Jeffrey Silberschlag, Music Director
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July 24 ~ The sheer virtuosity of it!
Deborah Greitzer
Andrew Hardy
Olivia Vote
Brian Ganz
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Concert Introduction: Jeffrey Silberschlag
Greeting: Deborah Greitzer Executive Director, Chesapeake Orchestra Painting Exhibition Slide Show Artists Christina Allen Allen Delaney Spencer Riddle Nicole Stewart Suzanne Shelden Jeanne Norton Hammett Accompanying music to the Painting Exhibition: Václav Hálek Four Meditations for Bassoon Solo Deborah Greitzer, Bassoon William Thomas Mckinley “Together and Sleep” from Concerto Domestica Deborah Greitzer, bassoon Jeffrey Silberschlag, trumpet Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra Gerard Schwarz, conductor Greetings: Larry Vote Jules Massanet The Letter Aria from Werther Olivia Vote, Mezzo Soprano Craig Ketter, piano Gaetano Donizetti Sara’s Aria from Roberto Devereux Olivia Vote, Mezzo Soprano Edward Bak, piano Ralph Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending Romance for violin and orchestra Andrew Hardy, violin The Romanian State Symphony Larry Vote, conductor From The Alba Music Festival (Andrew Hardy, Photo Montage) Intermission Greetings from Brian Ganz Frédéric Chopin Etudes Opus 10 Op. 10, No. 3 in E major Op. 10, No. 4 in C-sharp minor Op. 10, No. 6 in E-flat minor Op. 10, No. 7 in C major Op. 10, No. 8 in F major Op. 10, No. 9 in F minor Op. 10, No. 10 in A-flat major Op. 10, No. 11 in E-flat major Op. 10, No. 12 in C minor- "Revolutionary" Brian Ganz, piano solo |
Performer Bios
Deborah Greitzer
Deborah Greitzer, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Orchestra, has divided her career equally as a performer and artistic director. She has held principal bassoon positions with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, New York City Opera National Company, Madeira Bach Festival, Alba Music Festival, the Italian Radio/Television Symphony Orchestra RAI-Torino, the Music Today Series in New York, and the Chesapeake Orchestra. She has performed with many of the world’s leading conductors, including Maxym Shostakovich, Rudolph Barshai, Gary Bertini, Gerard Schwarz, Raymond Leppard, George Manahan, Eliahu Inbal, Noam Sheriff, Hans Vonk, Vladimir Valek, and James Galway.
As soloist, she has appeared with the Jerusalem Symphony in Israel, the Hungarian Virtuosi in Budapest and Zagreb, the Czech Radio Orchestra in Prague, the Maryland Bach Aria Group in Verona, and the Chesapeake Orchestra. She has also given solo performances at Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, the New England Conservatory, Purchase University, Avery Fisher Hall, the Prague Rudolfinum, and the Jerusalem Theatre. Ms. Greitzer can be heard on Nonesuch Records Grammy Award-winning recording of George Perle’s Serenade No. 3. She has recorded with the Maryland Bach Aria Group on Crystal Records, and as soloist on MMC and Delos Records. Composer William Thomas Mckinley wrote two concertos for her that she premiered and recorded with the Seattle Symphony and Prague Radio Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, conductor.
Ms. Greitzer is a graduate of The Juilliard School and held a graduate fellowship at the Yale School of Music, Yale University. She is a two-time winner of the Artists International Prize for Chamber Music, recipient of the George Wellington Miles Award at Yale University, and a winner, with the Maryland Bach Aria Group, of the Norton T. Dodge Award for Creative and Scholarly Achievement.
She was invited by Pierre Boulez as the only American finalist for the IRCAM Ensemble in Paris, France, Pierre Boulez, Music Director.
Ms. Greitzer was the Artistic Director of the New York Times Foundation Young Performers Series, producing concerts in Bryant Park, Union Square Park and Battery Park. She was also the director of the Tidewater Ensemble at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. During that six year period, the Tidewater Ensemble made its first appearances at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. The Ensemble premiered works by numerous composers, including Morton Gould, William Thomas McKinley, David Froom, Lorenzo Ferrero, Vivian Adelberg Rudow, Paul Chihara, and Chou Wen-Chung.
