice Tully Hall, where Brian imaginatively curates Lieder programs as the collaborative pianist of the gi fted Juilliard singers. She also coaches young singers from around the world in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Summers at Ravinia are most certainly a highlight in Marianne’s busy year in music, as are her summers at SFO in Santa Fe, where she has been the German Diction coach for many years. Future engagements include coaching at Marlboro, the Houston Grand Opera and the Washington National Opera. Stephen Blier , Vocal Coach Manhattan-born Steven Blier is the Artistic Director of the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), which he co-founded in 1988 with Michael Barrett. Since the Festival’s inception, he has programmed, performed, translated and annotated more than 140 vocal recitals with repertoire spanning art song from Schubert to Szymanowski, and popular song from early vaudeville to Lennon-McCartney. New York Magazine gave NYFOS its award for Best Classical Programming, while Opera News proclaimed Blier “the coolest dude in town.” On the recital stage his partners have included Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Samuel Ramey, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Susan Graham, Jessye Norman, and José van Dam, in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to La Scala. He is also on the faculty of The Juilliard School and has been active in encouraging young recitalists at summer programs, including the Wolf Trap Opera Company, Santa Fe Opera, and the San Francisco Opera Center. A champion of American song, he has premiered works of John Corigliano, Paul Moravec, Ned Rorem, William Bolcom, Mark Adamo, John Musto, Adam Guettel, Richard Danielpour, Tobias Picker, Lowell Liebermann, and Harold Meltzer, many of which were commissioned by NYFOS. Mr. Blier’s discography includes the premiere recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles (Koch International), which won a Grammy Award; Spanish Love Songs (Bridge Records) with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Joseph Kaiser, RSMI SINGERS FACULTY