Brooklyn Art Song Society To Present Canteloube's Chant's d'Auvergne

On Friday, November, 1st, Brooklyn Art Song Society presents the second installment of its series Home with a rare complete performance of Joseph Canteloube's magnum opus, Chant's d'Auvergne. Canteloube collected the folk melodies of the Auvergne region and imbued these whimsical, earthy tunes with emotional depth and a rich Straussian harmonic palette. The work will be performed in the original piano version and sung in the French dialect Occitan. Soprano Maria Valdes and mezzo soprano Devony Smith make their BASS debuts, joined by sopranos Marnie Breckenridge and Laura Stricking. Art Historian Patricia Mainardi (CUNY) gives a pre- concert lecture at 7:00PM.

About Home: For its 10th season, Brooklyn Art Song Society explores national identity through the prism of song, presenting works by more than a dozen composers that display what it means to be from a place and part of a people.

About BASS: The Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) will enter its 10th season of first-rate music making in the Fall of 2019, having earned a reputation as one of the preeminent organizations dedicated to the vast repertoire of poetry set to music. Its mission is to preserve art song's direct expressiveness and emotional honesty for today's audience and future generations.

The New York Times called BASS "a company well worth watching" and Voce di Meche hailed, "as long as BASS is around we do not need to worry about the future of art song in the USA." New York Classical Review called BASS "superb," and Opera News wrote, "Brooklyn Art Song Society keeps the intimate recital alive with innovative programming." The New Yorker praised BASS as "invaluable" and "uncompromisingly dedicated to continuing the traditions of classical art song, both old and new."

BASS's innovative and ambitious programming has reached thousands of audience members- lifelong classical music and first-time concert-goers alike. Past programs include performances of the complete songs of Charles Ives and Hugo Wolf, and multi-concert surveys of the art song canon including Britannica, Wien, and La France. Committed to keeping art song relevant in our time BASS has collaborated closely with and premiered works by important living composers such as Harrison Birtwistle, Tom Cipullo, Michael Djupstrom, Daniel Felsenfeld, Herschel Garfein, Daron Hagen, Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen, Lowell liebermann, David Ludwig, James Matheson, Harold Meltzer, Kurt Rohde, Glen Roven, Andrew Staniland, and Scott Wheeler, In May 2015, BASS released its first album, New Voices on Roven Records, which debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard Traditional Classical charts.

Highlights from the 10th anniversary season include Home, a five-concert celebration of what it means to be from a place and of a people, a continuation of The Dichter Project featuring iconic settings of poetry by Friedrich Rückert, and the world-premiere of Daron Hagen's The Art of Song, a joint project with Philadelphia's LyricFest. In addition to monthly concerts in Brooklyn, BASS has traveled to Philadelphia, Kansas City, Portland, ME, San Francisco, and Seattle and has held residencies at University of Notre Dame, University of California-Davis, University of Chicago, and Ithaca College. Brooklyn Art Song Society is proud to make the Brooklyn Historical Society its primary venue and present a free annual concert at the Brooklyn Public Library. BASS also presents monthly outreach for seniors lacking cultural access through Heights and Hills Senior Services. BASS's artist roster features over 40 of the finest young interpreters of art song. For more information visit www.brooklynartsongsociety.org.

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