Ms. Greitzer performed in the 1998 Broadway revival of “The King and I” with Marie Osmond and at the Kennedy Center with Haley Mills. She was also the bassoonist with Anthony Newley, in the New York revival of his show, “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.” She also worked with playwright Arthur Miller, and was the bassoonist for the New York premiere of his play, “Up from Paradise.”
Ms. Greitzer is adjunct faculty in the Music Department of St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Larry Vote
Larry Edward Vote is professor of music at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. An accomplished vocal soloist and conductor, he has performed throughout the United States and Europe. As a member of The Tidewater Ensemble he has been heard in, and conducted concerts, in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Baltimore Museum of Art, and Jordan Hall in Boston, as well as on regional and national broadcasts of this group. A founding member of The Maryland Bach Aria Group, Mr. Vote may be heard in music of Bach, Handel and Telemann on two compact discs published by Crystal Records.
He has conducted or performed as baritone soloist in the premieres of works by Gian Carlo Menotti, William Thomas McKinley, and David Froom, among others. He recorded McKinley’s “Dallas, 1963” with the Slovak Radio Orchestra, which has been released on MMC Recordings. “Hearing the Call,” featuring new brass music conducted by Mr. Vote, was released on Sonora records in September of 1999. Mr. Vote served as resident musical director to Interact; a Washington D.C.-based theater company. With Interact he has performed and directed productions for The National Gallery of Art, The Folger Shakespeare Library, The Landsburg Theater, Arena Stage, and in a tour of the United Kingdom. He continues to serve as a yearly guest conductor for the River Concert Series and as co-artistic director of the Alba Music Festival in Alba, Italy.
The 1993 production of “The Pirates of Penzance,” for which he was music director and conductor, won the award for Best Musical in the 1994 Helen Hayes Awards. He was nominated for Outstanding Musical Director for the production of “H.M.S. Pinafore” in 1996 and again in 2000 for “Pirates of Penzance.” He is also holder of the Norton Dodge Award for Creative and Scholarly Achievement presented by St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
In his performance with Voices of the Golden Age, the Washington Post noted that “His reverberant reading of Bouvard’s “Le Temple de Bachus” filled this aria with so much nobility and fervor that some real life thunderbolts outside seemed anticlimactic. •
Olivia Vote
Lauded for her “theatrical magnetism” and “her big, rich voice,” American mezzo-soprano Olivia Vote joins the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in the 2018-19 season for the first time for productions of Die Walkure and Suor Angelica. She makes multiple house and role debuts throughout the season, beginning with the Inland Northwest Opera as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, followed by the role of Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos with Cincinnati Opera. Recent appearances include her debut with The Atlanta Opera as Mary in a new production of The Flying Dutchman, her role debut as Adalgisa in Norma with Opera Southwest, and her company debut with North Carolina Opera as Maddalena in Rigoletto. On the concert stage, she was heard in Rossini’s Stabat Mater with The Choral Arts Society of Washington, D.C. under the baton of Antony Walker, and in Durefle’s Requiem at The Kennedy Center. Other recent debuts include appearing with Sarasota Opera as Mère Marie in the Dialogues des Carmélites and Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hoffmann with Hawaii Opera Theater.
With Santa Fe Opera and Opera Philadelphia Ms. Vote worked on Jennifer Higdon’s exciting premiere of Cold Mountain. Also with Santa Fe Opera she participated in the workshop of the upcoming premiere of The (R)evolution of Steven Jobs, by Mason Bates and Mark Campbell in San Francisco. She sang the role of his wife, Laurene Powell. Olivia joined the world renown Hugo Wolf Quartet from Vienna and performed Respighi’s Il Tramonto and selections from Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch in Massachusetts and New York. She then collaborated with pianist Brain Ganz performing multiple song recitals and later went on to win second place at the esteemed Fort Worth McCammon Opera Guild Competition and first place at the Partners for the Arts, Inc. competition in Virginia.
