Program for Each Moment Radiant – November 17, 2024

Sunday, November 17, 2024 at 4 pm

download a copy of this program here.

Lieder Alive!

Each Moment Radiant

a recital inspired by Kurt Erickson

Heidi Moss Erickson, soprano
John Parr, piano

Program

Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)
Scottish Folksongs
              Ca’ the yowes
              O can ye sew cushions?
              There’s none to soothe

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques
              Chanson de la mariée
              Là-bas, vers l’église
              Quel galant m’est comparable
              Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques
              Tout gai!

 

Neue + Alte
Jacques Desjardins
Traum durch die Dämmerung

Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
Traum durch die Dämmerung

 

The symbolism of roses
Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
Les roses d’Ispahan

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Heidenröslein

Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
Fleurs

Intermission

Piano Interlude – Stars for Mia

Kurt Erickson (b. 1970)
from a moment in time
              Song of Regret
              Split My Heart

Kurt Erickson
from Ich und Du
              Ich und Du
              Mondnacht

Kurt Erickson
from Here, Bullet
              Documentary Film Short of Orchestration for Film
              Here, Bullet
              Curfew

Kurt Erickson
from Each Moment Radiant
              The Petals Unfurling (After the Explosion)
              Ca’ the yowes

Song texts & translations

Can be downloaded here.

About the musicians

Heidi Moss Erickson received a dual biology and voice degree at Oberlin where she worked in the voice lab of Richard Miller. She continued her scientific career at Rockefeller University where she published a landmark paper in Cell while simultaneously fueling her passion for singing, winning the NYC Met Opera competition the same year. Her more than 20 year performing career spans both opera and concert repertoire, with a focus on new music. For over 10 years, she has had the honor to present glorious music in conjunction with Lieder Alive!

In 2007 she came down with a rare CNVII nerve injury which resurrected her passion for how the brain controls the voice. Her courses and lectures have been featured both nationally and internationally at conferences and universities, including Renee Fleming’s Music and Mind series. Her many published writings link neuroscience with vocal pedagogy, therapy, and rehabilitation. She is an Assistant Professor at University of the Pacific. She has spent the last 8 years joyously married to Kurt Erickson.

John Parr is currently Head Coach at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, Germany, where in addition to his work preparing singers and assisting conductors in preparing the productions he is also musical director of a series of song and poetry recitals, Lieder und Dichter (Songs and Poets). From 2000–2011 he was San Francisco Opera’s Head of Music Staff. He was a Master Coach for the Merola Opera Program and works frequently with San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows as a guest teacher. Since the summer of 2018 he has been Master Coach at the American Wagner Project in Reno, Nevada, led by Luana de Vol, a division of the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices (IYDV). He has performed over 10 years for the Lieder Alive! recital series in San Francisco, for which he is also musical advisor.

A native of Birmingham, UK, Parr studied piano at the Royal Northern College of Music with Sulamita Aronovsky and musicology at Manchester University. He worked for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 1985–88, touring with the company to Japan and Korea in 1986. He was engaged at Scottish Opera from 1988–90. In 1991 he joined the Lower Saxony State Opera in Hannover, Germany, where he was Head of Music Staff and Musical Assistant to Music directors George Alexander Albrecht, Christof Perick and Andreas Delfs, specializing in the Wagner and Strauss operas. During this time, he developed an extensive series of Lieder Recitals and Chamber Music programs for the Opera. From 2002–2005 he worked as a coach at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, and has also given recitals in the Wagner Museum. From 2011 to 2014 he was Casting Director and Musical Assistant to the Music Director at the Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe, Germany. With San Francisco Opera, Parr has developed and performed in numerous recital programs. He promoted his own series of recitals entitled Basically British at Old First Concerts, and appeared many times with San Francisco Performances and other promoters in the Bay Area as a song accompanist and chamber musician.