Jessica Niles and Gregory Feldmann to Give Juilliard's Vocal Arts Honors Recital

Soprano Jessica Niles and baritone Gregory Feldmann are the winners of the Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital for 2019-20 and will appear in a free joint recital on Thursday, March 19, 2020, at 7:30pm in Alice Tully Hall. Collaborative pianists Bronwyn Schuman and Grace Francis will perform with the singers.

The two students were nominated by their voice teachers to audition for this recital opportunity. The auditions were judged by a distinguished panel that included artist manager Matthew Horner, soprano Susanna Phillips (BM '03, MM '04, voice), and Metropolitan Opera assistant conductor Bryan Wagorn.

Free tickets are available at the Juilliard and Alice Tully Hall box offices. Online tickets are not available for this concert.

Gregory Feldmann opens the program with Gabriel Fauré's L'horizon chimérique, Op. 118; Franz Schreker's Zwei Lieder, Op. 2; and Chris DeBlasio's All the Way Through Evening. Jessica Niles performs selections from Hugo Wolf's Goethe-Lieder; Ricky Ian Gordon's "Will There Really Be a Morning?" from Too Few the Mornings Be; Aaron Copland's "Sleep is Supposed to Be" from Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson; and Ricky Ian Gordon's "Wild Swans" from Finding Home and "This Is My Letter to the World" from Too Few the Mornings Be.

"Whenever we study art by someone not from our lifetime, we have the benefit of hindsight to see how a work fits into the grand scheme of an artist's life," Feldmann writes. "These songs are remarkable on their own merit, but it's their interaction with the legacies of their creators that we find fascinating and strangely connected. The poets and composers on our concert would all see death and hate on a mass scale, during the course of two world wars, the Holocaust, and the AIDS crisis. Three of our artists would lose their lives in the course of these human tragedies."

Mignon is a mysterious and waiflike character from Goethe's novel, Wilhelm Meister. "My collaborator, Grace Francis, and I have selected poems by Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay for the program, and we hear Mignon's voice in the longing for healing, freedom, and ultimately understanding," writes Niles. "The innate human need to explore and express oneself to others and be heard is at the core of our common humanity. This is the essence of our recital; whether one communicates in movement, music, work, or any other medium, art strives to create a world of connection where the misunderstood are understood, and the alone feel that perhaps we are all alone together."

Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts was established in 2010 by the generous support of Ellen and James S. Marcus.

Program Listing:

Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital
Thursday, March 19, 2020, 7:30pm, Alice Tully Hall
Gregory Feldmann, Baritone
Bronwyn Schuman, Piano
Jessica Niles, Soprano
Grace Francis, Piano

Free tickets are available at the Juilliard and Alice Tully Hall box offices.