Ms. Vote returned to Opernhaus Zürich to sing Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos with Fabio Luisi and Flora in a new production of La traviata under Maestro Armiliato. She first came to Switzerland from 2012-2014 for the Internationales Opernstudio at Opernhaus Zürich. Highlights of her performances during this period included singing Fidalma in Il matrimonio segreto, Philomene in Martinů’s Zweimal Alexandre, and as a soloist in Hans Neuenfels’s new production, Wie ich Welt wurde, a co-production with the Zürich Shauspielhaus about the life of Richard Wagner. In addition, she performed roles in Rinaldo, La traviata, Meistersinger, Salome, and Rigoletto and covered roles in Madame Butterfly, Alcina, La Straniera, and Falstaff.
Prior to beginning her time in Zürich, Ms. Vote participated as a Filene Young Artist with the Wolf Trap Opera Company. There she gained critical acclaim for her portrayal of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni directed by Tomer Zvulum. She also covered the same role for the Los Angeles Philharmonic earlier that spring.
As a frequent concert artist, Ms. Vote was hailed by the Washington Post for “her big, rich voice that explored the nuances of the poetry.” Olivia has appeared as soloist in such works as Verdi’s Requiem, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Das Lied von der Erde, and Ravel’s Sheherazade. She sang Schubert’s Mass in E flat with Ivor Bolton and the Rai National Symphony Orchestra in Torino, Italy.
An eager and passionate fan of modern music. Olivia has premiered several new roles and works. With the 21st Century Consort at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., she performed “Colors passing though us”, a chamber work written specifically for her by composer and friend David Froom. While at Opernhaus Zurich she created the role of Mary Hawkins in Frank Schwemmer’s Die Schatzinsel and at AVA she sang the world premiere of Margaret Garwood’s The Scarlet Letter as Hester Prynne.
In competition Ms. Vote has been a grand finalist in the Francesco Vinas Competition in Barcelona. She won second place in the Loren L. Zachary Society Competition, Alfredo Silipigni International Vocal Competition, and Gerda Lisner Foundation International Competition. She is a grant winner from the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, has been a New England and Mid Atlantic regional finalist and study grant recipient in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, was awarded a Sullivan Foundation Development Grant, and the Phyllis Curtin Career Award from Yale University.
Andrew Hardy
Andrew Hardy is a native of Baltimore, Maryland (U.S.A ), where, at the age of 15 gave his solo debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performing Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, after winning the BSO Young Soloists Competition.
He attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University from 1979 - 1982, where he was winner of first prizes in the Concerto Competition and ”Concours” Recital Competition, and earned a Bachelor degree with high distinction. He studied violin and chamber music with such eminent Professors as John Merrill, Charles Libove, Dorothy Delay, Stephen Kates, Ellen Mack, Berl Senofsky, Leon Fleisher and Raphel Druian.
In 1983, he won a prize, awarded by Isaac Stern, for his performances at the 92nd St. YMCA, and Carnegie Hall in the International American Music Competitions sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Upon leaving the Conservatory, from 1985 - 1987, Mr. Hardy was engaged as Co-Concertmaster and Soloist (Concertos by Bach, Bruch, Saint-Saëns & Tchaikovsky) with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra & Chamber Orchestra, TX.
From 1987 - 1990 he lived in Germany where he was appointed as Soloist and First Concertmaster of the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen, and Soloist and First Concertmaster of the Würtembergischen Kammerorchester Heilbronn. In Germany Mr. Hardy performed frequently as soloist in Concertos by Bach, Tartini, Vivaldi, Haydn, Mozart, Bruch, Beethoven and Brahms.
Since 1990, he has resided in Brussels, Belgium, and has pursued an active solo and chamber music career. In 2002 Mr. Hardy acquired Belgian Nationality (dual citizenship with the U.S.).
