All summer, weekend chamber music recitals have featured the talents of resident musicians in the School of Music; thanks to Dominic Armstrong and Joel Harder, this Saturday’s performance will be the first to feature voice.
The two have partnered together before, for the Castleton Festival in Virginia, and at 4:15 p.m. Saturday in Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall for the School of Music Faculty Spotlight Series, tenor Armstrong and pianist Harder will captivate audiences with a musical journey through Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Songs of Travel” and Gerald Finzi’s “A Young Man’s Exhortations.” Vaughan Williams used words from Robert Louis Stevenson as the lyrics for his series of songs. For Finzi, the words of Thomas Hardy serve as the lyrics.
Armstrong is a faculty member for the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory and even came to Chautauqua as a student to participate in the voice program. His repertoire includes Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca, Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth and Siegmund in Wagner’s Die Walküre, the second music drama in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. From Hong Kong to New York, Armstrong has performed in operas nationally and internationally. A Metropolitan Opera National Council Finalist and winner of the George London Competition, Armstrong holds degrees from Truman State University, The Juilliard School and The Curtis Institute of Music.
Fellow Opera Conservatory faculty member Harder is both a pianist and vocal coach. Chamber music, song and operatic repertoire are all within his expertise as an artistic faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music. Previously, he served as an assistant professor at SUNY Binghamton, leading a graduate program in collaborative piano. Working as both a pianist and coach, he has collaborated with the Cincinnati May Festival, Festival Lyrique Internationale de Belle-Ile en mer and Los Angeles Opera. Over the past seven years, Harder has provided his piano prowess as a regular artist with the Brooklyn Art Song Society.
With Saturday afternoon’s 20th-century repertoire, Armstrong and Harder will proudly represent the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory.
