FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Maggie Estes, Director of Marketing and Public Relations,
mestes@cliburn.org, 817.738.6536 (o), 817.739.0459 (c)
Fort Worth, Texas, February 29, 2012-Cliburn Concerts welcomes
internationally-hailed soprano Deborah Voigt, with pianist Brian
Zeger, to Bass Performance Hall on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 7:30
p.m. Praised for her lyricism, beauty of tone, and dramatic acuity,
Ms. Voigt will thrill audiences in her Bass Hall debut with a
program featuring works by Beach, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Respighi,
Moore, and Bernstein. Single tickets for this concert are available
from $15-$90 and can be purchased at Cliburn.org, by calling
817.212.4280, or in person at the Bass Hall Box Office (525
Commerce Street, Fort Worth, Texas).
Ms. Voigt has soared to international prominence and is widely
regarded as today's preeminent dramatic soprano. A versatile singer
and stage actress, she is revered worldwide for her performances in
the operas of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner, as well as for
her interpretations of the great heroines of Italian opera. She is
a perennial favorite among audiences in opera houses worldwide, and
critics have declared, "Ms. Voigt, clearly in her prime, is
astonishing. Her sound is at once earthen and gleaming...simply
glorious" (The New York Times).
Recently, Ms. Voigt earned critical praise for her performance of
Schoenberg's Erwartung. She also starred in the Metropolitan
Opera's widely-discussed new production of Wagner's Die Walküre,
making her role debut as Brünnhilde. She will reprise her role as
the character in the final two installments of the Ring Cycle,
Seigfried and Götterdämmerung,this spring. A devotee of Broadway
and American song, Ms. Voigt has given acclaimed performances of
popular fare. She served as the first artist-in-residence for the
Glimmerglass Festival, where she performed the role of Annie Oakley
in Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun and in a one-woman show,
Voigt Lessons, written for her by celebrated playwright Terrence
McNally and directed by Francesca Zambello.
Ms. Voigt studied at California State University at Fullerton. She
won the Gold Medal in Moscow's Tchaikovsky Competition and First
Prize at Philadelphia's Luciano Pavarotti Vocal Competition, and is
also a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2003, she
was named Musical America's Vocalist of the Year and in 2007 won an
Opera News Award for distinguished achievement. Ms. Voigt's
discography includes two popular solo recordings for EMI Classics,
as well as recordings of Strauss's Egyptian Helen and Wagner's
Tristan und Isolde for Deutsche Grammophon. She is currently
writing a memoir that is scheduled for publication by Harper
Collins in 2013.
Accompanying Ms. Voigt in performance will be her frequent
collaborator, pianist Brian Zeger. He serves as artistic director
of the Vocal Arts Department at The Juilliard School, director of
the vocal program at the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia
Festival, and has recently taken on the role of executive director
of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development
Program.
The complete program to be announced.
ABOUT THE VAN CLIBURN INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION
Van Cliburn's sensational victory at the first Tchaikovsky
International Competition in Moscow in 1958 heralded a new
confidence in the quality of American music-making, as well as a
new era in cultural relations between East and West. Celebrating
this remarkable achievement, a group of music teachers and citizens
from Fort Worth, Texas, created the Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition. First held in 1962, the Competition has established
itself as a joyous festival dedicated to the discovery of the
world's finest young pianists.
The Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition will
take place May 24-June 9, 2013, at Fort Worth's Bass Performance
Hall and willwelcome 30 of the world's finest young pianists to
Texas. From the beginning, the Competition has been committed to
showcasing both the extraordinary talent of its competitors in
recital performance as well as their ability to successfully
collaborate with other musicians. The Fourteenth Competition will
mark the first Cliburn appearance by the world-renowned Brentano
String Quartet performing a piano quintet with each of the 12
semifinalists. The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, which has
appeared at every Cliburn Competition, will perform two concerti
with each of the six finalists, under the baton of Maestro Leonard
Slatkin for the first time. Maestro John Giordano will serve as
chairman of the jury for his eleventh Competition since assuming
the post in 1973.
In addition to receiving significant cash prizes, the winners of
each competition are awarded three years of career management and
artist services, including the booking of national tours for all
six finalists and international engagements for the gold medalist.
The winners of the Thirteenth Competition held in 2009 are
currently in their third year of touring, having performed over 350
engagements, including concerts, recitals, master classes, and
education/outreach events before thousands of people. These tours
play a vital part in fulfilling the Van Cliburn Foundation's
purpose of bringing the highest quality of music to audiences
everywhere.
Since the Competition's inception, significant media projects have
been intrinsic to its organization and reach-including the national
and international distribution of CDs and DVDs, and the broadcast
of syndicated radio programs throughout the country. The Foundation
has produced nine documentaries that have aired nationally on PBS
since the 1977 Cliburn Competition and have garnered acclaim and
numerous awards, including a Primetime Emmy® (1989) and a Peabody
Award (2001). A Surprise in Texas, the Peter Rosen film chronicling
the 2009 Competition, was well received at film festivals across
the country and in a Texas theatrical release, then reached a
potential audience of over 105 million households with its prime
time PBS airing on September 1, 2010. The film won the 2011 ECHO
Klassik Award for Best Music DVD Recording of the Year
(Documentation).
In 1997, the Cliburn began utilizing sophisticated Internet
resources to stream the Competition live online, extending its
outreach across the globe. In 2009, web viewers enjoyed real-time
access to Competition performances in their entirety, as well as to
a fully produced webcast offering hours of educational and cultural
content, backstage views of rehearsals, and the International
Cultural Diplomacy Symposia. Total visits for the 2009 live
coverage and archived footage on Cliburn.tv are now over 420,000
with over 158,000 unique visitors from 157 countries and
territories.
The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition has been the most
visible expression of the Van Cliburn Foundation's commitment to
the highest standards of musical achievement, but the mission of
the organization is actualized through the combination of all of
its core programs. For audiences in the Dallas/Fort Worth
Metroplex, the Foundation promotes great music by presenting
world-class artists in the annual Cliburn Concerts series. It
reaches over 33,000 elementary school students annually with the
education programs of Musical Awakenings®. In 1999, it established
the International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs™,
which The Boston Globe proclaimed "a celebration of music, and the
people who have to make music, no matter what." The sixth Amateur
Competition was held in Fort Worth May 23-29, 2011, at Ed Landreth
Auditorium on the campus of TCU.
Visit Cliburn.org to learn more about the Cliburn as it celebrates
the 50th anniversary of the First Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition.
Official Sponsors of the Van Cliburn Foundation are:
American Airlines
Amon G. Carter Foundation
Ann L. & Carol Green Rhodes Charitable Trust, Bank of America,
Trustee
Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County
Crystelle Waggoner Charitable Trust, Bank of America,
Trustee
ExxonMobil
JPMorgan Chase Foundation
Sid W. Richardson Foundation
The Burnett Foundation
XTO Energy Inc.
Exclusive Print Media Sponsor
Star-Telegram
Exclusive Radio Station
WRR 101.1 FM
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