Andrew Hardy has frequently performed for live radio and television broadcasts, and has made numerous internationally acclaimed CD recordings for the labels TALENT (Belgium), OLYMPIA (United Kingdom), CALLIOPE (France) and MUSIQUE EN WALLONIE (Belgium), REGIS RECORDS, Ltd. (UK) including works for violin and piano by Franz Schubert: Sonata, Rondo and Fantasie (Talent - 1990), Robert and Clara Schumann: The Complete Sonatas and Romances (Olympia - 1991), Sergei Prokofiev and Leoš Janáček: Complete Sonatas (Olympia - 1991), Max Reger: Sonata in C minor, Op. 139, and Richard Strauss, Op. 18 (Olympia - 1992).
He recorded 3 Russian Violin Concertos with Veronika Dudarova and The Symphony Orchestra of Russia (recorded at the Melodia Studio in Moscow) by Nicholas Rakov, Dmitri Kabelevsky, and Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebaline (Olympia - 1995).
The 2 CD recording of Johannes Brahms’ Complete Violin Sonatas (with pianist, Uriel Tsachor), including the 3 Violin Sonatas, Scherzo FAE, and the Two Clarinet Sonatas, Op. 120 - transcribed by Brahms for violin - recorded at the Tibor Varga Foundation Studio in Sion, Switzerland (Calliope - 1997) was awarded 5 diapasons from the French review, Diapason.
In 2005 Mr. Hardy was presented with the “Artist’s Prize” from the Fondation SPES (Belgium), which contributed to the realisation of an ambitious recording project (Uriel Tsachor, piano), co-produced by “Les XXI”, Musique en Wallonie, the Belgian Radio; Musiq3, and the Belgian Government; “175 – 25”, celebrating the 175th anniversary of Belgium, encompassing 8 Violin & Piano Sonatas, on 4 CDs (MEW 0528-0531 – released in December 2006), dedicated to the great Master violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, including works by César Franck, Albéric Magnard, Joseph Jongen, Sylvio Lazzari, Louis Vierne, Guy Ropartz, Gustav Samazeuilh and Guillaume Lekeu.
In August 2006 this recording (“Les Sonates Dédiées à Eugène Ysaÿe”) was also awarded 5 diapasons, from the French review, Diapason, and has received uniformly high praise from an international press.
Since 2002 Mr. Hardy has been a member of the Violin Jury at the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music, the Liège Royal Conservatory, Belgium, and (from 2015) the Mons Royal Conservatory for violin evaluations (Bachelor B2-4 & Masters Degree M1-2 and Conservatory Competitions).
In April 2006 the Duo Hardy–Tsachor gave the inaugural performance opening the new Concert Hall (“Wolubilis”) in Brussels in the Presence of the Belgian Royal Family.
From 2000 - 2018 he served as Vice President and Music Director of the cultural organization “Les XXI”, organising and performing in a series of chamber music concerts with outstanding international performers.
Since 2016 he is Co-Founder, Music Director and Violinist of “ARTS’ifice” - Concerts at the Château de la Hulpe, Brussels, Belgium; performing with musicians of outstanding international reputation.
Andrew Hardy has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras in the U.S., throughout Europe and in Russia, and regularly appears as recitalist, and chamber musician throughout Europe (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Norway, and Spain), and the United States. His repertoire embraces a broad range of works from Johann Sebastian Bach to present-day composers, with a strong interest not only in the great Master composers, but also in works of extreme merit by far-too-often neglected composers.
From 1989 Andrew Hardy performed and recorded, playing a violin by Josef Guadagnini, Cremona, dating from 1783.
He currently plays an instrument made by his father, violinmaker, Raymond Hardy (2008; modelled after the “Heifetz” Guarnerius Del Gesu).
Brian Ganz
Brian Ganz is widely regarded as one of the leading pianists of his generation.
A laureate of the Marguerite Long Jacques Thibaud and the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Piano Competitions, Mr. Ganz has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Louis Symphony, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, the National Philharmonic, the National Symphony and the City of London Sinfonia, and has performed with such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Mstislav Rostropovich and Piotr Gajewski.
The Washington Post has written: “One comes away from a recital by pianist Brian Ganz not only exhilarated by the power of the performance but also moved by his search for artistic truth.” For many years Mr. Ganz has made it his mission to join vivid music making with warmth and intimacy onstage to produce a new kind of listening experience, in which great works come to life with authentic emotional power. As one of Belgium’s leading newspapers, La Libre Belgique, put it, “We don’t have the words to speak of this fabulous musician who lives music with a generous urgency and brings his public into a state of intense joy.”
In January of 2011 Mr. Ganz began a multi-year project in partnership with the National Philharmonic in which he will perform the complete works of Chopin at the Music Center at Strathmore outside of Washington D.C.. After the inaugural recital, The Washington Post wrote: “Brian Ganz was masterly in his first installment of the complete works [of Chopin].”
Mr. Ganz is on the piano faculty of St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where he is artist-in-residence, and is also a member of the piano faculty of the Peabody Conservatory. He is the artist-editor of the Schirmer Performance Edition of Chopin’s Preludes (2005).
Deborah Greitzer, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Orchestra, has divided her career equally as a performer and artistic director. She has held principal bassoon positions with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, New York City Opera National Company, Madeira Bach Festival, Alba Music Festival, the Italian Radio/Television Symphony Orchestra RAI-Torino, the Music Today Series in New York, and the Chesapeake Orchestra. She has performed with many of the world’s leading conductors, including Maxym Shostakovich, Rudolph Barshai, Gary Bertini, Gerard Schwarz, Raymond Leppard, George Manahan, Eliahu Inbal, Noam Sheriff, Hans Vonk, Vladimir Valek, and James Galway.
As soloist, she has appeared with the Jerusalem Symphony in Israel, the Hungarian Virtuosi in Budapest and Zagreb, the Czech Radio Orchestra in Prague, the Maryland Bach Aria Group in Verona, and the Chesapeake Orchestra. She has also given solo performances at Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, the New England Conservatory, Purchase University, Avery Fisher Hall, the Prague Rudolfinum, and the Jerusalem Theatre. Ms. Greitzer can be heard on Nonesuch Records Grammy Award-winning recording of George Perle’s Serenade No. 3. She has recorded with the Maryland Bach Aria Group on Crystal Records, and as soloist on MMC and Delos Records. Composer William Thomas Mckinley wrote two concertos for her that she premiered and recorded with the Seattle Symphony and Prague Radio Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, conductor.
Ms. Greitzer is a graduate of The Juilliard School and held a graduate fellowship at the Yale School of Music, Yale University. She is a two-time winner of the Artists International Prize for Chamber Music, recipient of the George Wellington Miles Award at Yale University, and a winner, with the Maryland Bach Aria Group, of the Norton T. Dodge Award for Creative and Scholarly Achievement.
She was invited by Pierre Boulez as the only American finalist for the IRCAM Ensemble in Paris, France, Pierre Boulez, Music Director.
Ms. Greitzer was the Artistic Director of the New York Times Foundation Young Performers Series, producing concerts in Bryant Park, Union Square Park and Battery Park. She was also the director of the Tidewater Ensemble at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. During that six year period, the Tidewater Ensemble made its first appearances at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. The Ensemble premiered works by numerous composers, including Morton Gould, William Thomas McKinley, David Froom, Lorenzo Ferrero, Vivian Adelberg Rudow, Paul Chihara, and Chou Wen-Chung.
Ms. Greitzer performed in the 1998 Broadway revival of “The King and I” with Marie Osmond and at the Kennedy Center with Haley Mills. She was also the bassoonist with Anthony Newley, in the New York revival of his show, “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.” She also worked with playwright Arthur Miller, and was the bassoonist for the New York premiere of his play, “Up from Paradise.”
Ms. Greitzer is adjunct faculty in the Music Department of St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Larry Vote
Larry Edward Vote is professor of music at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. An accomplished vocal soloist and conductor, he has performed throughout the United States and Europe. As a member of The Tidewater Ensemble he has been heard in, and conducted concerts, in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Baltimore Museum of Art, and Jordan Hall in Boston, as well as on regional and national broadcasts of this group. A founding member of The Maryland Bach Aria Group, Mr. Vote may be heard in music of Bach, Handel and Telemann on two compact discs published by Crystal Records.
He has conducted or performed as baritone soloist in the premieres of works by Gian Carlo Menotti, William Thomas McKinley, and David Froom, among others. He recorded McKinley’s “Dallas, 1963” with the Slovak Radio Orchestra, which has been released on MMC Recordings. “Hearing the Call,” featuring new brass music conducted by Mr. Vote, was released on Sonora records in September of 1999. Mr. Vote served as resident musical director to Interact; a Washington D.C.-based theater company. With Interact he has performed and directed productions for The National Gallery of Art, The Folger Shakespeare Library, The Landsburg Theater, Arena Stage, and in a tour of the United Kingdom. He continues to serve as a yearly guest conductor for the River Concert Series and as co-artistic director of the Alba Music Festival in Alba, Italy.
The 1993 production of “The Pirates of Penzance,” for which he was music director and conductor, won the award for Best Musical in the 1994 Helen Hayes Awards. He was nominated for Outstanding Musical Director for the production of “H.M.S. Pinafore” in 1996 and again in 2000 for “Pirates of Penzance.” He is also holder of the Norton Dodge Award for Creative and Scholarly Achievement presented by St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
In his performance with Voices of the Golden Age, the Washington Post noted that “His reverberant reading of Bouvard’s “Le Temple de Bachus” filled this aria with so much nobility and fervor that some real life thunderbolts outside seemed anticlimactic. •
Olivia Vote
Lauded for her “theatrical magnetism” and “her big, rich voice,” American mezzo-soprano Olivia Vote joins the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in the 2018-19 season for the first time for productions of Die Walkure and Suor Angelica. She makes multiple house and role debuts throughout the season, beginning with the Inland Northwest Opera as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, followed by the role of Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos with Cincinnati Opera. Recent appearances include her debut with The Atlanta Opera as Mary in a new production of The Flying Dutchman, her role debut as Adalgisa in Norma with Opera Southwest, and her company debut with North Carolina Opera as Maddalena in Rigoletto. On the concert stage, she was heard in Rossini’s Stabat Mater with The Choral Arts Society of Washington, D.C. under the baton of Antony Walker, and in Durefle’s Requiem at The Kennedy Center. Other recent debuts include appearing with Sarasota Opera as Mère Marie in the Dialogues des Carmélites and Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hoffmann with Hawaii Opera Theater.
With Santa Fe Opera and Opera Philadelphia Ms. Vote worked on Jennifer Higdon’s exciting premiere of Cold Mountain. Also with Santa Fe Opera she participated in the workshop of the upcoming premiere of The (R)evolution of Steven Jobs, by Mason Bates and Mark Campbell in San Francisco. She sang the role of his wife, Laurene Powell. Olivia joined the world renown Hugo Wolf Quartet from Vienna and performed Respighi’s Il Tramonto and selections from Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch in Massachusetts and New York. She then collaborated with pianist Brain Ganz performing multiple song recitals and later went on to win second place at the esteemed Fort Worth McCammon Opera Guild Competition and first place at the Partners for the Arts, Inc. competition in Virginia.
Ms. Vote returned to Opernhaus Zürich to sing Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos with Fabio Luisi and Flora in a new production of La traviata under Maestro Armiliato. She first came to Switzerland from 2012-2014 for the Internationales Opernstudio at Opernhaus Zürich. Highlights of her performances during this period included singing Fidalma in Il matrimonio segreto, Philomene in Martinů’s Zweimal Alexandre, and as a soloist in Hans Neuenfels’s new production, Wie ich Welt wurde, a co-production with the Zürich Shauspielhaus about the life of Richard Wagner. In addition, she performed roles in Rinaldo, La traviata, Meistersinger, Salome, and Rigoletto and covered roles in Madame Butterfly, Alcina, La Straniera, and Falstaff.
Prior to beginning her time in Zürich, Ms. Vote participated as a Filene Young Artist with the Wolf Trap Opera Company. There she gained critical acclaim for her portrayal of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni directed by Tomer Zvulum. She also covered the same role for the Los Angeles Philharmonic earlier that spring.
As a frequent concert artist, Ms. Vote was hailed by the Washington Post for “her big, rich voice that explored the nuances of the poetry.” Olivia has appeared as soloist in such works as Verdi’s Requiem, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Das Lied von der Erde, and Ravel’s Sheherazade. She sang Schubert’s Mass in E flat with Ivor Bolton and the Rai National Symphony Orchestra in Torino, Italy.
An eager and passionate fan of modern music. Olivia has premiered several new roles and works. With the 21st Century Consort at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., she performed “Colors passing though us”, a chamber work written specifically for her by composer and friend David Froom. While at Opernhaus Zurich she created the role of Mary Hawkins in Frank Schwemmer’s Die Schatzinsel and at AVA she sang the world premiere of Margaret Garwood’s The Scarlet Letter as Hester Prynne.
In competition Ms. Vote has been a grand finalist in the Francesco Vinas Competition in Barcelona. She won second place in the Loren L. Zachary Society Competition, Alfredo Silipigni International Vocal Competition, and Gerda Lisner Foundation International Competition. She is a grant winner from the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, has been a New England and Mid Atlantic regional finalist and study grant recipient in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, was awarded a Sullivan Foundation Development Grant, and the Phyllis Curtin Career Award from Yale University.
Andrew Hardy
Andrew Hardy is a native of Baltimore, Maryland (U.S.A ), where, at the age of 15 gave his solo debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performing Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, after winning the BSO Young Soloists Competition.
He attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University from 1979 - 1982, where he was winner of first prizes in the Concerto Competition and ”Concours” Recital Competition, and earned a Bachelor degree with high distinction. He studied violin and chamber music with such eminent Professors as John Merrill, Charles Libove, Dorothy Delay, Stephen Kates, Ellen Mack, Berl Senofsky, Leon Fleisher and Raphel Druian.
In 1983, he won a prize, awarded by Isaac Stern, for his performances at the 92nd St. YMCA, and Carnegie Hall in the International American Music Competitions sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Upon leaving the Conservatory, from 1985 - 1987, Mr. Hardy was engaged as Co-Concertmaster and Soloist (Concertos by Bach, Bruch, Saint-Saëns & Tchaikovsky) with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra & Chamber Orchestra, TX.
From 1987 - 1990 he lived in Germany where he was appointed as Soloist and First Concertmaster of the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen, and Soloist and First Concertmaster of the Würtembergischen Kammerorchester Heilbronn. In Germany Mr. Hardy performed frequently as soloist in Concertos by Bach, Tartini, Vivaldi, Haydn, Mozart, Bruch, Beethoven and Brahms.
Since 1990, he has resided in Brussels, Belgium, and has pursued an active solo and chamber music career. In 2002 Mr. Hardy acquired Belgian Nationality (dual citizenship with the U.S.).
Andrew Hardy has frequently performed for live radio and television broadcasts, and has made numerous internationally acclaimed CD recordings for the labels TALENT (Belgium), OLYMPIA (United Kingdom), CALLIOPE (France) and MUSIQUE EN WALLONIE (Belgium), REGIS RECORDS, Ltd. (UK) including works for violin and piano by Franz Schubert: Sonata, Rondo and Fantasie (Talent - 1990), Robert and Clara Schumann: The Complete Sonatas and Romances (Olympia - 1991), Sergei Prokofiev and Leoš Janáček: Complete Sonatas (Olympia - 1991), Max Reger: Sonata in C minor, Op. 139, and Richard Strauss, Op. 18 (Olympia - 1992).
He recorded 3 Russian Violin Concertos with Veronika Dudarova and The Symphony Orchestra of Russia (recorded at the Melodia Studio in Moscow) by Nicholas Rakov, Dmitri Kabelevsky, and Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebaline (Olympia - 1995).
The 2 CD recording of Johannes Brahms’ Complete Violin Sonatas (with pianist, Uriel Tsachor), including the 3 Violin Sonatas, Scherzo FAE, and the Two Clarinet Sonatas, Op. 120 - transcribed by Brahms for violin - recorded at the Tibor Varga Foundation Studio in Sion, Switzerland (Calliope - 1997) was awarded 5 diapasons from the French review, Diapason.
In 2005 Mr. Hardy was presented with the “Artist’s Prize” from the Fondation SPES (Belgium), which contributed to the realisation of an ambitious recording project (Uriel Tsachor, piano), co-produced by “Les XXI”, Musique en Wallonie, the Belgian Radio; Musiq3, and the Belgian Government; “175 – 25”, celebrating the 175th anniversary of Belgium, encompassing 8 Violin & Piano Sonatas, on 4 CDs (MEW 0528-0531 – released in December 2006), dedicated to the great Master violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, including works by César Franck, Albéric Magnard, Joseph Jongen, Sylvio Lazzari, Louis Vierne, Guy Ropartz, Gustav Samazeuilh and Guillaume Lekeu.
In August 2006 this recording (“Les Sonates Dédiées à Eugène Ysaÿe”) was also awarded 5 diapasons, from the French review, Diapason, and has received uniformly high praise from an international press.
Since 2002 Mr. Hardy has been a member of the Violin Jury at the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music, the Liège Royal Conservatory, Belgium, and (from 2015) the Mons Royal Conservatory for violin evaluations (Bachelor B2-4 & Masters Degree M1-2 and Conservatory Competitions).
In April 2006 the Duo Hardy–Tsachor gave the inaugural performance opening the new Concert Hall (“Wolubilis”) in Brussels in the Presence of the Belgian Royal Family.
From 2000 - 2018 he served as Vice President and Music Director of the cultural organization “Les XXI”, organising and performing in a series of chamber music concerts with outstanding international performers.
Since 2016 he is Co-Founder, Music Director and Violinist of “ARTS’ifice” - Concerts at the Château de la Hulpe, Brussels, Belgium; performing with musicians of outstanding international reputation.
Andrew Hardy has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras in the U.S., throughout Europe and in Russia, and regularly appears as recitalist, and chamber musician throughout Europe (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Norway, and Spain), and the United States. His repertoire embraces a broad range of works from Johann Sebastian Bach to present-day composers, with a strong interest not only in the great Master composers, but also in works of extreme merit by far-too-often neglected composers.
From 1989 Andrew Hardy performed and recorded, playing a violin by Josef Guadagnini, Cremona, dating from 1783.
He currently plays an instrument made by his father, violinmaker, Raymond Hardy (2008; modelled after the “Heifetz” Guarnerius Del Gesu).
Brian Ganz
Brian Ganz is widely regarded as one of the leading pianists of his generation.
A laureate of the Marguerite Long Jacques Thibaud and the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Piano Competitions, Mr. Ganz has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Louis Symphony, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, the National Philharmonic, the National Symphony and the City of London Sinfonia, and has performed with such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Mstislav Rostropovich and Piotr Gajewski.
The Washington Post has written: “One comes away from a recital by pianist Brian Ganz not only exhilarated by the power of the performance but also moved by his search for artistic truth.” For many years Mr. Ganz has made it his mission to join vivid music making with warmth and intimacy onstage to produce a new kind of listening experience, in which great works come to life with authentic emotional power. As one of Belgium’s leading newspapers, La Libre Belgique, put it, “We don’t have the words to speak of this fabulous musician who lives music with a generous urgency and brings his public into a state of intense joy.”
In January of 2011 Mr. Ganz began a multi-year project in partnership with the National Philharmonic in which he will perform the complete works of Chopin at the Music Center at Strathmore outside of Washington D.C.. After the inaugural recital, The Washington Post wrote: “Brian Ganz was masterly in his first installment of the complete works [of Chopin].”
Mr. Ganz is on the piano faculty of St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where he is artist-in-residence, and is also a member of the piano faculty of the Peabody Conservatory. He is the artist-editor of the Schirmer Performance Edition of Chopin’s Preludes (2005).
The River Concert Series program is subject to change